Even More Minor Thoughts

"There is no difference between the Hebrew word for desire and the Hebrew word for covet. Coveting..."

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:04:10 -0500

“

There is no difference between the Hebrew word for desire and the Hebrew word for covet. Coveting means desiring something too much. And too much is measured by how that desiring compares to desiring God. If desiring leads you away from God rather than closer to God, it is covetousness. It is sin.

I suspect that the reason the Ten Commandments begin with the commandment “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3) and ends with the commandment “You shall not covet” (Exodus 20:17) is that they are essentially the same commandment. They bracket the other eight and reveal their source.

Not coveting means not desiring anything in a way that diminishes God as your supreme treasure. And not having any gods before God means the same thing: Don’t treasure anything or anyone in away that competes with God’s supreme place in your life. Idolatry is what we call disobedience to the first commandment. And idolatry is what Paul calls disobedience to the tenth commandment (Colossians 3:5).

… But how, Paul? Do you have a practical suggestion that we can use to fight for this satisfaction in Christ? Here is what we saw in Philippians 3:17, and it is striking: “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us” (Philippians 3:17).

Here is amazingly practical help for us: Pick out some people whose lives show that they treasure Christ above other things. Then “keep your eyes on them.” Watch them. That, Paul says, is a good way to conquer covetousness.

”

- Fighting Covetousness by Looking at Others :: Desiring God Christian Resource Library

" How can it be so easy to bilk Medicare?? Health-care experts say the simplicity of..."

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:50:28 -0500

“

How can it be so easy to bilk Medicare??

Health-care experts say the simplicity of Campos Ramirez’s scheme underscores the scope of the growing fraud problem and the need to devote more resources to theft prevention…

What’s that you say? Not enough administrative resources dedicated to preventing fraud?

A critical aspect of the problem is that Medicare, the health program for the elderly and the disabled, automatically pays the vast majority of the bills it receives from companies that possess federally issued supplier numbers.

So Medicare’s approach to paying claims is not unlike, say, shoveling money out the door?

Officials who oversee the Medicare program say they are vigilant despite time pressure and limited resources. Employees review fewer than 5 percent of the nearly 1 billion claims filed each year…This year, CMS is working to finalize a rule that would prevent convicted felons from obtaining Medicare billing numbers.

But the important thing here is that Medicare is keeping administrative costs down, and passing the savings on to you, the taxpayer.

”

- Cato-at-liberty » The Amazing Story of Medicare’s Low Administrative Costs

Leaving Christ(ianity) - A Christian Epidemic | Parchment and Pen

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:49:14 -0500

Leaving Christ(ianity) - A Christian Epidemic | Parchment and Pen:

“I don’t really even care what you have to say to me,” she told me that day. “I just don’t believe anymore and there is nothing anyone can do about it.” As I thought about this young lady over the last week, only one thing keeps coming to mind: how was she a part of the church for so long without the church engaging her on these issues. You see, her issues were numerous, but foundational. She doubted the resurrection of Christ, the inspiration, inerrancy, and canon of Scripture, and the historicity of the Christian faith in general. If the church had legitimized her questions during the doubting phase and truly engaged her from an intellectual front I can’t help but think, from a human point of view, things might have been different. But once she reaches the point of apathy, this seems to be a point of no return.

My life and my ministry is committed to one thing: rooting people theologically by presenting the intellectual viability of the Evangelical faith. While I understand this is not all there is to the Christian faith, it is an absolute vital part of discipleship and foundational to everything else.

Everyone will go through the doubt phase. Everyone should ask questions about the faith. If you have not asked the “How do you know …” questions about the message of the Gospel, this is not a good thing. We should be challenged to think through these questions early in the faith. The Church needs to rethink its education program. Expositional preaching, while important, is not enough. Did you hear that? Expositional preaching is not enough. It does not provide the discipleship venue that is vital for us to prevent and overcome this epidemic. We should not fool ourselves into thinking that it does.

The church has been on an intellectual diet for the last century and we are suffering from theological atrophy. What else do you expect when we have replaced theological discipleship with a gluttonous promotion of entertainment, numbers, and fast-food Christianity that can produce nothing more than a veneer of faith seasoned for departure?

The solution: to reform our educational program in the church. To lay theological foundations through critical thinking. To understand that the great commission is to make disciples, not simply converts. And most importantly, we must pray that God will grant a revival of the mind knowing that without the power of the Holy Spirit, no amount of intellectual persuasion can change an antagonistic heart.

Not Your Father's Space Program

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:10:13 -0500

Not Your Father's Space Program: NASA isn’t going anywhere very fast these days, but people in the space enthusiast community aren’t as gloomy as you might expect. In fact, they seem more cheerful than I’ve seen them for years. The reason is that talk about “the space program” (singular) is out of date. Now there are numerous space programs, and while NASA’s isn’t doing especially well, others seem to be flourishing.

"There is a whiff of hypocrisy here. Mr. Obama, who made $4.2 million last year and lives in a $1.65..."

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:07:54 -0500

“

There is a whiff of hypocrisy here. Mr. Obama, who made $4.2 million last year and lives in a $1.65 million house bought with the help of the indicted Tony Rezko – and whose “elegant suits” and “impeccable ties” made him one of Esquire’s Best-Dressed Men in the World – disdains college students who might want to “chase after the big house and the nice suits.” Mr. McCain, who with his wife earned more than $6 million last year and who owns at least seven homes, ridicules Mr. Romney for having built businesses.

But hypocrisy is not the biggest issue. The real issue is that Messrs. Obama and McCain are telling us Americans that our normal lives are not good enough, that pursuing our own happiness is “self-indulgence,” that building a business is “chasing after our money culture,” that working to provide a better life for our families is a “narrow concern.”

They’re wrong. Every human life counts. Your life counts. You have a right to live it as you choose, to follow your bliss. You have a right to seek satisfaction in accomplishment. And if you chase after the almighty dollar, you just might find that you are led, as if by an invisible hand, to do things that improve the lives of others.

”

- Our Collectivist Candidates - WSJ.com

Downloading map updates for the GPS. (We bought a new one.)

Sat, 31 May 2008 10:58:20 -0500

Downloading map updates for the GPS. (We bought a new one.)

2008 Gasoline Prices

Fri, 23 May 2008 13:38:53 -0500

2008 Gasoline Prices: Lots of information about where the money goes when you buy a gallon of gas. From the University of Michigan.

Surprisingly, water tastes better after I clean my SIGG bottle.

Thu, 22 May 2008 10:15:35 -0500

Surprisingly, water tastes better after I clean my SIGG bottle.

Is Caspian Really C. S. Lewis? | Christianity Today Movies

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:59:34 -0500

Is Caspian Really C. S. Lewis? | Christianity Today Movies: When Prince Caspian the movie—the sequel to 2005’s The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe—opens in theaters next month, viewers might be interested to know that there are a number of parallels between the title character and the author of the Chronicles of Narnia.

Turning the Tables - Portland Mercury

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 11:33:29 -0500

Turning the Tables - Portland Mercury:

Now, using ORS 153.058, Bryant — as a private citizen — has initiated violation proceedings against Officer Stensgaard. Bryant alleges Stensgaard was in violation of state statutes on illegal parking, illegal stopping, obeying parking restrictions on state highways, and illegal operation of an emergency vehicle or ambulance—the violations carry fines totaling $540.

“Citizens should be concerned that he used his status as an officer of the law as justification for breaking the law,” he says.

Division of Labour: Those $100 bills

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:44:31 -0500

Division of Labour: Those $100 bills:

When I hear about $100 bills left on the ground, I think “regulation.” Bingo:

The Clean Air Act has succeeded spectacularly in reducing some forms of air pollution, but perversely, it has chilled efforts to reuse energy: because many of these efforts involve tinkering with industrial exhaust systems, they can trigger a federal or local review of the plant, opening a can of worms some plant managers would rather keep closed.

Much more problematic are the regu lations surrounding utilities. Several waves of deregulation have resulted in a hodgepodge of rules without providing full competition among power generators. … [M]any industrial plants cannot themselves use all the electricity they could produce: they can’t profit from aggressive energy recycling unless they can sell the electricity to other consumers. Yet byzantine regulations make that difficult, stifling many independent energy recyclers.

It took less than one drink to get Shannon Wilcutt busted for felony DUI

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 07:37:09 -0500

It took less than one drink to get Shannon Wilcutt busted for felony DUI: This story is horrifying in multiple ways: a vigilante thinks a women is drinking (she wasn’t), the police arrest her even though her BAC was far below the legal limit, the prosecutor indicts her even though her BAC was far below the legal limit, and she had to spend $12,000 defending herself from a bogus charge. What about that story isn’t horrifying?

Playground Politics: Supreme Court follies

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 14:39:47 -0500

Playground Politics: Supreme Court follies:

Want better judges? You might try paying them more.

Clearly, these are not two of Wisconsin’s finest legal minds. Wisconsin’s finest legal minds are probably too busy in private practice to be bothered with a job that pays less than that of a first-year associate.

That’s a huge problem, and it’s the first step Wisconsin must consider to improve the quality of its future justices. Wisconsin must consider the cost of competence. I’ve long held that Wisconsin’s legislature would be more productive if we either doubled their pay, or cut their pay in half and truly made the job part-time. $48K a year isn’t enough to draw a number of highly desirable legislative candidates, and the present workload is too great for most highly-qualifed individuals to consider taking on lawmaking duties in addition to their careers. Of the states with full-time legislatures, Wisconsin ranks dead last in pay.

Congressional hearing on "Big Oil" is a bad April Fool's joke [Karl]

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:17:14 -0500

Congressional hearing on "Big Oil" is a bad April Fool's joke [Karl]:

As usual, when Congress talks about evil oil companies you can bet that everything Congress will say is either highly misleading or flat out wrong.

Regarding the “big profits” side of the ledger, what people might have learned at the hearing is that oil and gas companies earned an average of 8.3 cents per dollar of sales, compared with 7.8 cents per dollar for the Dow Jones average; that the price of a barrel of oil has risen about $40 or 60 percent, while a gallon of regular gasoline has risen about 8 percent; and that price increases are not controlled by oil companies but rather result from relentlessly rising demand, obstructions to accessing domestic oil, shortened capacity, and other external factors. For that matter, Exxon paid $105 billion in taxes in 2007 — more than two-and-a-half times as much as it made in profit.

And those “billions in federal subsidies” the oil companies are defending? Most news accounts fail to note that the amount in question is $18 billion in tax breaks over ten years, a minuscule amount compared to the size of the federal budget. Worse, all but $2.8 billion of these subsidies were for nuclear power, energy-efficient cars and buildings, and renewable fuels research — exactly what Markey wants. And those tax breaks were less than the tax increases imposed on oil and gas companies in 2005.

Creativity Is Imitation :: Desiring God Blog

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:15:23 -0500

Creativity Is Imitation :: Desiring God Blog:

All art has one source: God’s universe. We create nothing, but only imitate the creator.

In his essay “Christianity and Literature,” C. S. Lewis writes,

[An] author should never conceive of himself as bringing into existence beauty or wisdom that did not exist before, but simply and solely as trying to embody in terms of his own art some reflection of eternal Beauty and Wisdom. (Genesis: Journal of the Society of Christians in the Arts, Inc. 1, no. 2 (1975): 22)

And Jerram Barrs writes in his article, “Christianity and the Arts” (PDF):

Our work in any field of the arts will be imitative. We will be thinking God’s thoughts after Him — painting with His colors; speaking with His gift of language; exploring and expressing His sounds and harmonies; working with His creation in all its glory, diversity, and in-built inventiveness. In addition, we will find ourselves longing to make known the beauty of life as it once was in Paradise, the tragedy of its present marring, and the hope of our final redemption. All great art will contain this element of being an echo of Eden: Eden in its original glory, Eden that is lost to us, and Eden restored. (pg 7)

6 Reasons Pastors Should Blog :: Desiring God Blog

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:13:37 -0500

6 Reasons Pastors Should Blog :: Desiring God Blog:

to write
to teach
to recommend
to interact
to develop an eye for what is meaningful
to be known

Marriage and the Glory of God

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:09:49 -0500

Marriage and the Glory of God: For a Christian, marriage is more than just a contract. I don’t want to codify this view into law for both Christians and non-Christians. But I do want Christians to take it seriously and stop treating marriage casually.

"I had once read an interesting detail in a book about the ﬁrst manned moon landing back in 1969. At..."

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 22:43:18 -0600

“I had once read an interesting detail in a book about the ﬁrst manned moon landing back in 1969. At that time, the book said, some of the very elderly—men and women born in the nineteenth century, old enough to remember a world before automobiles and television—had been reluctant to believe the news. Words that would have made only fairy-tale sense in their childhood (“two men walked on the moon tonight”) were being offered as statements of fact. And they couldn’t accept it. It confounded their sense of what was reasonable and what was absurd.”

- Spin by Robert Charles Wilson.

The world's rubbish dump: a garbage tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan - Environment - Independent.co.uk

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:28:30 -0600

The world's rubbish dump: a garbage tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan - Environment - Independent.co.uk

Inflation May Be Worse Than We Think - WSJ.com

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:46:03 -0600

Inflation May Be Worse Than We Think - WSJ.com