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Friday, September 27, 2002 Some Peace For the last week or so I've been finding contradictions in the Bible that I'd never seen or hadn't bothered me before. They weren't ones that I could easily explain or that are the result of paradox (like free will vs. God's sovereignty). Rather, they looked like blatant contradictions and I didn't want to do verbal gymnastics to make things reconcile. This disturbed me since I believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God--if there are lots of little contradictions, wouldn't that get in the way of God explaining his Truth? And even though what I found were just little "errors" wouldn't that render the entire thing suspect? If the little things are wrong, then what's to say that the all-encompassing truths are correct? But I've always been taught that if God is real, he can handle my questions. If the Bible is the word of God, it can handle some probing. Who wants totally blind faith anyway? God gave us minds and the ability to think for a reason. So question I did. And it was scary. But in the end, I'm emerging with a renewed sense in the reliability of the Bible. (Which is a relief! The ground my world was rooted in was starting to shake.) I'm still not entirely through this yet--there are a few more questions I need to work though--but a little research and some help from a guy who reads Greek and Hebrew definitely helped. Some examples for others who have had similar questions: Did Saul's family die together? conclusion: not a contradiction-semantics. this is a description of a battle. it tells us that three of saul's sons die in a battle as well as the rest of his house. since this battle took place out in the country (1 chr 10:1) it is safe to assume that paul's entire "house" (women, children, slaves, livestock, etc...) was not there. i believe that this passage is essentially saying, "everyone who went out with saul to this battle got killed" rather than "saul and every relative he had throughout the palestinian land was slaughtered." When was man created--before or after the animals? conclusion: possible translation error in verb tense. i think that the kjv left out a word that, in my opinion, is implied within the original hebrew and lends further clarification - that word being "had" in verse 19 of gen 2: "and out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them." in this case, the animals were already created and god brought them before adam rather then creating them for adam. the original translation can still be inferred this way so it's hard to call it an "error" - but i would argue that the addition of "had" makes it even more clear. Did Asa remove the high places? conclusion: not a contradiction. this one is ridiculous. the people who came up with it have so little actual knowledge of scripture that they should probably keep their mouths shut. at the time of asa, the kingdom was split up into two parts: judah and israel. asa removed the high places from all of judah but he was not able to remove them from all israel. that's bible history 101. Did Jesus command the disciples to go out with or without a staff and shoes? In Matthew, Jesus tells them to not 'make preparations'--the trip is too urgent to 'acquire belongings for the trip' (cf. Luke 17.31). No hesitation--start NOW with what you already have at your disposal! In Mark, Jesus tells them to 'pick up the walking stick that is sitting beside them, start CARRYING it, and then to get moving!'...no hesitation--start walking NOW! In Luke, Jesus tells them the same thing as in Matthew--do not 'make preparations', but Luke has to use a different word that Matthew. Although he uses the same word form as Mark does, the meanings are different--as can be seen from their independent uses of the same word-form. So Matthew's ktaomai equals Luke's airo (in this and in other passages), and Mark's airo equals Luke's bastazo (in this and other passages). This probably doesn't make sense without reading the entire answer, which is a little heavy on the Greek: Staff or No Staff? Did the men with Paul hear the voice? it's a greek thing. check out a thorough explanation here - and yes, i concur! http://www.apostolic.net/biblicalstudies/acts97.htm ^ Top | 1:56 AM | | | 
Sunday, September 22, 2002 A Prayer Words and music by yours truly. Take this skeptical pride Take this cynical heart and make it yours Take this skeptical pride Take this cynical heart and make it yours 'Cause I can't see right now how you've changed my life I feel so blind to how you work I fight so hard to earn the mountaintop But what am I really fighting for What am I really fighting for 'Cause I'm so afraid of failing again I'm so afraid of being real The things you've done all fade to gray And I don't know my worth I don't know my worth Tell me is there any hope for me I'm lost, in despair, and I just can't see I don't know how you plan to rescue me From the darkness hiding in my soul Will you... ^ Top | 11:58 PM | | |
Saturday, September 21, 2002 Gigs Saturday and Sunday (that's today and tommorrow, kids) I'm playing with alternative folk band Outta the Belly at Wiard's Orchards (click on the link for directions) from noon to 6pm. Hope to see you there! It'll be a sweet show. ^ Top | 12:29 AM | | |
Wednesday, September 18, 2002 Greek Goddess Yes, I got into the quiz bug all of a sudden....  More on Athena. Hey--some of it does fit, in really wierd ways. ^ Top | 5:32 AM | | |
X-Men So this is pretty contradictory. The two results I got from the "Which X-Man are you?" quiz (yes, I had to take it twice to see what I'd get, but I only changed one answer):  I'm Scott Summers What X-Men Character are You? Yup, that's right. You're Scott Summers aka Cyclops: Fearless leader of the X-Men. You are responsible, wise beyond your years, mature and probably the greatest stick in the mud in the history of mankind. And sure, your peers probably talk about you behind your back, but when it comes right down to it, they know they can turn on you in a crisis.  I'm Remy LeBeau What X-Men Character are You? Look out and lock up your daughters, everyone, we're in the presence of Remy LeBeau. That's right, you're that smooth-talkin' Cajun boy with a flare for making women swoon and a great love for all things shiny and steal-able. Sure, you're forever on the run from your past, but there's no reason why you can't run from it in style, oui? Who knew? Maybe I'm really smooth after all. Heh. ^ Top | 5:23 AM | | |
Tuesday, September 17, 2002 ARGH! I think I'm going to cry... I've spent $500 on books for this term already, and I don't have them all yet. And I bought most of them online, which was much cheaper than the campus bookstores. Yikes! ^ Top | 1:01 AM | | |
Saturday, September 14, 2002 Honesty When am I going to stop caring so much about what other people think? Our lives are spent trying to live up to others' expectations and convincing others that we're more together than we really are. When are the masks going to drop? When are we going to stop trying to "make a good impression" and start trying to be real? One day we're all going to realize that behind the facades we let the world see we're all just as broken, just as scared--we share the same hopes, the same dreams, the same fears. The good thing is we can't hide from God. He sees us when we're at our worst, the days we don't want to get out of bed so we don't have to face our lives. But he loves us anyway. No matter what. And that's the most comforting thing in the world. ^ Top | 2:35 AM | | |
Monday, September 09, 2002 Quote of the Day "I come with a humble heart. Not knowing everything, not raising my voice, not telling you what to believe. I come with a joy and a peace. I come with my music and a dance. I come with a story and a picture. I come with a prayer...that I would come in love." --OneTruth.com ^ Top | 2:20 AM | | |
Saturday, September 07, 2002 Noise Violations and Crazy Nights I got an email yesterday asking me to play tonight at a party that the University Christian Outreach was hosting. Short notice, but it rocked! A guy named Marlo was set up to play on the djembe, which he did even though he’d never heard any of my stuff, and another guy (whose name I didn’t catch) came in and started improvising on the tenor sax. That’s an instrument I’ve never heard with my music. LOL. Dave, formerly president, I think, of Phi Alpha Kappa, started dancing to one of my songs—amusing because they’re not what I usually think of as danceable—and before long he had a group of 15 kids doing the chicken dance and hokie-pokie to folk-rock. And to top it all off, the police came in during the middle of “Fall in Love” (a nice little fingerpicking-on-the-guitar song) and said that even though UCO had a noise permit, if we didn’t shut down the music we’d get fined $100 for a noise violation. I got busted by the cops! Hehe. And to think no one was even getting drunk or high… there were so many other parties they could have busted. But it definitely makes a great story! ^ Top | 12:24 AM | | |
Tuesday, September 03, 2002 My Last Year! Today was the first day of classes, and I'm still in vacation mode. Ergh. At least I made it to everything today, even my 9:30am music theory class that's far, far away (North Campus, when I live at Fourth and Madison, for U-M people). Yeah, I'm complaining because I'm about as far from "morning person" as you can get. But the class looks good, and it'll be helpful for me in terms of writing songs. We had a "quiz" to start the first class: Write as much of the Star-Spangled Banner as you can, using key and time signatures, rhythm notations, etc. in any key you want. The catch? We didn't even get to hear a chord. Nothing. All we had was a blank piece of music manuscript. Interesting. I'm glad that I'm taking the class designed for music majors, though--I think I'll learn more than I would have in a class directed towards non-majors, and though my theory is a bit weak, I do have oodles of piano background.... Let the insanity of classes begin! ^ Top | 11:55 PM | | |
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