_awakening

The Good News.

David Fitch offers one of the better descriptions of this thing we call the Good News:

The good news is that God has come in Christ inaugurating his salvation in the world. In Christ (and His Kingdom) there is now forgiveness of sins that sets loose grace and forgiveness among us and to the world. In Christ (and His Kingdom) there is reconciliation with God that breeds a new reconciliation among us and to the world (2 Cor 5:18-20). In Christ (and His Kingdom) there is a healing that has begun through the cross among us and to the world. In Christ's Rule there is indeed a new politic, a way of being, living in the life of God made possible in Christ's life, death, and resurrection that takes shape among us and into the world. Behold all things are made new (Rev 21.1; 2 Cor 5:17). Our calling is nothing more or less than to invite the world into this incredible new life.

The rest of the article, entitled The "We're In, You're Out" Mentality, isn't half bad either...

Caught in the Crossfire.

I've been thinking lately. With all the discussion of the war in Iraq there appears to be one group disturbingly left out of the discussion, especially among the American evangelical community, namely the plight of fellow Christians in Iraq.

I read a pretty stinging article this week, Christians in the Crossfire. It explores how the rhetoric and stance of many in the evangelical community have left Iraqi Christians as exiles and martyrs in the midst of the mess in Iraq. Most disturbing was this statement:

Oddly, the American evangelical leadership that campaigned for war has paid little attention to the catastrophe enveloping Iraq’s Christians. Few notables acknowledge any need to rethink the war.

I have to admit. After reading the article, I felt sick to my stomach. How on earth have we found ourselves in the place? This just can't reflect the way of Jesus. I just cannot see this something Jesus would condone. I wonder, have we brought damage to the name and mission of Jesus in this world by confusing the line of nationalism and theocracy? We claim God is on our side. Really?

In the midst of all this, it is refreshing to hear that at least one of the Presidential candidates has actually stepped up to address this... [Props to Rick Bennett for stoking the fire that has been smoldering this week...]

For more reading...

Iraq's Endangered Minorities [Nina Shea, Washington Post]

Our Teachable Moment: The Iraq war calls for some serious rethinking by Christians [David P. Gushee, Christianity Today]

2007 American League West Champions!

The Birthday Girl.

Nine years ago, this very day, Mikalya entered our family's life. Here's what I wrote in her card this morning...

Mikayla, I love you so very much. Every since you first came into our family you've brought light and life. Your passion and joy for life is contagious. I thank God every day that you are my daughter. You are truly a gift from God to us. Happy Birthday!

Love,
Dad

This morning we surprised her with balloons and breakfast out at the Original Pancake House before heading over to the Sa'kred morning gathering.

Tonight we're off to her favorite dinner spot in town, California Pizza Kitchen...

Dead Sea Scrolls Lecture Notes.

The past few Monday afternoons, I've been making the trek down the San Diego Natural History Museum to hear some of the foremost scholars in the world lecture on various issues related to the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Qumran community.

So far I've been really impressed by the way they've been able to make the information assessable for people who are not scholarly. To date, I've been to three lecture:

The Impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls on Our Bible with Eugene Ulrich from the University of Notre Dame.

The War Scroll and Apocalypse with Martin Abegg from Trinity Western University

The Wicked Priest and the Righteous Teacher with David Noel Freedman from the University of California, San Diego

I've had a few people ask if I was going to post some of the lecture notes, so here you go...

Download ulrich.doc

Download abegg.doc

Download freedman.doc

Next week is Emanuel Tov from Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Tov is the Editor-in-Chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Project, which is the lead publishing team of the DSS. He's speaking on the history and process of publishing the DSS manuscripts, making them available to the larger scholarly community. If you've ever wondered about the publication process, then this is the guy to hear from...

One More...

With the win over the Mariners tonight 9-5, the magic number for the Angels to clinch the division is now down to 1.

During the 7th inning, Jamie and I decided that if it did happen tomorrow night, we needed to be there. So I went on the Angels Ticket Exchange and got a pair of seats on the field level...

Making the Rounds.

I got a call from Adam a few days ago.

"Hey, Did you know that you made the homepage of SurfingMagazine.com?"

"You're joking, right?"

Apparently not. I guess the photo that Josh and I found ourselves in with Kelly Slater, the Boost Mobile Pro Champion, is making the rounds on various surf industry websites...

Diamond Club.

So late yesterday afternoon I got a call from a buddy of mine at Sak'red, Mike Miedema. He was checking in to see if I wanted to go to the Angels/Devil Rays game today at 12:35 pm... "and, oh, by the way... the tickets are in the Diamond Club."

"Ah, yeah I can go."

Can I just say... absolutely amazing seats [check out the official pic for the view we had], not to mention the outrageous buffet they serve there in the Diamond Club. It kind of ruins you for the "regular seats" and dogs, if you know what I mean!

Anyway, great seats, great food, and a great game as the Angels sweep the Devil Rays, 2-1. Ervin Santana struck out 10 in 6.1 innings and Juan Rivera hit a home run over both bullpens in left field, that was measured at 428 feet. Yeah, it was a bomb.

A good time was had by all... most definitely.

A Reminder...

... of why we love living where we do. I spent the morning having breakfast with a good friend of mine at La Galette [also a chance to hang out with Jamie as well]. Anyway, here are a few pics from the morning, which by the way was absolutely stunning! Sorry the quality isn't much better [I took them on my cell phone], but you'll get the picture...

Boost Mobile Pro Finals.

Saturday afternoon, we made the short trek down to Lower Trestles to see the finals of the Boost Mobile Pro. We got there with just about 20 minutes to spare before Kelly Slater took on Pancho Sullivan in the finals. Prior to the finals going off the conditions were amazing, but once the finals started Trestles became stingy. It produced a few great waves, which Slater capitalized on, in the midst of inconsistency. Anyway, Slater took the final convincingly - collecting his ASP record setting 34th victory. Slater is an eight time champion for a reason - the guy is unbelievable.

It was pretty amazing to see a finals of an WTC event in person. Video footage does not do it justice. Josh and I just kept talking about the speed and power of the moves these guys were pulling in the water. We also talked about the atmosphere of the event. I don't know of too many sports outside of surfing where the average person can get so close to the pros.

Hence the photo above. If you click on it, you'll see yours truly in the red hat, with Josh standing in front of me with a black hat on. When Slater came out of the water, we were close enough to pat him on the back. Josh was so stoked...

For more photos from the event, go here or here.