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"More Macro Flower Photos" was published on May 16th, 2008 and is listed in flowers, photography.

Just some close-ups of flowers.

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"Some Macro Flower Photos" was published on May 15th, 2008 and is listed in flowers, photography.

Click the pic to go to my flick(r) account.  There you can see larger versions of the photo and download it, if you like.

Technorati Tags: flowers,photograph,tree blossoms,pink

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"Another Tree Blossom . . . A Pink Dogwood" was published on May 14th, 2008 and is listed in flowers, photography.

As reported today in salon.com’s column “The War Room”  President Bush decided in 2003 to give up his golf game in support of the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Well, God bless his little pea-picking heart (as my mother used to say).  Alex Koppelman writes (you can read the full article here):

President Bush sure does feel for U.S. troops, doesn’t he? First he told soldiers in Afghanistan how envious he is of them for their chance to do something “exciting” and “romantic,” and now, in a recent interview, he revealed that he has given up golf in solidarity with their families.

“I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the Commander-in-Chief playing golf. I feel I owe it to the families to be as — to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal,” Bush said. “I remember when de Mello, who was at the U.N., got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man’s life. And I was playing golf — I think I was in central Texas — and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, it’s just not worth it anymore to do.”

And so again let me salute our president, a man who truly knows what is important and can show his solidarity with the fighting men and women of the U.S. military.

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"President Bush "Sacrifices" his Golf Game for the Troops" was published on May 14th, 2008 and is listed in Sad, so very, very Sad, politics.

A funny video from SNL.

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"A Message from Hilary Clinton" was published on May 13th, 2008 and is listed in Video, funny, politics.

A new meme for your perusal and use, if you so desire.

1. One movie that made you laugh
Raising Arizona

2. One movie that made you cry
Field of Dreams

3. One movie you loved when you were a child
Star Wars (forget that IV and A New Hope crap)

4. One movie you’ve seen more than once
Once (I’ve seen it three times so far)

5. One movie you loved, but were embarrassed to admit it
The Family Stone

6. One movie you hated
The Prestige (not The Illusionist as previously mentioned, which was quite satisfactory)

7. One movie that scared you
Alien (When I saw it when it was first released)

8. One movie that bored you
Iron Man

9. One movie that made you happy
In America

10. One movie that made you miserable
Hostel

11. One movie you weren’t brave enough to see
Can’t think of any really

12. One movie character you’ve fallen in love with
Jane Craig in Broadcast News (played by Holly Hunter)
and Ripley in Alien  (what red-blooded American teenage boy could resist those scenes at the end of the movie . . . you know the ones I’m talking about, and I’m not talking about the alien either)

13. The last movie you saw
25th Hour

14. The next movie you hope to see
Rogue or Visitor

Also, I tag the following people:  Jim, Julie, Debi, Vicki and Loren

Hat tip to Ben Myers for passing this meme along.

Technorati Tags: one movie meme

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"The One Movie Meme" was published on May 13th, 2008 and is listed in film, meme.

at least as it is defined in an article posted on the LifeWay website.  Here we read the following, written by Thom S. Rainer:

I would consider pastoral malpractice among the greatest treasons a minister can commit against the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, it is practiced weekly without inhibition.

What do I mean by pastoral malpractice? I mean ministers who stand and preach a gospel other than God’s rightful need for punitive justice against our sin and His wrath being appeased by pouring out upon Christ judgment intended for us. He in turn sets us in right legal standing before Himself, through faith in what Jesus has done, while simultaneously giving to us His holy righteousness.

So, if a pastor does not preach or teach the penal substitution theory of the atonement as outlined above, he or she is guilty of pastoral malpractice.  Never mind that this is but one of at least seven understandings of the atonement*.  Never mind that the picture of God in the paragraphs above is one of a depraved and sadistic deity.  Never mind that Jesus himself taught that we were simply to forgive those who sin against us as God forgives our sins (and this was said prior to the cross).  Never mind that this God of wrath is hard to reconcile with John’s view that “God is love,” and that “perfect love casts out fear” (and if there was ever a God to fear, it is the one described above).   Never mind all that and so much more besides.  If you don’t preach what Rainer says you must preach, you are guilty of treason and pastoral malpractice.

So, I guess that I am guilty as charged.

* To read more about the various theories of the atonement, I recommend going to this article on Wikipedia and perusing this website.

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"Yes, I Am Guilty of Pastoral Malpractice . . ." was published on May 12th, 2008 and is listed in Theology and Church, faith.

As before, to see larger versions and/or to download, click on the pics to go to my flickr account.

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"More Tulips" was published on May 12th, 2008 and is listed in flowers, photography.

Have the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
Who, being in nature (the form of) God,
did not consider equality with God
as something to be held fast (exploited, grasped)
but emptied himself,
taking on the nature (form) of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he abased (humbled) himself
and became obedient to the
point of death—
even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6-8)

These verses have always been among my favorite verses in scripture.  Why?  For one, they show me the great sacrifice that the Logos/Christ made in becoming human - to give up equality with God; to, in essence, give up the attributes of divinity in order to become like us.  And not only to become like us, but to make himself the lowest among us . . . a slave.  The word usually translated as “humbled” is too mild. “Abased” is more appropriate and accurate I believe, especially when one considers that Jesus also chooses a criminal’s death on the cross.

There is something about this “kenosis” (κενόω  - the word translated as emptied) that speaks to me.  This emptying out of Christ is an amazing act of love when you consider the consequences.  As the article on kenosis in Wikipedia states:

An apparent dilemma arises when Christian theology posits a God outside of time and space, who enters into time and space to become human (Incarnate). The doctrine of Kenosis attempts to explain what the Son of God chose to give up in terms of his divine attributes, or divinity, in order to assume human nature. Since the incarnate Jesus is simultaneously fully human and fully divine, Kenosis holds that these changes were temporarily assumed by God in his incarnation, and that when Jesus ascended back into heaven following the resurrection, he fully reassumed all of his original attributes and divinity.

Specifically it refers to attributes of God that are thought to be incompatible with becoming fully human. For example, God’s omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience as well as his aseity, eternity, infinity, impassibility and immutability. Theologians who support this doctrine often appeal to a reading of Philippians 2:5-8 . . .

Kenotic Christology [also] focuses on certain passages in the Gospels where Jesus questions his being called good (Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19, Matthew 19:17), and evidence that he was not omniscient concerning the date of the Second Advent (Mark 13:32, Matthew 24:36).

Now I realize that for traditionalists out there, my understanding of Christ’s kenosis is more than a little on the heretical side.  Those who see Jesus as possessing not only a full divinity, but also all the attributes of divinity (whether or not they are visible or seemingly used) during his earthly life, will see my view of Jesus as being too human, too little, and not divine at all.  But it is my view that the divine pre-existent logos who becomes the human Jesus and then reassumes his divinity as the risen Christ is the most biblically sound interpretations of how Jesus’ divine and human natures relate to each to other.  In addition, I believe that this self-emptying love becomes the most important attribute of the God we have come to know most fully in Jesus’ birth, life, teaching, death, resurrection and ascension . . . more important even than any of the “omni’s” mentioned above.

God is defined most clearly in the self-emptying, self-giving love of Jesus, and in this passage from Philippians, Paul would have the followers of Christ “define” themselves in the same way.  “Have the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”  How, in God’s name, is this even remotely possible for us mere humans?  In traditional theology after all, Jesus was divine and had a “built-in” advantage that we mere mortals do not possess.  Of course Jesus could do this, he was God, in other words.

And this is brings up another reason why I love this passage and find myself increasingly aligned with with some have called “kenotic Christianity.”  Paul not only encourages us to follow Christ’s example, I believe he also thinks it is entirely possible and plausible for us to do so. We too can empty ourselves of everything but love and follow in Jesus’ footsteps. This is backed up by no less than Jesus himself who once told his followers in John 14:12  “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”

And what difference does his “going to the Father” make?  It makes all the difference, because in John’s gospel the gift of the Holy Spirit comes after Jesus goes back to his father.  It is the Holy Spirit which makes it possible for us mere mortals to have the same mind that Christ had.  Again, the article on Kenosis in Wikipedia is informative when, in talking about Easter Orthodoxy, it states:

The Orthodox Mystical Theology of the East emphasizes following the example of Christ. Kenosis is only possible through humility and presupposes that one seeks union with God.  [Therefore] kenosis is not only a Christological issue in Orthodox theology, it has moreover to do with Pneumatology, namely to do with the Holy Spirit. Kenosis, relative to the human nature, denotes the continual . . . self-denial of one’s own human will and desire. With regards to Christ, there is a kenosis of the Son of God, a condescension and self sacrifice for the redemption and salvation of all humanity. Humanity can also participate in God’s saving work through theosis; becoming holy by grace [and I would add . . . through the power of the Holy Spirit which dwells within us].

Of course, I am no theologian, and others more theologically astute may very well poke a million holes in what I have written above, but for me, these verses define the heart of God’s nature and the heart of every Christ-follower’s call:  Self-emptying, self-giving love . . . the very mind of Christ.

Technorati Tags: theology,kenosis,Philippians 2:6-8,the mind of Christ

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"The Mind of Christ" was published on May 12th, 2008 and is listed in Jesus, faith.

As before, to see larger versions and/or to download, click on the pics to go to my flickr account.

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"Even More Tulips" was published on May 12th, 2008 and is listed in flowers, photography.