תהום tĕhowm: [n] "the deep; primeval ocean; abyss"

This week, while preparing a sermon for Mark 6.45-56 in which our Lord walks on the water of the sea in a wind storm, I came across this quote, which struck me as a timely reminder:

"[Columbus's] sailors imagined all manner of sea creatures and sundry monsters of mythic proportions.  They fathomed horrors out of the deep recesses of their own souls - where indeed the fiercest horrors do dwell."

- George Grant, The Christian Almanac for August 3rd

Book List [what I've been reading lately]...

You are what your mind eats ...

Happy Birthday Elwyn!

Today is the birthday of the great writer, E.B. White.  It was he who wrote Elements of Style with William Strunk Jr.  But he taught most of us to love language as a gift from God [not just ... say ... a highly-evolved form of grunting] in the pen with a radiant Wilbur and in a 76-cent genuine indian birch bark canoe, searching for Margalo.

I have a list of five books that I want my children to have had so much exposure to they can quote lengthy passages from memory:

Charlotte's Web
Stuart Little
True Grit
The Princess Bride
The Chronicles of Narnia
[okay, that was cheating ... there are actually seven in that series, but, what are ya gonna do?]

The Process of Creativity

 by Dr David Goetsch

[abridged; used with permission]

CREATIVITY

People debate endlessly about whether creativity is the result of nature versus nurture. Imagination, originality, and innovation can be applied in any field. Architects are creative in their designs of buildings. Engineers are creative in their solutions to human problems. Business people are creative in how they structure deals. Coaches are creative in developing their game plans. I can say with certainty that the kind of creativity needed in problem solving and decision making in organizations can be learned. Creativity is a process that can be approached systematically and in the 6 phases below.

1. PREPARATION

 Many people think that creativity reveals itself in a momentary flash of insight that simply arises out of the blue. But when it comes to problem solving and decision making in organizations creativity begins with preparation. Preparation in this context means learning, gaining, experience, and collecting information in the field or discipline associated with the problem. Creativity requires preparation. It involves gaining education, training, and experience in that field. It also involves staying up to date and familiarizing oneself with all of the pertinent information about the problem in question. The key is learning to use the intuition that can come from blending knowledge and experience rather than letting knowledge and experience limit the imagination.

Pentecost Sunday Prayer

We praise You, Lord, because You have heard our prayer.  Once again, You breathed out Your Spirit upon Your disciples and restored to us times of refreshing so that men might walk with You in the cool of the Day.  We thank You, Christ, that You did not leave us to forsake us, but ascended so that in the fullness of time, You could send us a Helper - another Comforter, reversing Babel with tongues of fire and sending forth Your Word into every nation.  So bless us with Your presence this morning and send Your Wind into the four corners of the earth for the good of Your Kingdom and glory.  Amen.

Ascension Blessings!

“After all of the final details, something happened.  A cloud of glory appeared and I suspect it was the same cloud that used to reside in the Holy of Holies.  This is God’s cloud.  This cloud came down from Heaven and it lifted our Lord Jesus Christ off the ground.  And it carried Him into the sky out of their sight and into Heaven where he took his throne.  This is the ascension.   And our Lord Jesus Christ is still there in Heaven.  Theologians call this time His present session.  That is, He sat down at God’s right hand where He must reign and rule until He comes again.   This is what we see in the book of the Revelation.  We have magnificent creatures, seraphim and cherubim,  angels, glorified men.  These people and angels are numbering in the millions and millions surrounding the throne and paying tribute to the One Who sits on it.  He is at the same time the Lamb Who was slain and the Lion of the tribe of Judah. 

So what is the ascension?  It is the Lord’s rise to glory at His Father’s right hand.  We urge one another to exalt the Lord.  And we ought to exalt the Lord, because God has first exalted Him.  You can praise me more than I deserve.  I can lift you up higher than you belong.  But  it’s impossible to lift the Lord Jesus Christ up higher than He belongs because there is no higher place than Heaven and right there at the apex of all things sits the King, our Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ, 40 days after His resurrection and 10 days before Pentecost, ascended to God’s right hand.  That’s the doctrine; that’s the fact of the ascension.

The ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ is essential to theology and the believer’s life.  Thus we need to understand not only what happens but what it means…  well, according to Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost this chiefly means: Jesus is the King.  Not that He will be the king someday or at the second coming or if you want him to be king or if you accept him as your personal Savoir.  But what Peter is saying is that in ascending to God’s right hand and sitting on the throne that Jesus is the King.”

-          - Michael Phillips, 

in his ascension sermon, which I STRONGLY recommend to you

Circumcised Ears [and earbuds]

God tells us [through the inspired endorsement of the synecdochal LXX quote in Heb 10.5-7] that if we want to think about our bodies being prepared for service to God, the one part of our body God uses to describe that willing servant-like body  to be used for the purposes of King Jesus, - the one thing is hearing ears, ears that have been circumcised ears, ears that have been 'dug open' [Ps 40.6] and hear the will of the Father...
God says that to do the will of the Father, it requires your body.  And particularly, it requires your ears: the ability to listen... because hearing is a way of submitting to things.  We've got a whole new world now where sounds are no longer a reminder of our need to submit to the created order in a way that our sight is.  Now through earbuds, we can control the world of our hearing.  That is momentous in the history of the world.  It can be a powerful device for good, but it can be a horrific, powerful device for evil as well, because hearing reminds us of our submission to what is around us.  Seeing is not that way - we gaze, we apprehend, we rule.  So ... be careful with your ipod!  That's what I'm saying!

- Dennis Tuuri, Sermon 'Listen' on Psalm 40