Ok, so I found hilarious "motivational posters" like the one you see here by going to Matt Friedeman's blog and then clicking this link. I must say that as someone who doesn't like "trendy," believes in absolute truth, and 'aint really down with the emergent movement, these are hilarious. For the rest of you who are not like me, well, you at least have to chuckle at some of them, right?

C'mon, you know you want to.

Enjoy.

I love Oswald Chambers. Granted, every now and then I think he stresses an idea a little too much (for example, he tends to place emphasis on the individual at the expense of the corporate), but for the most part his writings are amazingly insightful.

I was reading from My Utmost for His Highest the other day and came across the following thought. It comes from the entry for July 26 called "The Account With Reality" (Matthew 15:19). Listen to how insightful this thought is:

If I will hand myself over to him, I need never experience the terrible possibilities that are in my heart.

To think that by handing ourselves to Christ we can escape from the sinful inevitabilities of an evil heart. Incredible.

I absolutely believe in the idea of Christian Perfection. I believe that a life lived in Christ can be one that is lived with a perfect love for God and others. I am not talking about an Absolute perfection (only God is absolutely perfect). I am not talking about an Adamic perfection (we bear the marks of the history of sin). I am not even talking about a sinless perfection (as long as we're talking about sin "improperly so-called" and not sin "properly so-called"). But I do believe in a Christian perfection, not because of some over-valuation of human potential or capability, but because of who He is. It is because of who He is and what He wants to do that I believe in Christian perfection as the goal of and norm for Christian experience.

Has He perfected your heart?

-See my outlines of two of John Wesley's sermons on Christian perfection here and here. (WARNING: PDF links) The second one is better.
-See other outlines of Wesley's work on my "Interests" page here.

Every now and then I like to point my reader(s?) to other good blogs, namely ones that I check out in my blog-rounds on a regular basis.

My good friend from college, Tristan Borland (that's him in the picture to the right next to a younger, skinnier, dumber me), has his own blog over at Forward Wandering. Tristan, a recent Asbury Seminary grad, has this to say concerning the purpose of his blog:

I'm a Christian in my upper 20's who is trying to figure out what to do with my life. I'm originally from Ohio. I married a Minnesota girl whom I met in Brazil. We spent several years in central Minnesota and are currently living in Kentucky. I will soon be finishing my Master's degree at Asbury Theological Seminary.... More than anything I desire to follow Christ, but most of the time I'm not really sure where he's leading me. I feel like I've wandered around a lot these past few years, but I believe that Christ has been leading me in the midst of my wanderings. I figure this blog may help me track some of my thoughts as I continue to wander after Jesus.

I've been visiting his blog over the last couple of months, and I feel pretty confident that if you like funny observations on life mingled with thought-provoking theological/philosophical insights, his blog will be right up your alley.

Other miscellaneous facts about Tristan: He claims to be married to a girl named "Jill," although few (if any) have ever seen her. He was once featured on the John Corby Show on 610 WTVN talk radio in Columbus, OH (while in Brazil, no less). And he's almost as good of a basketball player as I am.

Oh, and did I mention that he's a die-hard Buckeye fan too? But then again, is there any other kind of Buckeye fan? Me thinks not.

Forward Wandering. Check it out. Tell him I sent you.

Life as a seminary student can sometimes be overwhelming. Trying to balance family life, work, and graduate school can undoubtedly be a daunting challenge. Every now and then, I need to be reminded of just why I put myself through the challenges, frustrations, and difficulties.

It's in times like these that I turn to nothing other than...the Internet. For you see, it is on the Internet that I am reminded of why seminaries even exist. Allow me to demonstrate.

On a popular Christian web forum, I asked the following two questions:

1. What is the Trinity?
2. How does your answer to question number 1 affect how you live your life on a day-to-day basis?

Below are a few of my personal favorite answers.

zinthos answered,

The trinity is not biblical. it doesnt make sense and started in Babylon.

JustVisiting answered,

1. The Trinity is a purely man-made concept that never has, never does, and never will be supported by Scripture and is simply a way for Christians to justify calling Yeshua Hashem without actually saying it.

2. Well, it affects my life quite well because I worship One G-d, not three in one. And its a comforting thing, to me.

Swinny89 answered,

1. the trinity is an attempt to understand the connection between God the father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

2. it has no affect, because i have no strong opinions about it.

These are just a few samples of what the answers are like. They come from the minds of normal every day Christians, generally youth. To me they represent a growing problem throughout the life of American Christianity and are a vivid example of why the church needs people who can think rightly now more than ever.

But do not misunderstand me. I am not suggesting that only seminarians can think rightly. I am only speaking from my own context. The point I am trying to make is that we need to be intellectually sharp in this sad day of theological, biblical, and moral 'illiteracy.' I say "sad" because it is sad indeed when the Trinity is regarded as unbiblical and irrelevant for Christian life. What should be central has been moved even beyond the margins into the realm of unnecessary man-made conjecture.

Will you commit with me to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind? Will you seek to know Him as He has revealed Himself? And will you seek to be a beacon of intellectual excellence no matter what level of education you are at in this point of your life?

The church needs you.

The world needs you.

Recently I had a discussion with some friends of mine concerning fetuses and personhood. Since then I have given a lot of thought to the topic, and I thought I'd make a sandbox post here for you and me to throw some ideas around.

Before I dive in, however, I would like to make something clear. At no point am I debating when or whether or not a fetus is a human being. I believe that fetuses are as human as you or I, and that it is so at the moment of conception, and as far as I am concerned there is no room for debate here. I fundamentally oppose abortion, and the question of personhood in this context has nothing to do with wavering doubts about my position. Let it be known from the onset that I am interested in personhood from a theological point of view, not biological. So the question I am pondering here is not, "Is a fetus a human?" but rather, "Is a fetus a person?" Please do not badger me on whether or not I believe in the sanctity and full humanity of the unborn. I am interested in a theological (philosophical) notion of personhood.

As my astute readers already know, the theological concept of 'person' owes its origin to the early discussions on the nature of the Trinity during the first four centuries of church history. The questions that emerged had to do with just exactly "what" or "who" the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are, how they relate to one another, and how can they at once be both distinct yet one. Enter the notion of "personhood." The final analysis asserted that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God in three distinct persons - one in their divinity, three in their person-ality. The Father is the Son and Holy Spirit in every way except He is the person of the Father and not the person of the Son nor the Holy Spirit, and vice versa (2x). Using these categories to describe the nature of humanity, sin, and salvation means that humans were created for relationship, sin is the individualization (de-personalization) of humans, and salvation is the personalization of individuals. So, within this context, what can we say about fetuses? Are they persons too, or are they just individuals? Let me offer the following VERY rudimentary thoughts...

-At first I found myself wanting to say that fetuses are not persons, but rather individuals. After all, they cannot willfully relate to another, nor can they necessarily love another outside of themselves. They're just sort of floating around in amniotic isolation. Their world is dark, relatively quiet, and generally devoid of thought or reason.

-But then I got to thinking about some things. I had to ask myself, "Isn't there more to personhood than simply awareness, reason, or will? Does personhood hinge on these things alone? I realized that my answers to these questions fundamentally altered my whole point of view. I concluded that I absolutely believe that there is more to personhood than reason and will. I believe that personhood is just as much about relationality, life-to-life transference, and finding one's identity in another as awareness, reason, and will. The fetal condition, then, could very well be one of beautiful personhood.

-As for relationality, does human life get more intimate (physically) than in pregnancy? Whenever else do we ever live completely in another person? When else do our lives ever fully exist in someone else who is not us? Granted, the fetus may not immediately be aware of this relationality all along the way, nor is the awareness the same as the mother who feels life growing within her. But is this not also true of our relationship to God? He is aware of us long before we are of Him, and in much more depth as well. That does not make us any less persons, does it? Therefore awareness cannot be the sole determining factor of personhood.

-The fetus is absolutely dependent on the mother for nourishment. The umbilical connection is one of supreme perichoretic significance. The persons of the Divine Family share life interpenetrably, one in the other - always connected, always sharing life, never apart. Where else in human reality (aside from sexual intercourse, perhaps) do we see this image of Divine Reality? The life of mother and child is so intricately connected that it is hard to distinguish where one ends and the other begins, and yet never are we unable to distinguish mother from child. There is oneness and distinctiveness all at once - a beautiful picture of personhood.

-Each person of the Trinity finds their identity in the other two persons. The Father is the Father because of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the other way around. Each person's true individuality is found in another. That, by definition, is what makes them persons. Now think about a pregnant woman. Her identity is forever changed due to the life that is in her. The fetus' identity is bound up intricately with the mother's (and father's). There is no birth certificate that suggests otherwise. Once again, even though the fetus may not be able to acknowledge and ponder this reality doesn't make it any less true or real.

-One of the most personalizing moments in redemption for a human being is when he or she comes to the realization that they are fully 100% dependent upon God. Is there is a relationship on earth any more dependent than that of mother and fetus?

But there are several objections I would like to raise at this point. For starters, doesn't a person both receive and give? And isn't the fetal condition one of supreme isolation?

-First let us consider the issue of receiving and giving? Is the fetus in this relationship only ever receiving, which is the essence of individualism, of a life centered solely on self? The answer, in my mind, is no. First of all, the relationship of mother to child is one of dependence (on the part of the fetus) by nature (and if you think about it, all human beings derive their "being" from God who IS Being. But that exclusively dependent relationship doesn't diminish our personhood. Personhood is lost as persons begin to willfully become oriented around themselves, which is not the case with fetuses), so it's not as though the fetus is somehow choosing to be centered on the self, it is only receiving life by necessity. Furthermore, it would be incorrect to assume that the fetus isn't giving anything in return. Whether the unborn child is aware of it or not, it has much to give to it's mother, father, and many others, in terms of joy, pleasure, pride, satisfaction, meaning, purpose, etc. Once again, awareness is not the only factor of personhood.

-And what about isolation? Is the isolation of the womb truly an isolation? Not when the fetus can hear every beat of the mother's heart, feel every vibration of voice, experience every moment of the mother's life from the inside-out. God does not exist in personal isolation. He has always existed as persons in communion. At no point does a fetus exist in isolation, but rather always in deep, intimate, personal communion. Dependent? Yes. Willful? Maybe not. But that doesn't necessarily diminish personhood.

Obviously there is much more to say than this. There are other factors of true personhood that I have not mentioned, not could I for this topic. While I take the opinion that fetuses are persons, perhaps they are persons in a unique sort of way. After all, God alone is Person(al). All other personhood is derived from, images, and/or participates in the Divine Archetype. A married couple images God's personhood in a different way than a single. The issue is whether or not we can ascribe any kind of personhood at all to the unborn, and I think the answer is a resounding YES.

(There are many other issues that spring from this discussion, not the least of which is at what point does a fetus/newborn/child become depersonalized by sin, etc. That, for the sake of simplicity, is for another day and time, as are all the many implications this topic may have for other issues.)

I know that there are probably more holes in my logic than a block of Swiss. I'm sure you could scrutinize every jot and tittle of what I have been saying. Perhaps I am wrong altogether. That is where you, my beloved reader, come in. What do you think? Have I missed anything, stressed the wrong things, said too much, not said enough? What say you? Feel free to contribute what you want. Like I said, this is a sandbox topic, at least for me. I have not worked it all out. Perhaps together we can arrive at an answer.

For those of you who do not already know, my wife is with child. She is 13 weeks pregnant as of today, with a due date of January 14th. That is still a long way off, but thankfully we are almost all the way through the first trimester and things are going very, very well.

I am posting this information on here for two reasons: 1. There are some of you who read this blog that I consider good friends who would otherwise have no idea of this news; and 2. This has caused me to think about several new issues that I had never really considered before. Therefore, in the following days I will be posting a rather lengthy topic concerning one of these new issues -- babies and personhood -- and I wanted to give you some heads up (I know I've been slacking this Summer).

So, there you go. We are excited and prayerfully looking ahead! Check back very soon.

How cute, Ann Holmes Redding (an Episcopal priest in case you were wondering -- although I'm sure you could have figured that one out just by reading the title of this post) thinks that it makes sense to just go on ahead and merge belief in Jesus with the beliefs of Islam. After all, those who pray to Allah and to Jesus (as well as Zeus, Santa Clause, and the Tooth Fairy) are praying to the same God, right?

"Why would I spend time to try to reconcile all of Christian belief with all of Islam? At the most basic level, I understand the two religions to be compatible. That's all I need."

Oh, how good for her.

Read this mess if you have the stomach.

I would like to wish my readers a Happy Independence Day. And I would like to say that I am a Christian who loves my country which I believe was established by the providential guidance of God. Despite its imperfections, no other country in the history of the world has produced more opportunity for the Gospel to abound than this one. I am not ashamed of that, and I celebrate this day in light of what God has done, is doing, and is going to do.