In some ways I’ve grown since becoming a believer, mostly in the context of hard work in my intimate relationships. I’m more aware of how fundamentally wrong I am as time goes by.

Wasn’t there a quote from our Patron Saint not too long ago regarding this issue (quotemeister Michael, please help!)? I’m afraid I didn’t file it, something to the effect of “God reaches down and saves us but does not leave us alone”?

I ran across this quote about the “postmodern church” in Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz Sunday evening.

A friend of mine, a young pastor who recently started a church, talks to me from time to time about the new face of church in America—about the postmodern church. He says the new church will be different from the old one, that we will be relevant to culture and the human struggle. I don’t think any church has ever been relevant to culture, to the human struggle, unless it believed in Jesus and the power of His gospel. If the supposed new church believes in trendy music and cool Web pages, then it is not relevant to culture either. It is just another tool of Satan to get people to be passionate about nothing.

I just ordered this from Discerning Reader, winter is coming…(my reading time).

Yesterday was a slick one on the way to work, we’re coming up on the time of year during which you sometimes need to look out your side windows to see where you’re going. November has been mild so far but the temps are dropping this week. Some of our news is from the Twin Cities, and the postal hunter story is a big one, second only to the temperature drops.

The evangelical Pope appeared on Larry King tonight. It’s the second half of this transcript.

When you are a preacher, it is painful to hear all of your cliches quoted by someone who just sold 10 million copies of them.

Rick does about what Rick always does in this context. (Talking to pastors you get the other personality.) Simple, almost simplistic. Accomodating almost to the point of compromise. The Gospel is there….muddled, and barely recognizable, but there.

Rick really does morph to his interviewers, which is probably why he is a good communicator, and I am typing on this blog :-)

Larry King’s comments and questions are hilarious. Absolutely nonsensical. The best thing Rick does is ignore most of them.

I suppose we better get this out of the comment thread. :-/

There are people on this blog who claim regeneration makes us better people.

Unless you are playing word games, that’s Roman Catholicism.

Regeneration changes the will so that we trust in Christ. What kind of blue state heresy is loose on my blog?

Defend your sophism or own up to your Catholicism. (jn)

Mohler on the latest sex and dating advice.

Her mother Gina Boyer says, “She was definitely protected by God, because she should have been dead. If those packages hadn’t been there, they said she would have died from that fall.”

Seems God used Santa and consumerism to save this little girl.

How can I not be cynical in a world like this? Someone give me a reason to hope in the human race apart from those who God regenerates.

Touchstone Blog finally has a word to say about the bastardizing of “Celtic Chrisitianity” by the New Age movement, and suggests a more appropriate “Celtic Way” for those truly interested.

Like most of Christendom for most of Christian history—if you want real “Celtic Christianity,” when the sun sets, pray the proper psalms at vespers. When you retire pray the compline pslams. If you rise during the night, rather than raid the refrigerator and watch Conan, pray a brief midnight office; when the first light of day appears, pray the psalms of matins. After dawn pray the first hour as you begin your working day. Pause at the third hour to remember the hour of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and the birth of the church. At the sixth hour, noon, remember the crucifixion of Our Saviour for our sins. At the ninth hour, His death upon the Cross and His promise of paradise to the Good Thief. The life of prayer is connected to the daily life of creation as we experience it. It’s not all that new, or profound, or exclusively “Celtic.” But it’s what Columba and the others did.

Friday night, I heard fans utter the same thing. Our house! Our house!

Get over it. The Palace isn’t the fans’ house. The Palace isn’t the players’ house. The Palace is a place of business where customers and workers are rightfully expected to follow rules and demonstrate restraint. Who would behave like that in their own house anyhow?

Only fools who are deluded about “respect.” That word is not something you lose when someone does something you don’t like, and it is not something you gain with a fist. Respect comes by behaving respectfully.

Under that measure, nobody earned any Friday night. And just as a black eye discolors the boxer’s face, the deed now spreads across the landscape, and we’ll be paying for it, sadly, for years to come.

If you havn’t seen it, you’re missing out.

On what? How is this a possible question? My entire Jr. and Sr. High School experience, whaddaya think! GOSH!

You’re just jealous because I’ve been making some sweet moolah with uncle Rico all day.

Seriously though, if you want a glimpse into the Idaho small town, check this out. And if you want to laugh, check it out. And if you like Ligers and cage fighting, check this out. It’s SWEET!

That special Kentucky touch in a new sub chain.

How long do you have to be a millionaire before it begins to occur to you that anything you do to another person- ANYTHING- is going to cost you huge amounts of money? How long does it take before Kobe knows that sex with anyone but his wife- concensual or otherwise- is probably going to cost him millions, either in legal fees or in damages? How long before guys like Artest and Jackson understand that when you go into the stands and punch people, you might as well be standing over a shreddrer shredding millions of dollars?

If I wind up winning $50 million in the lottery, I will go to the beach and hang out. If a drunk bothers me, I will laugh, go to the phone, call the mob and order a hit. It will cost me maybe $10k, and be far more efficient than storming into the stands.

Speaking of decadence, this tribute to the Hardee’s Thickburger is truly stunning. The picture caused me to gain 5 pounds.

Another note for Ted Rall. Paradise lost in Camden, New Jersey.

Today remember JFK and CSL.

Here is the story from the reporter who videotaped it.

Wesley Blog puts out a ten point agenda on how to change the UMC. Interesting. I really enjoy this blog and hope you are stopping by.

Robert Alter has been a great help to me as a non-Hebrew reader/thinker. I am not sure the critics understand what he is doing. That nuance to Gen 1:1 is well known to any serious student.

This is a 2.5 day week at school. Half the students will stay here for Thanksgiving, while the other half will go somewhere. All of us will go a little nuts as the students refuse to do anything productive, and who can blame them? We are travelling Wed-Fri. Actually leaving Wed afternoon and returning Friday night (so I can get to a football game.) We will worship on Wednesday with Noel’s congregation.

The new Derek Webb cd is excellent. Webb is going to be around for a long time, writing significant, wide-ranging music. This is a real step up in sound and subject matter. I am glad he can keep his prophetic edge, but broaden out as well. I am also glad to see he keeps at least one song on the cd that will offend about half of the Christian book sellers in town.

I found the Donald Miller mp3 to be…..somewhat insightful, but so undisciplined in form as to be distracting. I have this feeling that someone is saying “off the cuff, extemporaneous cute talks = pomo preaching.” I could offer 2 pages of ways to make that “talk” better without losing the pomo edge. He’s a writer. Write. (And thank God for editors.)

Let me help the newsguys with this headline: “Marines Kill Insurgent.” Period. End of sentence. End of thought. End of discussion. Insurgent=dead man. We absolutely have no idea what this story does to endanger our warriors. It makes me sick.

Cool quote from Derek Webb here.

Dear Mr. Rall,

I think I will reconsider my plans to move to your paradise in the Northeast.

Finally…someone who said exactly what I feel about the media in Iraq: Aid and comfort to the enemy. Plain and simple.

Shocking photos from Iraq.

The war in Fallujah. Take some time and read this, and remember the young men and women who VOLUNTEER to be United States Marines.

Everything about the Bush incident in Chile.

Michael: I read some of the articles you posted. The guy seems pretty fair. The problem I see with the traditional lowfat diet is that it is typically high in carbs and low in protein, both bad things. The weight loss is muscle loss (this charge is also made against lowcarb diets) and the insulin response is nasty.

What both camps should be saying (and some in both camps are) is that whole food is the way to go. Real meat, fruits and vegetables. Whole grains. Good fats and oils.

(don’t I sound wise? Just don’t get between me and a milkshake)

Should anyone be interested, Don Miller is involved with Imago Dei which is in Portland. It seems he preaches occasionally and there are mp3’s available.

I caught my hint from the bar owner, I need your names by November 28, SEVEN DAYS, don’t be a Scrooge or we’ll have to beat the Dickens out of you. (Horrific pun intended, please don’t tell my wife…)

Michael, Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz is partially responsible for unleashing the creative side (my photography & writing) of me that’s been in hiding since I became a confessing fundapente. My copy spent the last 10 months with a friend and I’m re-reading it right now. I really can’t say enough about Don’s ability to weave the stories that come from his own experiences into a casual “this is what I learned about God and me” sort of spiritual communication. From Don (among others [including you]) I learned (and am learning) that I didn’t have to conform to evangelical, political, programmatic mess that lies out there in order to be a follower of Jesus.

A flame was also lit inside me that burned with the truth that God created me to be a photographer, and that it wasn’t a selfish hobby, it was part of my call. He doesn’t let go of Christianity, he only lets go of what some have turned it into (for profit).

When I followed your link to Amazon I placed an order for Don’s book, I hadn’t read it yet, and I filled out my order to get my shipping discount with other wish list items from Brian McLaren and Brennan Manning. I suggest you blow off the PoMo label, in many ways I believe it’s one segment of the church’s way of shocking the establishment, and read some of Pastor McLaren’s and Don Miller writings. You and Pastor McLaren likely have some common ground in YE vs. OE beliefs. A lot of people in the PoMo/Emerging church movement simply want to be freed from this dominating cloud of evangelicalism hanging over us that says that it’s not good enough to follow Him, you also need to be a ________.

Some people are going to hop on the PoMo thing in the same way that others have hopped on the PDC/PDL or the charismatic or the fundamental or the Republican thing. Some seem to have a need to worship labels rather than creators, Paul wrote about this in his opening salvo to the believers in Rome. It seems we’ve talked about something like this at the Tavern, don’t we usually call it “Jesus and ________”?

The Nationals? Ugh.

It has been brought to my attention that last year someone signed up for the BHT Christmas, received a gift, but didn’t send a gift.

That sucks, to say the least. Don’t do that. Yes…I’m pointing at you, Scrooge.

I’ll let the elf in charge tell us the cut off for sending in ourt names.

On another front, I am going to drop some names of perennial non-posters- probably today. Ho ho ho. I have one new guy wanting in, and he wants your room.

I hope to open up the BHT menu again in December, so look for some good recipes.

Thanks for the encouragement, Bill. I agree with almost all of your points, though I don’t think baked potatos are the devil.

Here is Stamford in ‘03, when some of the pro-Atkins research first came out. You will get his basic critique, and I think you can see where he eventually preferred South Beach to the original Atkins. His point about high protein turning into high fat, and eventually into high fat, high sugar weight-regain is correct. I’ve lived it.

Here is Stamford in ‘04, and he’s pretty tough on Atkins. And here is a pro-Atkins article that quotes Stamford commending the South Beach Diet.

Stamford also says a lot of realistic things about body types and individual metabolic reactions to food. 10 days out of 12, I eat very modestly. Why that has brought me to the place I am now is really a puzzle. Stamford says that we may be in a kind of transitional phase where some humans have metabolisms that have adjusted to the abundance of food in our culture, while others have not. They have a genetically predisposed “hoarding” metabolism.

I have a few thoughts on weight and loss also. Like Michael, I lost weight very quickly doing a locarb plan (about 45 lbs). I fell off and gained some of it back, but I still think the principal is sound. Some observations:

Most locarb plans (even Atkins now) recommend that protein come from lean sources of meat.
Sugar is evil. White flour is evil. Don’t eat them and you have 85% of any diet mastered.
Frequent small meals are the way to go. I never mastered this completely.
Most locarb plans are effective because they also end up being low calorie, assuming you don’t go nuts with the fat.
With the exception of potatoes, go nuts with vegetables. There is a caricature of locarb as meat-only. I have never eaten so many vegetables as when on a locarb plan.
Weight training. Do it. Twice a week. Lift heavy with good form. You will see amazing results very quickly (in strength). The guy Michael posted is also a fan of weight training.
Water. This is where I differ with practically everyone. Every diet I have read wants you to gorge yourself on water. I just don’t buy it. Drink when you are thirsty.

I haven’t read this guy Michael posted about. Sounds like he has a balanced approach although I am curious why he would be critical of Atkins and not South Beach. Most Atkins critics oppose a caricature of Atkins which says that you can eat 46oz of bacon at day and drink the grease and still lose weight. Atkins used to be like that but no more. South Beach does differ in that it allows moderate amounts of whole grains so that is probably why he likes it better.

I would say that my best success came when I was eating lo-carb and low fat. Low fat as far as total grams, not percentage. Hopefully I can get back on track. Good luck Michael, and to anyone else trying it! Especially at this time of year.

Jack Black and William H. Macy

Since weight and diet are frequent topics here on the blog, I thought I would update the group that I have reread and have decided to make a second attempt at the low-fat eating plan advocated by University of Louisville professor Bryant Stamford, Ph.d.. If you google Stamford you will find a lot of his material, particularly on exercise. He is a major critic of Atkins, but writes approvingly of South Beach. His Weight Loss Reader is required therapy for anyone who did the high protein thing- as I did, losing 60 pounds in 14 months- and wound up heavier than ever. Stamford has been writing for the Louisville Courier-Journal and then for Gannett for years now, and he’s changed his mind on a number of things. He’s very down to earth and has stuck to his guns through a lot of fads. I especially apperciate all the inter-disciplinary knowledge he brings to the subject of weight. He reads everything, and critically assesses it for the ordinary reader. Plus, he’s an old guy. Read his account of a recent Grand Canyon hike.

Here’s some of his columns, mostly on exercise and health:

Beware of the Season!
Five Reasons Diets Fail
Responsibility and Eating Choices
Weight Training basics
Weight Loss Wisdom from Ordinary people
Cholesterol

Read it. Think about it. Remember REALITY. Then get down to the business that matters.

Leithart on Waldron on Calvin on Paul on Faith and Obedience. I would like to quibble with Waldron’s reading of Calvin and with Leithart’s reading of both- but not much. This gets about 98% of the distinction/relationship right, and gets close to the problem I believe confuses the New Puritans (of whom Waldron would be a representative.)

On the one hand, Waldron argued in an ETS paper, Calvin does teach that faith is obedience, not only inseparable from obedience but actually IS obedience. He quoted from Calvin’s comments on Romans 1:5 to support the point: “Faith is properly that by which we obey the gospel.” (iMonk note: That is clearly NOT saying faith is obedience.) On the other hand, Waldron argued that it was not AS obedience that faith justifies. He concluded his paper with this quotation from an article by Stanford Reid on Calvin’s doctrine of justification: “While Calvin is prepared to recognize that faith does work by love, he also insists that ‘it does not take its power to justify from that working of love. Indeed it justifies by no other means than by leading us into fellowship with the righteousness of Chirst. . . . And then that faith is reckoned as righteousness solely where righteousness is given through a grace not owed.’” It is not in its character as obedience that faith justifies. Faith works through love, but it is not this “working-through-love” that makes faith the instrument of justification.

Faith does lots (sp) of things (as the Westminster Confession notes). Faith trembles at God’s threats, faith obeys God’s commands, faith sings with the Psalmist, and so on. But the ACT of faith that makes it the instrument of justification is the act of trusting God’s promise in Christ.

Randy Quaid….and Greg Kinear.

Search Inside the book? I never knew about this. Wow.

And this! Google SCHOLAR.

Pomo Musings seems to be a pretty intelligent and readable blog from the PCUSA/Princeton Pomo side of things. Same with Odyssey.

This book is being heavily promoted around the big bookstores I visited in Lexington. Is it the Pomo “40 Days?”

I’ve got an idea about losing weight. I’m going to research it and think for a while. It’s premised on the radical idea of eating less.

Marine rushes home after wife is shot.

What’s odd is the response of the marine. At least the quote. Is that forgiveness maybe?

Better to be an honest unbeliever than pretending it’s easy to believe: Spencer’s Ten Point Argument for Faith Revisited.

CT covers the Evangelical- and multi-cultural, multi-ethnic- renewal that is taking place in New York City.Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian Chiurch (and its 100 church plants) gets plenty of ink. Here’s their purpose statement.

“To spread the gospel, first through ourselves and then through the city by word, deed, and community; To bring about personal changes, social healing, and cultural renewal through a movement of churches and ministries that change New York City and through it, the world.”

What’s happening in Iraq, from an excellent site: Strategypage.

American troops now control all of Fallujah and have found extensive evidence of terrorist and criminal gangs using the city as a headquarters. Evidence was found of torture chambers, and video sets used for filming the execution of kidnap victims. Moreover, the body of a woman, thought to be foreign aid executive (Care International) Margaret Hassan, was also found in Fallujah. A video of her murder was recently released by her killers, and it appears that the killing was done in Fallujah. Without Fallujah as a “safe area” for keeping hostages, killing them, and getting away with it, the terrorists have to do their dirty work in cities where there is a strong police presence, and nearby American troops. That’s what’s happening in Baghdad, Mosul and other cities right now. The gangs are trying to control neighborhoods in these cities, and are not succeeding.

Joe Carter’s take on the Tom Delay business mentioned by Bill.

The monthly DVD picks over at Ain’t It Cool are always worth perusing.

Michael, I’m with you on the background check thing. Most of my jobs have required a fairly thorough search, I just got the letter back for my most recent job a few days ago.

I think that some organizations only do the searches on individuals who’s job requires direct contact with vulnerable persons, not seeing the danger of proximity. I also see that a lot of ministries drop the ball on this one, I did the research for our local CPC when they realized that they needed to shore up this gap.

I know when I applied for a security clearance back in the 70’s that I had to go to the local FBI office, I heard later that they talked to past neighbors and school teachers. Why don’t we give such diligence to checking out those who come in contact with our children?

Story you won’t hear.