He Hate Me

What should our attitude be towards the Devil? Lesley noticed that a song on one of Karis' CD's speaks of learning to hate the Devil and this made us wonder. I'm not sure what to think yet, but I lean towards no.

Here are some thoughts either way:

1. We ought to hate the Devil. (thanks to Jason for a lot of these)
a. Gen. 3:15 God says to the serpent, "... and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers." This seems to say that God puts hatred between us and the Devil. (Thanks to Jason for this one)
b. Jn. 8:44 says there is *no* truth in him, but rather he is all lies, and we should hate lies and love the truth.
c. The Devil is *strongly* associated with sin (1 Jn. 3:8). He is the one who attempts to take us away from God, or to love other things above God Himself and is beyond reconcilliation.
d. We are at least depicted as at war with him elsewhere (Ephesians 6:11).
e. We are to resist (Jas 4:7) the Devil.

2. We ought not to hate the Devil.
a. It is hard to see God commanding us to hate any person.
b. We can hate evil, but we are called to love individuals -- even enemies and those that persecute (Mt. 5:44). This fits the Devil particularly well.
c. The Devil is not essentially evil. He was not always evil and he is not the opposite of God.
d. God is a God of love.

So, I would be interested to hear what others think. Also, how do you think Jesus' reactions to being tempted by the Devil fit in? Did he show hatred to the Devil?

Fantasy Fun

Well week 4 tightened everything up.
Larson finally started a full roster and got a win as a result.
Armes put up the most points to date and coupled with me benching too many points gave me a loss, and Trina scored close to 100points in the Monday Night game alone to overtake Christy.

I have made weekly trophies for the highest point totals for each week. They are hard to notice though. You have to either go to your teams trophy case or to the leagues trophy case.

I also want to float another idea out here. What do you guys thinking about turning this league into a dynasty league? That means that it would continue from year to year with the same players. The draft order would be like the NFL where the teams that did worse would draft first. There seems to be a fair amount of parity in our league so what do you think? Another option would be to play this year out and start a dynasty league next year.

Tuesday Morning Smack Board

Another week, another win.

Christy and I are now the lone undefeateds. Dave is now the lone winless.

Chaz mustered the highest total in beating Trina who put up the most points in a loss yet this season. He did so by riding Favre and Green nonetheless. Too bad the Packers only play the Lions one more time this year.

The autodraft haters are also coming out of their closets, though their voices could not be heard when the idea of a live draft was being floated around. Again, everyone is in the same boat, so there is no room for complaining. If you cannot figure out how to change your roster that is your own fault. The worst that can happen is that you get overloaded at one position (like me at WR). The easy solution is to seek a trade, so anyone who wants a quality WR for a quality RB give me a ring.

Tuesday Morning Smack-Board

Well another week on top for me.
I feel like the Bears with all my dominating performances.

I think that I am going to change the scoring for the Defensive Player to get an average game to yeild somewhere around 10-15 points. It just look rediculous when such a player earns a team 0.2 points. If you have any objections let me know.

Perhaps we can all send some encouragement the way of Josh, Chaz, and Dave. Just because they are all 0-2 doesn't mean the season is over. Christy probably still even has hope for the Packers.

Friday's Quotables (NFL edition)

“When we play the way we’re supposed to play, like our defense played the way they played Sunday … I don’t think there’s no team in this league that can beat us,”

-- Roy Williams, after guarenteeing that the Lions will beat the Bears. I agree, every team can beat the Lions.

Corey Dillon was asked about his running style. "I'm downhill," he said. "Like San Francisco."

Big Steps

Big things are happening:

1. This is already the 100th post on this blog.

2. I now have a little blurb next to my name on the Nazareth College website.

3. Most impressively, Karis took her first steps [4 to be exact].


As you can see, it was quite a frightening experience. She does not want to grow up.

Tuesday Morning Smack Board

The relevant facts:

Winners: Jon, Cliff, Brian, Lesley, Christy
Losers: Trina, Ben, Josh, Dave, Chaz

Battle of the week: Ben (69) vs. Cliff (76)

Team with most players who scored less than 1pt: Ben (4)

Most bench points: Cliff (115) -- [nearly double the points of his starters]

Random comment: I'm not sure why the scores sometime go to the 13th decimal point, but whatever.

Knowing How and Knowing That

There is a discussion here about whether knowing how is reducible to knowing that. Knowing when, knowing where, knowing whether, and perhaps a few other forms of knowing do appear to be reducible to knowing that. One might think that knowing how can be reduced to knowing that an action is performed in a certain sequence. The question is whether knowing how can mean merely an ability to perform some action.

Some potential examples:
1) A child who can ski, but at least cannot explain what it is that she is doing seems to know how to ski.
2) Instinctive behavior, such as birds building a nest seems to be knowledge how without any propositional knowledge of what is going on.

So, Questions:
- does it seem right that there is a sense of knowing how that only means having the ability to do such and such independent of knowing any facts about how it is done?
- are the above examples such cases?

Fantasy Football

This morning felt like Christmas morning. I woke up and ran to the computer to see who it picked for my fantasy football team. I'm pretty happy with my team (though I like Lesley's even more). My weakness will be at running back, so anyone who wants to shop around a good RB, give me a ring.

I also have an added investment in my favorite teams with two Colts and two Bears. That will make those games either really good or really bad.

The best draft obviously goes to Cliff who picked up a starting running back on IR (Domanick Davis) and a WR who has just been cut (Charles Rogers).

Thursday it all begins . . .
. . . watch out 'I heart Ranger Randy'!

Friday's Quotables

"You gotta serve somebody" -- Bob Dylan

"Men are not free when they are doing just what they like. The moment you can do just what you like, there is nothing you care about doing" -- D.H. Lawrence

"Safe?...Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe, but he's good. He's the King, I tell you." -- Mr. Beaver in 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'.

And in honour of going back to school:
"Education is the best provision for old age." -- Aristotle

"Only the educated are free." -- Epictetus

"The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education." -- Plutarch

[additions welcome as always]

Go Buckeyes!

I'm excited about the upcoming college football season, particularly with the high expectations that have been placed on *the* Ohio State University. I was worried a little about the early match-up with Texas, but then I found out that the kid from Malcom in the Middle is Texas' quarterback. Compare as you dare.

On Wisconsin!

Forbes just released a special report on the drunkest city in the United States, and even with Lesley's departure, Milwaukee came out on top. Read it here.

As one individual interviewed puts it, "It's cold here, and we need our brandy."

Help the Dalit People

The Dalit Freedom Network is a worthy organization that works with arguably the most oppressed people in the world. They have programs of child sponsorship, social justice, economic development, and healthcare. These latter three ministries are in desperate need of more finances. Consider a donation, or at least get a clay cup for $1 to help keep the Dalit in your thoughts and prayers.

My Favorite Picture

Friday's Quotables (late again)

"Love, to be real, must cost. It must hurt. It must empty us of self." -- Mother Teresa

"Should it (Pluto), for historical reasons, be considered a planet like the rest?" -- Owen Gingerich, professor of Astronomy and History of Science emeritus a the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics on the current debate regarding Pluto's status. More here. A tough question.

"How many people here think that bear hibernate?" -- Ranger Randy to his group on the Bear Cave Tour. They don't, but only if you are being uber-technical, which was Ranger Randy's specialty.

New Pictures

New pictures are up here. They include:

CAMPING KARIS

PARTY PEN KARIS

AND SICK KARIS

Now an Omnivore

Fresh off turning 10 months old Karis has taken to chicken, beef, cheese, and juice.
I also think she said 'Hezbollah' the other day, but I could have been mistaken.

Friday's Quotables

"I am very humbled to be in the presence of so many world-class wieners" - The Mexican Chorizo [the new contestant in the Milwaukee Brewers sausage race.]

"I asked for strength that I might achieve;
I was made weak that I might learn to humbly obey.

I asked for health that I might do greater things;
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy;
I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men;
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for,
But everything that I hoped for.

Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered;
I am, among all men, most richly blessed." - Unknown Confederate Soldier

"What are all of them?" - Congressman Wesmoreland when asked on the Colbert Report to name the 10 Commandments. He co-sponsored a bill requiring the display of the 10 Commandments in the House and the Senate. Watch the *hilarious* interview here. He got three.

"I enjoy cocaine because it is a fun thing to do." - Congressman Wexler on the Colbert Report. See the interview here.

Artistic License vs. Heresy

Take the following excerpts from popular praise songs I have encountered recently [this list is by no means exhaustive]:

(1) "I'm coming back to the heart of worship, and it's all about you. It's all about you, Jesus."
- The Heart of Worship

(2) "You took the fall, and thought of me above all."
- Above All

First, what is wrong with such lyrics. With regard to (1), it completely ignores two members of the Trinity elevating Jesus above them, since as it claims it is all about Jesus. Jesus doesn't even believe that it is all about Jesus. That said, one can hope that this was not the intent of the author. This mistake seems to come from the mistaken thinking that 'Jesus' is simply a pseudonym for 'God'. [UPDATE: Dale Tuggy over at Trinities sees such indiscretion in using the term 'Jesus' as a sign of modalism.] With regard to (2) I think it is incorrect since I subscribe to the Piper/Edwards line of thought where God, at the risk of idolatry, must always be uppermost in God's mind. Therefore, if Jesus thought of me above all, he would be committing idolatry. I'm not even sure if one can provide a positive spin that can explain such a falsehood. The best I can think of is that his love for me was one of the reasons for his sacrifice, but this is much different than the lyric.

What ought we to make of such lyrics, and thus, such praise songs? There is no doubt that Christian contemporary praise songs are theologically anemic when compared to hymns, but this is a different issue. Are such songs simply theologically lazy and given that they are in the genre of poetry their mistakes can be excused when in the heart of worship (pun intended) or are they simply heresy, if not blasphemy, and to be avoided?

I go back and forth with this one. In favor of such songs, (i) many people seem to succeed in worshiping God in singing them, (ii) some 'artistic license' seems to be inevitable for the sake of rhyming if nothing else (though at least 'divinity' rhymes with 'trinity'), and (iii) perhaps we can say that though the lyrics are literally false they implicate something that is true (this would be what I was trying to get at in giving my spin above). On the other hand, (i) such songs can lead to confusion for those who don't know how to give them a proper interpretation [if that's what I was doing], (ii) if such lyrics really are heresy or blasphemy how could one really worship God by uttering them?, and (iii) it is doubtful that all such inaccuracies implicate truths. Implicatures ought to be easily discernible which the above examples do not seem to be (at least for the majority).
[note: it may be responded that this is the fault of the pastors and congregations for not being theologically sophisticated to discern the lyrics cannot be literally true and that something else must be meant.]

Thoughts? Additions?