Here’s something that made me think. Guess which one of these quotes is from our Psalms, and which one is a pagan prayer from Babylon:

To thee have I prayed; forgive my debt.
Forgive my sin, my iniquity, my shameful deeds, and my offence.
Overlook my shameful deeds; accept my prayer;
Loosen my fetters; secure my deliverance;
Guide my steps aright, radiantly like a hero let me enter the streets with the living.

Do you, you gods, ever really decree what is right?
Do you direct mortal men uprightly?
No! With wicked hearts do you ordain what is to happen on earth;
Your power lets violence come easily.

It just goes to show that nothing is written in a vacuum.

. . .

Philip Clayton and Harvey Cox both have new books out and they are taking them out on tour. One of the blog tour stops will be here, but as you can see below they will be making their rounds over the next month until they wrap things up in Montreal at the American Academy of Religion‘s annual meeting. There they will be joined by an illustrious panel including Eric Gregory, Bruce Sanguin, Serene Jones, Frank Tupper, and Andrew Sung Park to share a ‘Big Idea’ for the future of the Church. These ‘Big Ideas’ will be video tapped and shared, so be on the look out for live footage from the last night of the tour.

Philip’s new book is Transforming Christian Theology for Church & Society and Harvey’s is The Future of Faith. Both are worth checking out at one of the many tour stops. If you can’t wait you can listen to them interview each other. Enjoy the blogging!

Joseph Weethee , Jonathan Bartlett, The Church Geek, Jacob’s Cafe, Reverend Mommy, Steve Knight, Todd Littleton, Christina Accornero, John David Ryan, LeAnn Gunter Johns, Chase Andre, Matt Moorman, Gideon Addington, Ryan Dueck, Rachel Marszalek, Amy Moffitt, Josh Wallace, Jonathan Dodson, Stephen Barkley, Monty Galloway, Colin McEnroe, Tad DeLay, David Mullens, Kimberly Roth, Tripp Hudgins, Tripp Fuller, Greg Horton, Andrew Tatum, Drew Tatusko, Sam Andress, Susan Barnes, Jared Enyart, Jake Bouma, Eliacin Rosario-Cruz, Blake Huggins, Lance Green, Scott Lenger, Dan Rose, Thomas Turner, Les Chatwin, Joseph Carson, Brian Brandsmeier, J. D. Allen, Greg Bolt, Tim Snyder, Matthew L. Kelley, Carl McLendon, Carter McNeese, David R. Gillespie, Arthur Stewart, Tim Thompson, Joe Bumbulis, Bob Cornwall

This Tour is Sponsored by Transforming Theology DOT org!

Today I received bulk email from CCLI with a link to a free Father’s Day video illustration. You can watch it here. I wanted to vomit. I don’t care whether the movie that the clip is from passes Dobson’s family-friendly filter or not. Does it seem wrong to anyone else out there to shamelessly advertise a film to a congregation—a congregation that, like a student in a school, trusts most of what they here while in the building?

Let’s hear Jesus’ words one more time (John 16:13-14, NRSV):

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth [This promised spirit is brought to you by our fine friends at Christian-Singles online. Choose Christian-Singles online for all your christian companionship needs.]; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears [Having problems hearing the message? For just three monthly installments of $99.99, you too can hear God's word at home in crystal-clear 5.1 surround sound.], and he will declare to you the things that are to come [Worried about your financial future? RRSPs taking a nose-dive? Invest in Christian theme parks. There's a 100-fold blessing guaranteed. You'll be glad you did.]. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you [And you can take what is mine in this special offer...].

I just had to get that rant out of my system. I feel better already.

image by Lawrence OP

A friend recently asked me a simple question: Can we can “touch the heart of God”? The expression is almost too much of a cliché to be meaningful today. (There was an entire series of worship CDs created in the 1990s called, “Touching the Father’s Heart”.) However, since I just reviewed what Paul meant by the term “heart”, I thought I’d take a stab at it. Here’s my reply:

. . .

I’ve just been studying what Paul meant when he spoke of body/flesh, soul/spirit, and mind/heart. It turns out that a Hebraic understanding of “heart” involves far more than we think today. It does refer to the seat of emotions, but also (and more importantly) to the place of the will, where important decisions are made. I suppose we still use it that way when we say things like, “I just knew in my heart it was the right thing to do.”

God’s heart . . . his decision to call us from the foundations of the world, to send his only begotten, to forgive—these all come straight from our Father’s heart. Can we touch it? I suppose whenever we act in accordance with his decisions.

So, when we are creative like he is, we’re touching his heart. When we forgive the undeserving like he did, we’re touching his heart. When we sacrifice of ourselves to reach people who need help, we’re touching his heart. Maybe it would be better to say that we’re aligning our heart with his.

. . .

What do you think? Is that a good approach to this question? I like the idea of leaving the modern Hallmark-style sentimentality of “heart” behind, while at the same time, allowing emotions to play their proper role in a decision-making process.

I hope you’re having a good Christmas with family and friends. Since no one has time to read this time of year, let me share a short video with you that I found very challenging from Advent Conspiracy (Yes, I know it’s Christmas, not Advent right now—but let’s go with it anyway):

It’s nowhere near as freakin’ cool as Scotteriology, though. Maybe I should slip in a pic of of Charlie the Unicorn behind one of those trees.