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From the Inferno October 24, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : San Diego, Christianity, Friends , 2 comments

So, I finally made the leap from Pittsburgh to San Diego a week ago. The transition has been fairly smooth so far. I’m living with friends of Chelsea and mine in the Clairemont area and I work for the same company that I worked for in Pittsburgh. Albeit, remotely and temporarily.

My first week started relaxing and is ending surreal. Moving was fairly easy because I ended up mailing everything by US mail since most of my stuff was media. The latter part has been a little hairy because of the fire. Chelsea’s neighborhood was evacuated when I was visiting on Monday. We escaped to her relatives in El Cajon. Their family was able to return to their house earlier this afternoon.

As far as seeing the fire, we only saw lots of smoke. Chelsea’s school has the entire week off. She always wondered what a snow day would be like and I think she got her wish. Instead of snow, it’s ash. The sidewalks and roads have a light dusting of ash every where you go. It also smells like someone started a large bonfire.

The fires are spreading quickly because of high temperatures, extremely low humidity (<10%), and high Santa Ana winds. These winds start in the desert (east) and blow westward. Hence, the fires start and move very easily.

I’ll try to serve some photos of SD life in the ensuing weeks. Still have to get lots of stuff: a car, driver’s license, etc. I do have a church though, which I’m pretty excited about. I’ve known about the church for two years now because I’ve been reading one of the pastors’ blog since October of 2005. One of my first posts linked to his.

The Ides of March March 15, 2007

Posted by Patrick in : Christianity, Friends, Music , add a comment

Middlemarch has closed a couple of doors and opened some new ones. Our bowling team bowled our last game of the Winter season this past Monday. It was our first time that we made it to the playoffs. Unfortunately, we lost pretty badly. It was a good year for all of us. Since the weather’s getting better, we probably won’t join again until next Fall. We plan to enjoy a season ending celebration at the local Steak ‘n Shake.

Also, our 29-week Bible study on Acts ended this past week as well. The study exceeded our group’s expectations in many ways. We started as a group of four friends who wanted to study the gospel and the church. Over the course of ½ a year, we grew to nine people, who became fairly good friends. It’s interesting to see how friendships are knit together when you commit to each other on a weekly basis. Our last time together gave us a chance to reflect on the study and its major points.

One of the things that continually resonated throughout the book was the centrality of Jesus and his mission. In the first study, we read a quote from John Stott that read to the effect that many think the gospels are about Jesus and the book of Acts is about the church. But, as we came to see, both books (in fact, the entire Bible) is about Jesus. The gospels are about Jesus’ living ministry through his body in the incarnation, and Acts is Jesus’ living ministry through his body, the church.

Unfortunately, it was bitter sweet for the study to end because I won’t continue with them (at least regularly) in the future. I’m hoping to help start a group at my church.

Middlemarch also means that my eMusic subscription gets recharged tomorrow. Last month’s decisions included the following:

Back in the ’90’s December 22, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Christianity, Reading , add a comment

Since we disconnected the internet a few weeks ago, my reading has drastically increased. Here are a few things that I’ve read recently:

A Simple Plan (Scott Smith) - Like the movie, the grief of hiding secrets, both small and large, were difficult not to empathize with. A Simple Plan tells the story of two brothers and a friend finding a treasure in a field, and their efforts to keep it. The plan was to keep the money stashed away for six months, split it three ways, and each leave town separately.

It was interesting and sad watching the characters’ relationships deteriorate as half-truths and deceit muddied up both their inner and outer lives. If anything, it showed me the seriousness of sin, especially when it’s unconfessed.

Evangelism: Doing Justice & Preaching Grace (Harvie Conn) - This book is a short one that I picked up at a conference a month and a half ago. Don’t let the title throw you off. The book was written in 1982 and I think that the connotations of the word evangelism have continued to sink since then.

In just over 100 pages, the book basically fills out why the Christian life needs to be both word and deed. It focuses more on the church (community of believers) and why social healing must be part and parcel with gospel-saturated teaching.

He fleshed this out with his twelve-year experience of helping those trapped in Korean prostitution rings. When he went to Korea, he understood the gospel just as calling individual sinners to repentance and faith. His prostitute hearers were merely the subjects and agents of sin. Though many listened, he saw little fruit.

As he continued to work with the prostitutes, he came to understand how the gospel needed to speak to not just sinners, but also the sinned-against. He witnessed how many of the women, because of their circumstances, were buried in guilt and shame because of the extreme debt they had toward those who imprisoned them. It really wasn’t their fault that they were in prostitution.

As he learned this, Conn’s compassion began to grow. He worked toward changing the system while speaking a message of Christ dignifying the shamed. The gospel started to break through and become a reality to the girls. They began to taste “the power of the new day that has come”.

Parable (Carlos Delgado) - This short story was written by my friend Carlos (not the same Carlos Delgado who plays MLB). I was impressed by this one. Many will find it sad and depressing, but I kind of like these themes of overbearing mothers who completely smother their children until the point of madness. I look forward to other works.

Sufjan’s Songs for Christmas November 27, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Christianity, Music , 2 comments

Since Colin gave a nod a few days ago for Sufjan’s newest 5 CD release of Songs for Christmas, I picked it up over the weekend when I was at the mall. It can be had for just over $20 at Borders. That’s not a bad deal for over two hours of Christmas music which is packaged pretty nicely. Inside the box, you receive a songbook with lyrics, chords, and Sufjan’s story of how he at first hated Christmas and then came to love it. You also receive a cartoon strip of “The Worst Christmas Ever” and five stickers. Speaking of which, Adrian, are the stickers at your place? I can’t find them.

His study of Christmas and music is personal and funny. Here’s a good quip:

What did the angels renounce in the wake of the shepherds’ trepidation? “Have no fear,” they petitioned with trumpet blasts and a garish display of constellations. But that’s like waving a gun in a bank lobby and demanding: “Everybody stay calm!” Music, of course, works much differently. The most discriminating of chord progressions can disarm the most arrogant of men, including myself. Christmas music does this to the highest degree. It intersects a supernatural phenomenon (the incarnation of God) with the sentimental mush of our mortal lives (presents, toys, Christmas tree ornaments, snow globes, cranberry sauce), leaving in its pathological wake a particular state of mind one can only describe as “that warm, fuzzy feeling.”

Should I not love that great city? October 10, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Christianity, Reading , 3 comments

Preparing for tomorrow night’s Bible study, I perused Rodney Stark’s book The Rise Of Christianity again for some information on the city of Antioch. Tomorrow, we study Acts 11:19-12:24, with a focus on the first half of the passage which is the gospel being preached to both the Jews and the Greeks. It’s the first account of preaching the good news to two different ethnic groups who live in the same city.

The text states that “the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch” (Acts 11:26). Stark’s book paints Antioch as a city with eighteen ethnic groups who didn’t necessarily intermingle. He challenges one historian’s view of the city being a “proper melting pot”:

But it is not clear how much melting actually went on. What does seem clear is that the social integration of Greco-Roman cities was severely disrupted by the durability of internal ethinic divisions, which typically took the form of distinct ethnic precints.

Did the gospel’s inherent ability to break down racial pride cause the city to name the Christ followers Christians? It’s interesting to think about.

As a sidenote, if you’re interested in a frank sociological survey of the early church and the rise of Christianity, check out this book. I read it about a year ago and it cleared up a lot of misconceptions I had with the early church. For one, he argues (as do most scholars I found out) that the early church was primarily a movement of middle-class urbanites and not a movement of the poor as people once thought.

The author has good trend data on Christianity’s expansion up to Constantine. The rate of growth is actually on par with Mormonism. He researches the causes of conversion of the Empire. The reasons include heightened women’s roles, the high value of human life, its continuity with Judaism, and the “new culture capable of making life in Greco-Roman cities more tolerable (his emphasis).”

He’s coming out with a book in the next couple of months called Cities of God, which continues his research that Christianity was first and foremost an urban movement.

Desiring God conference recap October 6, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Christianity, Travel , add a comment

The Desiring God conference was more than I could have bargained for. First, my plane ticket was free because of a volunteered seat a couple months back. Next, a fourth degree of a friend let me stay at his place. And he lived about a mile from the convention center. So basically, I just had to pay for the conference and food while I was out there.

I’ll list some highlights, but the icing on the cake was that I got to hang out at John Piper’s house on Sunday afternoon, right after the conference. I got there by spotting a friend of mine from college in the choir. After the last plenary session of the night, I looked for her in the flood of people outside the auditorium. Within ten minutes, we spotted each other and caught up.

Now, I ran into her a few years ago and she was engaged to one of John Piper’s sons at the time. So I kind of guessed that she would be at the conference. But as we caught up, she invited me out to her husband’s parents house for lunch on Sunday. Giddy up!

So I went and had a blast. At one point it was just John Piper, another pastor from North Carolina, and me. We mainly talked about the conference, Emergent, and C.S. Lewis. Definitely the highlight of the trip.

Here are some others:

I’m still processing everything from the weekend. They already have the audio up on their website. Go here to download everything.

The gradual slope September 20, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Christianity , 2 comments

Discussing the devil’s interest in apathy and laziness today with some friends reminded me of the following quote from C.S. Lewis. It’s from the end of Chapter 12 of The Screwtape Letters:

But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy [God]. It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

Uh, can we skip this part please? (Week 7) September 4, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Christianity , add a comment

Acts 4:32-6:7

As I mentioned before, I thought it’d be good to recount my group’s Bible study’s highlights each week with the effort to try to understand the text a little bit more. This week was the largest chunk of scripture that we’ve tried to tackle thus far.

Much of the discussion this week centered around the account of Ananias and Sapphira. It’s one of those passages that doesn’t make a lot of sense at first glance. It seems mythological or fabricated. Why would God strike down a married couple who sold their property and reported a false claim to their church? As one person asked, “Doesn’t that seem a little harsh?” Was God having a bad day at the office when he projected his anger on this helpless couple?

(more…)

The Big P August 29, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Christianity , 1 comment so far

As you can see, the blog is maturing and going through many changes. Kinda like puberty. For one thing, the theme changed. And I think this one will stick. I’m still working on the header image. The careful observers might have noticed the categories were revamped. I tried to make them less generic and more specific.

Also, I’m thinking about a weekly commentary on my Bible study that I have every Tuesday night. Our group’s studying the book of Acts, and it’d be good to document the highlights. We’re currently on week 7 of 29. We’re using the companion study put out by Redeemer. It’s very rich, thorough, and chock full of historical and contextual information. Here’s a primer [PDF] if you’re interested.

Against pollution August 2, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Christianity, Music , 1 comment so far

While I was in San Francisco last week, I picked up the Moutain Goats’ We Shall All Be Healed. I don’t really know too much of their music, but I picked it because a) the CD was used, 2) Adrian’s recommendation & d) the song Against Pollution.

The Mountain Goats played this song as the encore when I saw them back in October. Never hearing the song before, I was blown away. Other than seeing Donnie Iris bring down the house for New Years, it was probably one of the more “spiritual” experiences I’ve ever had at a concert.

His lyrics made heaven real clear that night. Plus, you have to imagine the sweat-soaked intensity of John Darnielle on stage. He sings:

When the last days come,

We shall see visions.

More vivid than sunsets;

Brighter than stars.

We will recognize each other,

and see ourselves for the first time

In the way we really are.

I love the simplicity and the vividness in which he describes heaven. It’s pretty much void of sentimentalism, which is difficult to do. Most of us have a Thomas Kinkade picture of the life beyond. Darnielle on the other hand, echoes Paul: “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Cor 13:12). (Sidenote: Interestingly, Darnielle quotes this verse in another song, Love Love Love).

Even his verse

Decorative grating on my window

Gets a little rustier every year

I don’t know how the metal gets rusty

When it never rains here

builds up to the chorus in much the same way Paul envisioned creation building up to heaven:

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God (Romans 8:20-21; emphasis mine).

I’m psyched to see them play again at the Warhol in Semptember. Also, I found the entire recording of the show that I saw back in October. Sweet! The sound is not that good, but it brought back some good memories.