Hermeneutics and Heresies

When I was a wee little lad of sixteen I actually ended up having an argument with my Grandmother about the personified Wisdom of Proverbs 8. It seemed to me that it was impossible for that passage to have referred to Christ for several reasons.

1) Christ was not yet incarnated, hence, how could Solomon be talking about Jesus?
2) The text only said Wisdom, and not anything else, so of course it couldn't be talking about Jesus!
3) Darn it, I was determined to show off my newly acquired hermeneutical snobbery after a good dose of Walt Russell.

Thank God that didn't last very long (I still need to tell my Grandmother that I agree with her now)! The second Person of the Trinity always existed and will always exist answering the first point. 2) Of course Solomon couldn't have mentioned Jesus, He was not yet incarnate! But it just goes to show that the doctrine of the Trinity is not a newly created "christian' idea, it is deeply rooted in the Old Testament and finds its clearest expression in the New. God is three Persons of one essence. 3) I am still at a loss as to how I should practice hermeneutics...and poor Mr. Russell who has to have me as a student! I should pull out "Playing with Fire" again! =D

Lord Jesus have mercy on us who unwittingly commit heresy! Guide us into all truth - your Truth. Amen.

Happy Hermeneutics!

Reflections on the Torah

So, this first semester in Torrey we read through the Pentateuch. And to quickly summarize my thoughts.

1) My whole conception of the first five books of the bible before this trip through the actual books was dominated by the Creation account (2 Chapters) and the ten commandments as stated in Exodus 20. I didn't even know that Balaam was in Numbers! I always thought he was in Kings!

2) I often wondered how people survived on just the OT for so many hundreds and even thousands of years. After reading through the first five books, I guess I could summarized it by saying, "Wow! There's SOOO much stuff in here!"

3) God in the OT is often stereotyped as mean, vindictive, judgmental, and harsh. Reading through the Five, I'm pretty much pat convinced that this stereotype is pretty false. The God of the OT is the same as the one of the NT.

4) Which brings me to my fourth observation, the Israelites are IDIOTS, but I'm sooo much like them. Case in point:

This thanksgiving weekend I was visiting my old elementary school and I passed by a tree. It wasn't any old tree, there was a plaque under it "September 11, 2001 - We will never forget". Flashback to when I was 9, I remember watching my teachers and my principal (at the time) planting that tree. I remember where I was during that day. But to be totally honest, I've forgotten much. The event, though huge and traumatic, has truly been pushed to the back of my mind. Could it not be the same with the parting of the Red Sea, or the Wonders of the Wilderness?

(Cummins is in the room right now and for about 5 minutes he convinced me that his skin was like superman's and he's never bled in his life. Darn. I'm gullible. =P) (We ended up talking till 2:00 am about Loving God rightly, the commandments, the Sabbath, faces, authenticity, personhood in Christ)

All in all, the Scriptures are beautiful, and in them is life. Christ is, after all, the Word.

A Confession

Self Reflection is often a good thing.

In looking over my past blog posts, I see now how I was able to worry much less back then.

Partly it was because I didn't have as much to worry about.

But mostly it was because I spent an hour daily in communion with God.

I confess, I've slowly and imperceptibly but surely shifted my focus so that even though I'm at Biola, all this time I've been thinking, "It's by my power that I'm here", "this is my education", "this is my time to shine", etc, etc.

I haven't been talking with God as much or spending enough time in His Word as I ought to.

Besides being just downright silly, I've noticed that my personality, my way of being in the world reverts back to what I would be without Christ (It only makes sense that if you don't stay connected to the vine, you start withering!) - a craven, sick, wobbly, anxious, needy, insecure twit.

"Overcome us, Lord, that so overcome, we might be ourselves"

I don't know if it's Athanasius, or Williams, or Lewis, or the Bible, but one or several or all of them have this idea that since God is Being (unqualified), as we are restored by Christ to right relation towards God (i.e. Loving rightly) we are also being restored to our true selves, our true being. In other words, as we journey closer to the Heart of reality, we consequently become more Real, more truly ourselves than we ever could have been if we had tried to stray (See Augustine's conception of Good and Evil).

Evil is literally negative - that is, it negates what is truly real.

But then again, what do we mean by real?

All this is to say,

He truly is the Person in whom we "live, move, and have our being".

Lord God have mercy on me, a sinner.

All that I am and ever will be, I owe to God.

I'm going to start living out that fact again.

Under His Mercy,

Gabriel

Happiness is...

Waking up in a soft, warm bed and knowing you can sleep in today.

Laughing and talking with friends you love.

Eating a Godiva Chocolate Champagne ball.

Seeing the Cathedral of Christ our Savior - the sun shining through the windows and lighting up the cross at the top of the altar - the cross comes alive with molten and living energy - Moving in Love. The Great Dance.

Hearing the Cathedral choir sing the liturgy.

Seeing the Rembrandt pieces at the Pushkin Museum.

Seeing St. Bartholomew in the Getty.

Seeing the Faberge display window at the State Armory in the Kremlin.

Strolling through Vancouver, B.C.

Meditating by Lake Moraine.

Watching little children smile while they sleep.

Studying in the Biola Library.

Helping my sister answer a question.

Saying exactly what you wanted to say to the people whom you wanted to say it to and in exactly the right way.

Holding a newborn.

Staying at a certain Kedron Valley Inn in Virginia in the Fall.

Reading Dante.

A warm furry dog who loves you.

Listening to Miss Romero read Eliot.

Listening to Mr. Bartel talk about Mrs. Bartel. (And most any other subject)

Listening to/playing Bach.

Listening to/playing Rachmaninoff.

Sharing Rachmaninoff with one's friend and knowing that they know what it is to be "the music while the music lasts".

Listening to/reading Dr. Esolen talk about Dante.

Listening to Dr. Reynolds talk about the West.

Listening to a Friend's insight on the text at hand.

Reading C.S. Lewis.

Reading Charles Williams and Sayers talking about Dante.

Being a part of Torrey.

Seeing the Cathedral of the Spilled Blood for the first time.

Talking about the Love of God.

Getting a delightful and long Email.

Going to Boston in the Fall.

Drinking a really yummy and warm Latte.

Sitting by a waterfall.

Knowing that because of your hard work, you've pleased those you care about and have made them proud of what you've done.

Hiking with my family in Yosemite.

Knowing that death - what was once our greatest sorrow - is now the occasion of our greatest triumph through Christ. "He trampled death by death!"

Drinking a glass of Montrachet.

Sleeping under the Stars.

Going to Wheatstone.

Opening the mailbox and finding a package from Amazon.

Being able to Drive.

Coming to class excited.

Watching two people fall in love.

Catching a strain of the "Humoresque" and grinning to friends who know what it means.

Reading a really good poem.

Christmas.

Being able to relive the wonderful memories you've had, like carrying around your personal box of wonders.

Waking up and knowing you've got a wonderful day ahead of you.

Watching a surgeon save a life.

Watching a soul come to salvation.

Being pleasantly surprised - Divinely benevolent irony - the kind where you can both laugh at yourself and be grateful that God has a wonderful sense of humor.

Seeing new connections within Great Literature.

Drinking perfectly brewed Earl Grey.

Sitting by a fire with a good book and a good snack.

Walking in brisk, cold November air as golden leaves fall around you and the sun warms your face.

Going to bed after a day well spent.

3am Epiphanies about God, Dante, Love, Affirmation, Rejection, Redemption, etc.

Lying down in a sunny field with your eyes closed.

Making a film (it's even better with friends!).

Staying up all night for a worthy cause.

Reaching the turning point where a paper finally comes together or when a passage finally makes sense.

Watching the leaves fall around your friend - in the middle of Don Rags.

Eating a really tender and juicy steak.

Canoeing on a lake by yourself in the warm rain of Washington.

Seeing Beatrice.

Being in full health.

Reading the Letters of Paul.

Many more things, but summed up in this:

Happiness means knowing God - moving in Love - and realizing that if I died today, I would die a happy man.

A Few Questions

...That have been on my mind for a few months now:

Most of us don't reach perfection by the time we leave this life. At the end, most of us still have some (or many) rough spots, even if we have been saved and granted eternal life through faith in Christ. Now the whole doctrine of sin seems to be based upon the idea that the way things are right now are not the way things should be. Sin is an accident. And because of that sin, we are condemned to eternal death (we'll get into Eschatology in a bit). The Incarnation somehow (and this will probably be my presentation topic, oh Athanasius! You are very wonderful, checkity.) restores us back to a right relation with God. Now whatever else Jesus does in us and for us, I think it is safe to assume that we'll be free from sin. So this is my question(s):

Even if we are saved, we are still imperfect and sinful at the end of our lives. After death, are we automatically restored to perfection and holiness? And if we are, why the agony of this life if God could perfect us instantly? Why don't we go straight to Heaven after we accept the Gospel as true and binding to our lives?

Could this be the justification behind a purgatory? From what I know, the main objection against purgatory came when wicked men decided to play with hell fire and sell indulgences. Obviously, you can't buy salvation or purification (see the Simoniacs).

So to really, really get to the question:

If we are meant to eventually come into the presence of God which will destroy anything sinful, what happens to most of us who die saved but still ravaged/harrased by sin? How are our imperfect natures developed into being able to bear the presence of the Holy God after death?

I want to lean towards purgatory, but I'm confronted with quite a strong protestant reaction against this. Any Eschatological insights out there? Help?

Secondly, Shakespeare is amazing and Twelfth Night brings up some absolutely amazing questions:

How does love conceal and/or reveal identities?

yeah.

Another thing that's been on my mind: Is Love a sub category of Goodness or is Goodness subordinate to Love? And what about Beauty and Truth, I'm not entirely convinced that they categories of Goodness, otherwise, why not just have Goodness? Medival Numerology perhaps?

Lastly, How do we Love rightly? What is Love?

I'd be happy to talk about this...

Wheatstone 2008

Okay, so, best place I know of to find a well written post on what Wheatstone is, right here:

http://checkity.blogspot.com/2008/07/wheatstone-academy.html

Is checkity. =]

As for personal reflections:

My mentor for this week brought up a relevant and scary point. Being a "wheatstone" type person or even a "torrey" ish (meaning lover of books and ideas and great music and great art, etc.) is still not enough. There is even perhaps a greater danger to this. The fact is that Gammaliel (Paul's teacher) was among the best of the best and yet he still missed Jesus when He came. The officers of the Nazi Party listened to Schubert! Christ could be right in front of me and I could very easily miss Him! Western Civilization is on a knife's edge and Western Culture is dying. Lord have mercy.

On the bright side though, there is the example of Paul and Nicodemus, of the woman who washed Jesus' feet with priceless perfume and, ultimately, Christ Himself who promised us all things if we would abide in Him.

Now I'm beginning to see just how blind I am! Expanding our capacity for Happiness in Heaven through art and literature and ideas are all necessary, but they are worthless if one does not live a life worthy of them. They are useless if I find Dante yet miss Christ.

Two things to do to remedy:
1) Deepen Devotions. Start reading through Bible intensively with good commentaries (Calvin's commentary on Romans). And extend devotions to at least an hour a day.

2) Community, community, community. Torrey seems like a good example. Generally speaking, find Christians who are serious (and therefore most happy) about their faith and who love the God and strive to integrate the life of the mind, the sentiments and the acts of apostleship. (Head, heart, hand).

Of course we can never plan our way out of this. But Christ in us, the hope of Glory.

I can't really describe an experience like Wheatstone (because there's just so much it is impossible to distill it except to go there!), but I can say that it changes lives. It changed mine. Lord, I can't do it, but if You live in me, all things are truly possible.

Another life changing thought:

Each and every person is made in the image of God. In Plato's Phaedrus (our text for the week) there is this one part where Socrates becomes ecstatic after hearing Phaedrus read Lysias' speech (don't worry too much if it's not too clear what I just wrote) basically, it isn't the speech that propels him into such rapture, but the vision of the Beautiful which Socrates is able to see in Phaedrus. By not assigning Phaedrus' intrinsic worth to what he says (which is proven to be stupid shortly afterward) and seeing in Phaedrus' soul a vision and reminder of True Beauty, Socrates is reminded of (in the Christian sense) the Face of God. We too must do this. This is the secret to Loving one another. Even in the worst of sinners there is such Beauty and Goodness and Truth that if we could but see we would be tempted to worship. Lord, strengthen my vision that I might see Your face.

And I end this jumbled and confusing post with two refreshingly clear and lucid quote:

"...to abide in Christ is to renounce any independent life or our own, to give up trying to think our thoughts, or form our resolutions, or cultivate our feelings, and simply and contantly look to Christ to think His thoughts in us, to form His purposes in us, to feel His emotions and affections in us. It is to renounce all life independent of Christ and constantly to look to Him for the inflow of His life into us, and the outworking of His life through us. When we do this, and insofar as we do this, our prayers will obtain that which we seek from God."

-Ruben Archer Torrey, 'How to Pray'

"O dear [Heavenly Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] and all the other gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside. Let all my external possessions be in friendly harmony with what is within. May I consider the wise man rich. As for gold, let me have as much as a moderate man could bear and carry with him."

-Socrates' prayer, 'Phaedrus' (Bracket's mine)

Further up and further in!

Slightly Better News...

The little flaps of skin in between my fingers are sore but I think if I really really really stretch hard enough I can reach them.

Some words from a master:

"Of course a very small hand will never achieve that feeling of freedom (and of might!), I would say of "mightiness" and "power" which is inherent in large hands able without discomfort or effort to grasp the biggest multipart chords and which is, so to say, their birthright. (Imagine, for instance, Anton Rubinstein's lion's paws, or the enormous soft and powerful hands of Rachmaninov). Small hands in such cases will not be able to forego the subterfuges, the ability to manage in a difficult situation which they acquired over the years by dint of hard work and not without the help of the intellect. In short, they turn their drawbacks into advantages and that is, of course, victory of the spirit over the flesh and consequently particularly precious. But, nevertheless, they will never be able to compare fully with hands which do not need any subterfuge and which, acting by instinct, at once, like nature itself, subjugate the piano and reign over it unchallenged. I know I shall be damned for this discouraging statement, "all wrong from the psychological point of view". But in fact there is nothing discouraging in this. One must reason soberly and not dodge reality. I often preach to my pupils that one plays with piano first of all with the head and ear and ony then with the hands, and that it is possible to play very well with "bad" hands and very badly with "good" hands. This is already a great consolation for those who need it."

-Heinrich Neuhaus from The Art of Piano Playing

I think he (Neuhaus) had even smaller hands then I! (He had problems with his middle [second third and fourth] fingers touching keys when he played octaves) But just listen to him play!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-UCUVtd2gA&feature=related

I'm encouraged. =] Besides. There is (Gasp!) more (much much much more) to life than Rachmaninoff.

Isn't God good? =]

The year I became FAT

Since I won't get to attend the last week of TA because of Economics. Thursday was my last day of Foundations. =[ It's been a lovely/funny/weird/growing pains/happy/beautiful/absolutely amazing year. The books had a reputation of being dry, but come on, who doesn't love Tocqueville? =] I'm horrible with actually expressing myself through words so I shall spare everyone and keep myself to a few words. I present to you: 10 Things I learned this Year.

1. My friends are absolutely, positively, incredibly, undeniably, quite simply, some of the most wonderful people I've ever met.

2. Humility truly is "endless". (I make no claims as to my attainment of this virtue, only a claim to strive for such a goal)

3. The teenager can deprieve himself of many, many, many hours of sleep...and still function. Haha (Don't push this one).

4. God, Family, Friends, Ideas, Books, Music. I want to be near all of these for the rest of my life. (As to how they're all going to fit in, I'm pretty sure that if I keep things in proper relation to each other, it'll turn out fine.)

5. The struggle against self will be a life-long battle. However, by the Grace of God...etc.

6. Thank God I get to go to Torrey Honors. =] =] =] =] =] =] =] (Yes, that really does need 7 smiles and many, many more)

7. All good things will become corrupted and evil when set up as an idol.

8. I am (mostly) a prideful, arrogant, obnoxious, stupid and sinful creature. (Have I covered them all?)

9. God likes to rehabilitate such people. In fact, He loves them, hard to believe as it is. How incredibly powerful is the Love which sacrifices all for the beloved. How wonderful, how beautiful.

10. Faith is going to be an awesome, awesome year. =]

There you are. 10 things I learned this year. They're certainly (I hope!) not everything I learned, but they are what come to mind at the moment. =]

Goodnight, goodyear.

Lux Aeterna

It's really really awesome having a sister whose teacher is getting her master's at USC. Two words: Free Concerts. Yeah.

This would be the third time we've gotten to go. =]

Tonights performance of Durufle's Requiem and Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna was conducted by Paul Salamunovich who also conducted the 1997 premier of the latter piece.

Both Choral works were deeply moving (at least for me, I'm always a sucker for choral works, think Vespers by Rachmaninoff).

The awesome thing was that the composer showed up on stage and took a bow! I know it's sounds silly, but being less than five feet away from a composer of such beautiful music does something to you. =]

Here I must lament my ineloquence and merely say a few words on each piece (which by no means do them justice, in other words, go listen to them).

The Requiem is set the the standard latin text of the mass for the dead. Wonderful. There's something about the human voice that cannot be rivaled by anything else. The Dies Irae section here gave me chills. The terror of judgement day really comes across. But then again, so does the redemption and love of Christ. Some theological points that I don't agree with, but that doesn't keep me from enjoying this. =]

Lux Aeterna. I first heard this on KUSC the day I took the SAT...hmmm.... Beautiful piece. Especially in conjunction with the text. According to the composer, it is a meditation on light in all forms. Spiritual, physical, etc. I was blessed. (Note: both pieces are set to sacred texts so it was really almost like church). The conductor, orchestra, and choir recieved standing ovations. The conductor went on and off stage about 5 times. Yeah. =]

I wish I could say just how wonderful it all was but then music wouldn't be music would it?

Have a wonderful evening Ladies and Gentlemen. God Bless.

Keeping the Music Alive

It's all in the Bible,

"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matt. 16:25)

One of my big fears is the possiblity of losing the ability to love music. Like a person who begins by enjoying a song and ends up hating it (after listening to it repeatedly on the radio) I dread the same fate for concert music. (Specifically Rach's music).

But this is not so, and (Thanks ever so much to C.S. Lewis in "The Weight of Glory" and "The Four Loves" and "The Great Divorce")

When anything is yielded up to God, it becomes greater than anything we could have done with it.

If I realize that music (especially Rach's Piano Concerto no.2) is only (and here it is the good type of "only") a signpost pointing to the Divine Beauty, and if I appreciate it for what it is. Then it becomes all the more beautiful to me because I have placed it in proper relation towards God.

However, as soon as I begin 'worshipping' music and expecting more from it than what it was meant to be, then I have made it into a god thus turning it into a demon (paraphrase from Four Loves). Demons don't keep their promises.

So here's to appreciating music for a lifetime and loving it as a little window through which we recieve glimpses of God. =]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Amazon just discounted their exclusive "Complete works of Shakespeare" set by a good $200 dollars!! The set is all hardcover too!!

Speechless!!!!!

Money may not buy happiness, but it sure can buy a high like no other!

The only problem is that to get the full benefit I'll have to read all of it. =]

God help me!

In Which I Remember I Forgot Something...

Then remember exactly what it was that I forgot. =]

I forgot that I had bought ...wait for it.....

THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS OF RACHMANINOFF!!!

*Heavenly choir sings*

Yes, this indescribably wonderful set contains every known recording that Rachmaninoff ever made. =] I am incredibly excited about it!

From the liner notes:

"Rachmaninoff was a pianist after my fancy. He was the most fascinating pianist since Busoni. He knew the secret of the golden vivid tone, the inimitable tone coming from the heart. In my strong opinion he was a greater pianist than a composer."

-Arthur Rubenstein, My Many Years

If that wasn't from Rubenstein I'd find that hard to believe! He does have a point though, (as I've said before) Rachmaninoff seems to have bursts of beautiful ecstatic genius rather than a flatline of quality (Mozart for example).

I also bought C.S. Lewis' Four Loves and Pilgrims Regress.

G.K. Chesterton's Everlasting Man, St. Francis of Assissi, and St. Thomas Aquinas

The Illiad and the Odyssey! The Aeneid as well. =]

Oh and I found a wonderful wonderful blessing in hand copying the letter of Philipians, my hand is a bit sore, but truly, truly, I have been blessed. No better way of conveying what it was like except to say: Go do it! (When you can find time of course, preferably on the weekend).

Further up and Further in!

Just Some Questions...

What does it mean to "know thyself"?

And why is it so important?

What does Righteousness by Faith mean?

How can one Man/God take away the sins of the world?

Why is God Love?

What is Love?

How did Enoch "walk with God"?

What does it mean to seek God's face?

How do we "see" God?

Humility

This week, I've had to learn a hard lesson. That is, how to be humble. My teacher whom I respect and admire very much for showing me my weakness and sin pointed out in his evaluation of my Term Paper that I was acting as if I were an exception towards the general rules, not only was the quality of my paper unacceptably low, but so was my attitude. "Pride cometh before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall". Sigh. At first, I was able to see it from a third persons point of view, I knew that this would not only be a growing experience (being reprimanded) but that it would also be painful. I was overjoyed at being corrected, for I had noticed my own academic slipshodedness for quite some time already. But as the hours passed and my teacher's words took on more personal weight, the burden and shame did begin to seep into my heart. Throughout the (continuing) ordeal I've been very grateful to Mr. Buhler for pointing out my arrogance and snobbishness. This lesson is hard, but at least my lesson in humility has begun. But I recognize this: if I had maintained a loving, trusting and dependent relationship with God, this would not have happened. And until I learn to be humble as Christ was humble and depend upon my Heavenly Father as Jesus depended upon the Father then my Pride will continue to rear its ugly head.

So what I've learned so far:
1) I have been ignoring my classmates. Torrey is about learning from a community, for many months now, I have (consciously or not) been almost ignoring the comments of my friends during class, I've isolated myself in the dungeon of my own mind, which (to a certain degree) is a type of insanity.

2) I cannot conquer my pride alone, only God can. Although I am still unsure of how to destroy my pride, by God's grace I am determined to depend upon Him daily for guidance and for mercy.

3) This has certainly been an experience with God. Now that I think about it, this event was a direct answer to my prayer! I had asked God to "destroy my pride, for it is an abhorrent thing to You", God never really works the way we think He will, and that's a good thing.

I've seen now how disgusting my pride has been and I can do nothing but beg for forgivness and grace from my classmates, my family, my friends, my teacher, but most of all, from God. This is a small step, but a step nonetheless. I am still a boy and quite a stupid one, but I thank God for showing this to me. I hope I don't remain one. =]

Thanksgiving

A few months ago I read Ephesians 14 times (on the advice of Dr. Sanders in his post about synthetic readings of the Bible) and this evening I spent 2 hours reading it once with much prayer for wisdom and understanding. Praise God! He truly works! He cares about us! Even on the 15th reading, there is soooooo much more that I learned! I think Sayers says something about this, like the student will come to the wonderful realization that truism is true! To my shame I admit that I have not read my Bible at all for the past 3 months. (Really, truly read I mean, token scanning but never concentrated, focused, etc.) But in those 2 hours i feel like I've gained a world of Joy. I am very thankful. Thank you God. =]

Chesterton vs. Hobbes

Yes. I've been re-reading the "Orthodoxy" and I've been wading through "Leviathan" and I've come to a few conclusions. Firstly, Hobbes is insane. Not because his sentences are so confusing, but because he is essentially on the path to insanity. Er....was. Anyway, here's my point. Hobbes doesn't allow anything he can't explain to be in his worldview. Essentially he says that the term "Incorporeal Substance" is irrational and absurd because the term is a contradiction in itself. This leads to him denying that God is a spirit. And this leads to some borderline atheistic conclusions. For example, if God is not a spirit, then he must be matter, and if he is matter than he is limited. If he is limited, then he is not who he says he is...etc. etc. He wisely avoids bringing his assumption to it's final conclusion, but he is, as Chesterton says, "Within a hairs-breadth of insanity". Here's Chesterton:

"Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and so make it finite....To accept everything is an exercise, to understand everything a strain. The poet only desires exaltation and expansion, a world to stretch himself in. The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits."

And Later:
"The whole secret of mysticism is this: that man can understand everything by the help of what he does not understand. The morbid logician seeks to make everything lucid, and succeeds in making everything mysterious. The mystic allows one thing to be mysterious, and everything else becomes lucid. The determinist makes the theory of causation quite clear, and then finds that he cannot say "if you please" to the housemaid. The Christian permits free will to remain a sacred mystery; but because of this his relations with the housemaid become of a sparkling and crystal clearness. He puts the seed of dogma in a central darkness; but it branches forth in all directions with abounding natural health."

"The one created thing which we cannot look at is the one thing in the light of which we look at everything. Like the sun at noonday, mysticism explains everything else by the blaze of its own victorious invisibility."

I don't wish to write an entire reflection essay, so I'll make it short. Hobbes is insane because he tries to understand God. The infinite. He tries to stuff God into his theory of the universe and his head explodes because God is too big for him. By not allowing the mystery of the infinite God to remain an unknowable mystery (how can we, finite beings, know what is infinite) he ends up denying God's omnipotence. This line of reasoning will ultimately lead you to doubts about yourself. Any questions? Good. Go read Chesterton.

=] Have a mystic and poetic day!

So....

Today was the second day of Foundations. Of course the change in discussion format was to be expected. More interesting however, was Mr. Buhler's choice of adding a Theme Question for the semester. The question being: What does it mean to live life intentionally? Several texts from Ecclesiastes was read. When thinking of this question I'm reminded of something Socrates (I think it was him) said, "The unexamined life is not worth living". Also, that many people die without ever having lived. And another quote from T.S. Eliot,

"Love itself is unmoving,
Only the cause and end of movement,
Timeless, and undesiring"

As this is a blog mainly about moving further up and further in, it would be important to ask, just why we as Christians strive to grow in Christ. In the discussion, the question of "What is worth doing in life?". Of course I know (Or at least I've been taught) that Knowing and understanding Christ Jesus and through him God the Father and the Holy Spirit is the ultimate goal in this life and the next (Phillipians 3). But Mr. Buhler (playing the Devil's Advocate) brought up the Greek myth of a man who was punished to be forever pushing a stone up a hill and watching it roll down again. Essentially, he declared all things futile, even the pursuit of the Knowledge of God. But I disagree completely with the author of Ecclesiastes for several reasons which I'll post about in the next post.

Emmaus Thoughts

During my vacation I was able to look over the notes I took during Emmaus Forum, a Christian worldview camp that is hosted on the campus of Biola University. As I am not at all eloquent in describing things that overwhelm me, I was surprised when I found a jounal entry that grants functional clarity to my outlook on life right now. (I think there is a significance to be seen here in that the jounal entry was directed towards God) So before I attempt to conquer the complexities of the class that is Foundations of American Thought (God Help me), I thought it'd be nice to start off this way. Here's the entry:

7/11/07

I am both in awe and wonder at the beauty I see. God has been so wonderful that I am speechless. I haven't flt this excited about the world I live in for a long, long time. This beauty, this excitement, this wonder, they all come from God. I'm thinking, engaging, and admiring things that are far too wonderful for me. Yet by God's grace I'm allowed to live and to wonder. Is there a diference in wandering and wondering? This desire for more, this need to be something or someone I'm not, this aching void to feel, to grow, to truly live and work toward all that I am meant to be in Christ, that is purpose. that I have been blessed with this knowledge is beautiful beyond words. God is wonderful, close, distant, attainable awe-full, both a part of me and everything I'm not. And yet, I'm afraid. Is this all a dream. will I go home and forget about all this until the next time I get a spiritual high? Will I fall back into the complacency and lethargy that I've fallen back into countless times? Lord, help me. I am weak. help me to want to want to love you. this connection between the God I serve and my everyday life. I don't want this to end. and I don't think it ever has to. Thank You Lord, for everything. Help me be like You. I want to know you more.

Amen.