Jungle Pop

Theology Thursday: Does God Still Smite?

January 17, 2008 at 3:13 am · Filed under Theology

Our home church is a “once saved always saved” kind of church, but I’m more of a “you can lose your salvation” kind of guy (don’t jump to comment - read on!). While salvation sometimes begins at a specific point in time, it is by no means a point-in-time event, but rather a lifelong process. So really, I’m not a “you can lose your salvation” kind of guy - more like a “when your life comes to an end, your spiritual direction at that time is a better indicator of your salvation status than a prayer you made when you were eight years old” kind of guy. But that takes too long to say. I like the analogy I recently heard regarding Jesus’ disciples:

1. When did Jesus’ disciples become “Christians” (or true believers)?
2. When did Jesus’ disciples start following him?

The pastor I heard tell this said that for the first question, theologians have proposed something like six possible answers. But for the second question, most people are in agreement that the disciples started following Jesus from the time he called them on day one. Most of them went on abiding with him, even after his death, and died in “good standing” (as far as we know). One did not.

I’ve been reading through the Bible the past eight months, and the last month or two has been pretty heavy on the prophets. And lemme tell ya, that’s pretty heavy. But all of this concentrated time in that portion of the Scriptures has impressed upon me God’s basic message: Turn to me, and I’ll bless you; refuse, and I’ll smite you.

In messages for present-day believers, I hardly hear anyone delivering that message. It could be because it’s overly negative. Or could it be that people don’t believe God operates that way anymore? And yet it seems like such a fundamental way God operated back in the day - would He really alter his paradigm that much with the advent of the New Covenant? I hear some people shouting, “YES!” And you may be right.

But we serve a God who told his own people, “I am tired of always giving you a second chance” (Jer 15:6) and “I have taken away my unfailing love and my mercy” (Jer 16:5). Do you notice that most Christians wouldn’t hesitate to claim that God would change his mind toward us if we repent, but that he would never change his mind toward us if we live in flagrant disobedience toward him? Jer 18:7-10 seems to indicate that God would indeed smite people he had previously promised to bless (or at least retract his blessing), if those people turned to evil and refused to obey him.

My main point in this post is not to enter into electronic combat with “once saved always saved” people. But it seems to me that God’s desire for people to earnestly seek him doesn’t end when someone “gets saved,” and that he does seem to take it personally when someone presumes upon their relationship with him for blessings and good standing. May we never do so!

I am happy to report that I finally bought a house. I took on a mortgage for the next 20 years... yikes! My wife reminded me that it would be a good idea for us to get mortatge life insurance on both of us. So, if one of us dies, the other will be able to pay the mortgage. Better be safe than sorry.

Finally!

January 16, 2008 at 2:33 am · Filed under Culture

After living in this country for four and a half years, I finally figured out what they call electrical outlets here. I’ve always struggled with knowing what to call it, like when I’m out and about and need to know if the restaurant or coffee shop has an outlet for my computer. My conversations with the staff typically reminded me of that Seinfeld episode, “The Frogger”:

George Costanza (using a map): Now, all right, here is the Frogger. This is the front door, and this is the outlet.
Slippery Pete: What’s that?
George Costanza: The outlet?
Slippery Pete: Mm-hmm.
George Costanza: That’s where the electricity comes out.
Slippery Pete: Oh, you mean the holes.

The other day I realized what they call outlets here. The phrase? It’s English: power point.

Oh, you mean the holes.

Blog Juggling

January 13, 2008 at 9:33 pm · Filed under Blogging

Once upon a time, I had a blog. As in one.

After a little while, I joined a group blog (The Dad’s Group). No pressure on submitting, which maybe resulted in its eventual demise. Then I joined another group blog (DadBloggers). Submit once a month.

Then I converted our personal (ministry) home page into a blog. Most of our friends and family members aren’t accustomed to the interaction element of a blog, but in the States we got a lot of feedback from people saying how much they appreciate the frequency of our updates. So I get very few comments, but enough readers to make it worthwhile.

I’ve toyed with the idea of combining those two blogs into one. It probably won’t happen, as our personal blog is password-protected to allow me to be very specific about what we’re up to here. I’d have to ditch that for a public blog, and don’t want to do that. Plus, I like that I have an audience out there that I don’t have to “perform” for, or worry what they might think about something. Sometimes you just want to rant about something.

As if I wasn’t committed enough in the blogosphere, I started a woodworking blog. I thought it would give me a good chance to work through my successes and failures as I try to learn the craft. I wasn’t posting much, but I think that has changed. A week or two ago, a prominent woodworker posted a link to my site from his, and my hits jumped from 5 or 10 a day to like 120 the next day! I was at or over 100 hits the next three days as well. And while the traffic has died down since then, I’m still getting a healthy number of daily hits - and probably will for some time, thanks to this other guy’s link.

Finally I am about to start making money with my online ventures. But first I need to get a merchant account, after that, then can I start charging people money. I guess I could go with paypal, but a merchant account is more trustworthy.

So at times my head is spinning as I juggle these three blogs - all with different email addresses, different logins, different FeedBurner management pages, different levels of anonymity. And the whole time, I have to stop and ask myself with each blog post, “Wait a minute - who’s my audience here? What if someone googles a particular phrase - will they find my other blog(s)?” Because at times I have something interesting enough to post both here and on our personal page.

Phew. I’m tired just writing about it. And yet I keep writing…

The Invisible Book Shelf

January 8, 2008 at 10:47 pm · Filed under Just for Fun

Before Christmas I posted about how to make a secret compartment book. When I added a few closing thoughts in a follow-up post, I mentioned that I would soon be doing a project that was just as cool (if not cooler!). So here it is. Check out my home workspace:

Like my bookshelf? It’s just that: a book that is a shelf. Cool, huh? Here’s a closer look:

This time, I did not document the entire process photographically so I could post a tutorial here. The tutorial at Instructables is probably better than one I would do anyway. In short, it’s a simple process of installing an angle bracket into the book and mounting the bracket into the wall. The bracket is hidden by the books placed on top of it.

My Wedding Ring

January 7, 2008 at 7:25 am · Filed under Marriage, Daily Life

I’m married. I have a wedding ring. I love being married. I love my wedding ring.

But I’ve got this thing. I don’t like to wear my wedding ring when I wash my hands or take a shower. I have another thing. I take off my ring when I dump everything out of my pockets upon returning home - you know, my wallet, keys, change, pen. For some reason, ‘wedding ring’ gets included in that group.

I want to state again, just for the record: I love being married. I love my wedding ring.

There have been a few times that I have temporarily misplaced my ring. Nothing significant, but I do get the occasional “freak-out moment” when I don’t see my ring in its normal place (I know, I know, it’s “normal place” is on my ring finger). A quick search usually finds my ring in the pocket of one of my pairs of pants or shorts - put there, no doubt, when I washed my hands.

The other day, I turned over a new leaf. And no, it had nothing to do with a New Year’s resolution. I decided to leave my ring on - wet or dry, day or night.

It’s taken a little getting used to. In the shower, I feel constantly on the verge of losing my ring off my slippery soapy finger. I still don’t like the feel of a wet ring on my not-quite-dry finger. But I’m getting used to it.

Because even though Jane would probably admit that losing my ring would have nothing to do with the love that I have for her, there’s something in the back of her eyes that tell me that I had better not ever let that happen.

Ahoy There, Wireless Pirates!

January 5, 2008 at 6:47 am · Filed under Current Events

The author of this article makes a pretty good argument to assuage the guilt of those who use other people’s wireless connections (without their knowledge or permission). For those who have guilt, that is.

But for many Christians this is still a “thou shalt not steal” issue, despite the author assuring us that it’s “morally OK.” As for me, I think that I don’t have a problem with the occasional wireless pirate. I’d only have a problem with the “full-time pirate” - someone who doesn’t sign up for their own DSL account simply because they get a perfectly good signal from their next-door neighbor.

Technorati Tags: wifi, wireless, ethics, piracy

Comments (8)

Safe Carpentry with Kids

January 3, 2008 at 11:21 pm · Filed under Woodworking, Just for Fun

When assembling an Ikea product recently, I had an idea of what to do with those “styrofoam 2 x 4s” that are used as packing material. Why not pretend they are real 2 x 4s and give the kids some practice using tools?

I found that it worked great. The styrofoam is a much more user-friendly surface than wood (duh) for hammering in a nail, especially when starting the nail.

I also found that styrofoam was really great for driving in screws. Whether driving the screw in or out, the threads seemed to grab just enough for realism. Plus, it was easy enough for a 2-year-old to do!

I wouldn’t, however, get that saw out - unless you want to teach your kids how to clean up “sawdust!”

Groovy Carma

January 2, 2008 at 7:40 am · Filed under Daily Life

I’ve already written about this a little bit here, but allow me to sum it up again because the punchline’s worth waiting for.

When we arrived back in the States last year, we bought a used car - a 1995 Toyota Camry station wagon, to be exact. We bought it for about $4500 I think, and figured that even if we sold it for a full $1000 less at the end of our 15 months in country, we’d have gotten our money’s worth out of it.

When the time came to think about getting rid of our car, we decided on something kind of radical: We gave it away. Well, not exactly. We sold it to some friends of ours for $1, with the agreement that, if the car was still running, they’d sell it back to us when we return. Hey, with depreciation I might just be able to get it back for 50 cents.

At the time, what we did felt exciting - real 1st-century Acts church stuff, you know? We saw a need, a huge need, and we sacrificed to provide for that need. And while we had an idea of how handy that money would have been, we didn’t know just how bad it’d get.

We were already living way below the quota given to us when we arrived Stateside, and our reserves rapidly dwindled away. Right before moving back here, we had two transitions - from Texas to Virginia, and then from the States to overseas - both by air. When we arrived here, we were over $4000 in debt. Hmm. That’s not far from what we would have gotten for selling a 1995 Toyota Camry.

So we embarked upon some radical budgeting, and lived paycheck to paycheck. We paid agressively on the credit card. Too agressively, to be honest, as we bounced a check here and there at the end of the month because we had nothing left. But then God started supplying: two churches gave us significant contributions - twice! We’ve also benefited from random acts of monetary kindness from friends old and new. We’re now within a couple months of being in the black. Praise God! And as I said a few months ago, it actually feels good to be living in dependence on God.

But here’s that punchline: Some friends of ours are returning to their home country in a couple months, and have told us that they want to give us their car! I told you it was worth waiting for. I almost entitled this post, “Pay It Forward” (if you don’t get it), but couldn’t resist the “Carma” pun.

P.S. Happy New Year!

P.S. on the Secret Compartment Book

December 22, 2007 at 1:49 am · Filed under Just for Fun

[I’ll add these comments to my original post for integrity’s sake, but in case no one goes back to look at it, I’m posting here too.]

I had a lot of fun doing my two secret compartment books, but it’s hard work! I need to work up some motivation to do a third one that will be just for me. Meanwhile, I’ve got a few more thoughts for those of you who might want to try this - just things I’ve learned:

If you use clamps to sandwich the book, I’d sandwich it in between two pieces of wood, and not other books. Books flex a little.
Slow and steady definitely produced a better finished product.
If your book has a dustjacket, like mine below does, you have to decide what you want to do. Remember, all the bottom pages are glued to the back cover. So you either need to fold the dustjacket in before gluing, or do what I did - cut off the part of the dustjacket that folds under the pages, and glue the end down. The way I did it, you’d never know the inside part isn’t there.
If you want to add a touch of class, glue a panel of felt to the bottom of the hidden compartment (see below). You could also glue felt along the side walls, but I’d only do that if they were really straight and even. Some people suggested using embedded magnets to help hold the book closed, but if it’s just going to sit on your bookshelf, it’s not going to just fall open, is it?
Candles are very soothing to the mind.

My next project is going to be equally as cool. But you’ll just have to wait! The pics of my second book are below (the second pic is enlargeable - just click it).

Comments (4)