I noticed tonight that our pastor was mentioned on Joshua Harris' blog a couple days ago. Here's the link:

http://www.joshharris.com/2007/08/for_preachers_learning_from_mr.php

Aubrey de Grey

"Like the downward pull of gravity without which the dancer cannot dance, the downward pull of bodily necessity and fate makes possible the dignified journey of a truly human life."
- Leon Kass

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
- Apostle Paul (2 Cor. 12: 9-10)

John 11:5-44
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?" Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him." After saying these things, he said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him." The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world."

When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?"

Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out." The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

Boys and Girls in America

"Since men enjoyed very great leisure, they used it to pursue many kinds of commodities unknown to their fathers; and that was the first yoke they imposed upon themselves without thinking about it, and the first source of the evils they prepared for their descendants. For, besides their continuing thus to soften body and mind, as these commodities had lost almost all their pleasantness through habit, and as they had at the same time degenerated into true needs, being deprived of them became much more cruel than possessing them was sweet; and people were unhappy to lose them without being happy to have them."
-- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

...I wrote some other stuff, but deleted it. Rousseau is a tough act to follow

Sam Cooke - Bring It On Home

There may be a song better than this one...but, I haven't heard it yet.



Also, Sam Cooke may have the most perfect voice on God's green earth.

And, for Springsteen fans like me...it's hard to under-estimate the influence of Sam Cooke on the Boss. Specifically, Springsteen has sucked his vibe straight out of the marrow of the following songs:

(What A) Wonderful World
Meet Me At Mary's Place
Having A Party
Twistin' the Night Away

In some sense, if there's no Sam Cooke, there's no Bruce Springsteen.

Also, here's Sam Cooke singing Blowin' in the Wind.

Lots 'o Links

Click on the link below for a helpful table of contents (with hyperlinks) to Mark Dever's series on "Where'd All These Great Calvinists Come From?". I'm including the subjects up for discussion to tempt you....

http://blog.togetherforthegospel.org/2007/08/monday-morning-.html

1. The Writings of C. H. Spurgeon
2. The Ministry of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
3. The Publications of the Banner of Truth Trust
4. Calvinists Evangelizing - Jim Kennedy and Evangelism Explosion
5. Calvinist Leadership in the Inerrancy Controversy
6. The Founding of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)
7. J.I. Packer and Knowing God
8. The Teaching Ministries of R.C. Sproul and John MacArthur
9. John Piper
10.The rise of secularism and decline of Christian nominalism

Bruce Springsteen: Magic

"We’ve been together since 1974 and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him more excited than he is right now about this record.”

-- Jon Landau (Springsteen’s manager)

Modern Day Gnostic Heresy

"'A market economy has nothing remotely to do with getting what you want. It has everything to do with making yourself feel good about what is available' (Carl Elliott, Better Than Well). This is a Gnostic truth indeed, for it trades in and ultimately depends upon there being a radical distinction between the feeling, wanting human subject--that is, the 'I' who feels and wants and the particular, concrete circumstances of any one person's existence.

"Seen through the lens of orthodox Christian theology, such a distinction is nothing more than heresy. For what self, apart from the gift of the body, exists to shop the identity market? And if the mind and identity itself can be altered with medications, what part of the disembodied self is making these choices? Apparently there is nothing left to enliven this puppet self but the tiny part of the mind or soul that makes choices. Choosing itself becomes the defining mark of human identity. In remaking identity as a consumer item, the person is whittled away into sawdust, and modernity's precious autonomy is revealed as little more than the triumph of the well."

- Joel Shuman & Brian Volk (Reclaiming the Body: Christians and the Faithful Use of Modern Medicine)

...more on Keepon the Robot

There's a line at the beginning of the movie AI where William Hurt says: "...in the beginning, didn't God create Adam to love him?" The scene opens a movie that examines what makes a person human...and perhaps more profoundly, what do we look for in other humans? ...what expectations do we have of others? ...what do we need from others? ...can a robot fill this gap?

There's a group of folks out there called transhumanists. Transhumanism as described by Nick Bostrom of Oxford University:

Transhumanists view human nature as a work-in-progress, a half-baked beginning that we can learn to remold in desirable ways. Current humanity need not be the endpoint of evolution. Transhumanists hope that by responsible use of science, technology, and other rational means we shall eventually manage to become posthuman, beings with vastly greater capacities than present human beings have.
http://www.nickbostrom.com/ethics/values.html

A key step in achieving this goal of transhumanism is getting computers/robots to form relationships and show emotions to people. ...and, this is why Keepon the robot is so fascinating. Here is a quote from Keepon's webpage describing the project.

We are developing and evaluating an architecture that will allow these robots to perceive, model, and generate social rhythms such that the robot's behaviors are synchronized with those of a human interactor. We believe that rhythmic synchrony will be as important for establishing engagement, rapport, and comfort between a robot and a person as it is between people.

For example, synchrony between the tempo of a speaker's voice, the punctuation of the speaker's gestures, and the frequency of a listener's nodding is characteristic of smooth and comfortable interactions. Social scientists such as William S. Condon and Adam Kendon have identified interactional synchrony as a phenomenon that plays an important role in the regulation and coordination of movements, vocalizations, and other social cues.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~marekm/projects/beatbots

Keepon has a microphone in "his" nose, two cameras for eyes, and his yellow rubber skin. He makes his own decisions as to his dance moves. He can be set up to dance according to the sound of the music or the movement of other people dancing. Perhaps this is a step closer to the questions of AI and the sci-fi world of the transhumanists?

A Dancing Robot for Rhythmic Social Interaction

The Extropy Institute

The World Transhumanist Association

Nick Bostrom

Betterhumans

John Piper is Bad

Coveting Prestige

I watched The Prestige this week. It's a movie about two rivaling magicians in the late 1800s. More than that, it's a study in obsession...perhaps the more specific word "coveting" could be used.

The movie shows that what you are obsessed with is what you become. And, what you covet you will never attain...because the thing that you want, the thing that looks appealing...the thing your imagination has already experienced (the warmth, the taste, the feel, the buzz)...that thing is never quite what you tricked yourself into believing it would be. That same trick of the mind is almost always transfered to something bigger and better, because there is always something bigger and better to obsess over and covet.

Movies like The Prestige are the true horror films, in my opinion. They're the movies that shine lights into the depths of what we are capable of. In other words, they're movies that show us the potential of our darkness.

ABC

"It is a cheap zeal that reserves its passions to combat only the sins and temptations of others."
- Don Carson (The Gagging of God, p 358)