Oh golly, I forgot to mention this since I didn’t have Internet access. Sunday I went to a PCUSA church and guess what? Well, yea, they didn’t have female pastor but that wasn’t what I was going to say. It was Patriotic Sunday! My son leaned over and asked, “Are we ever going to get away from these things?”

They sang the National Anthem and America the Beautiful but no Yankee Doodle for which I was thankful. I really like the Presbyterian litergy. The call to worship is important so that people know that we’re getting down to business. Everything from now to the benediction is (supposed to be) focused on worshiping God. I like the confession and assurance of pardon, what a great way to remember what we’re all about.

At this particular church the senior minister is Scottish so he had a great accent. Not only that but he gave the sermon without notes. Unfortunately, he did it without a Bible either. He kept using terms like “people of faith” and “journey of faith” but he never actually told us what we were supposed to have faith in. I knew it was PCUSA going in so I wasn’t surprized just disappointed. The text it was supposed to be on was Matthew 11:16-19 but I’m not sure the good minister actually read that text as he prepared. He talked about freedom in faith. Ugh.

The other choice for worship that Sunday was across the street: The Solid Rock Bible Church. The name put me off but if we’d gone there maybe it would have been a good idea to bring my Bible to church. I don’t want, can’t use and can’t stand preaching about me or the preacher. I want Jesus, give me Jesus. I need to know Him better. I don’t want cute stories and interesting illustrations (unless they actually help) I want to hear about Jesus and the furtherance of His Kingdom. I want to hear a sermon that stirs my heart to marvel at our glorious God, to delight in Him and to long for heaven. Practical tips for living I can get from the news paper. A self-respect boost I can buy at the book store or catch on Oprah. The church is supposed to be about Jesus.

On the way home I heard a rebroadcast of Prarie Home Companion and the sermon sound a lot like Garrison Keillor’s closing monologue.

Saw Minority Report last night. It was okay but was missing something I just can’t put my finger on. The premise was interesting but it could have been teased out more. I wasn’t surprized to find out who the bad guy was when he was revealed. Cruise did some fair acting. I don’t know why but the movie didn’t connect with me.

First day of Greek was yesterday. Everything covered in class was stuff I’d already studied when I was trying to do Greek on my own. I still have a lot of homework to do and reading. I’m going to run up to Starbucks to read before school. No, it isn’t cramming since I’ve already read this stuff, it’s more like refreshing my memory.

My phone got turned on! Finally. The only thing left to complete the move in is to get a key for my mail box which I should do today.

I read Revelation 12 this morning and it got me thinking. I love the book of Revelation and I highly recommend Scotty Smith’s book Unveiled Hope as a guide to read it. Anyway, one of the questions I’ve been asked by non-Amils (typically asked by Dispensational pre-mills) is “Well, if you don’t take the 1,000 years literally, what else don’t you take literally? Was Jesus in the tomb for three literal days? Why would you take the three days literally but not the 1,000 years?”

The way I answer is that I take things literally when the type of literature I’m reading intends it to be taken literally. What I would love to ask them is why they take some things literally and some not. For example, from Revelation 12, there is a woman who is taken figuratively (usually of Israel) and she is protected for “a time and times and half a time” which is literally three and a half years. You can see the inconsistency. The woman is figurative but the time is literally three and a half years even though the text does not literally call the “times” a year. The examples could be multiplied. Just one would be the bride in Revelation 21 who is figurative of the church but the 1,000 years from chapter 20 is literal.

This arbitrary hermeneutic drives me nuts. The book of Revelation is apocalyptic literature and it employs figurative language which should be interpreted figuratively therefore I take the 1,000 years of Revelation 20 to mean “golly, a real long time.” But something like Luke’s gospel is not figurative so I would take the three days Jesus spent in the tomb to mean “at least a portion of three days” which is how a Jew would have understood it. If you take the three days literally by our standards then Jesus didn’t die on Good Friday, He died on Good Wednesday or Thursday (depending on how you count.)

When evangelicals criticize theological positions they don’t agree with, too often they criticize them poorly. If you don’t hold to my interpretation, you’re in danger of becoming a liberal or Roman Catholic or whatever. For people so focused on being saved by grace, we sometimes show precious little of it to others saved by it.

On the 4th, my plan was to sit on the deck and watch the fireworks from Six Flags. There were trees in the way so we couldn’t see much. We were headed out to the car to drive around and see what we could see when we saw what we could see from the other side of our house was much more than we though. The whole family piled into the kids rooms with the windows opened and we watched about 5 or 6 different firework show at once. What a great night.

We made it! I didn’t have internet access in Iowa and our home phone won’t be connected till next week so I am Internet-less for a bit. The trip could, I suppose, be summed up in the words of Ezra:

For I was ashamed to request from the king troops and horsemen to protect us from the enemy on the way, because we had said to the king, “The hand of our God is favorably disposed to all those who seek Him, but His power and His anger are against all those who forsake Him.” – Ezra 8:22

The hand of God was indeed favorably disposed towards my family. We didn’t have one single problem the whole time. No breakdowns, no missed turns, no running out of gas, no break-in of the U-Haul, nothing. The trip couldn’t have gone more smoothly. So smooth, it was boring. :o)

Our new condo is fantastic. Every window you look out of has a fantastic view. Central air, a fireplace, a deck and most of our stuff fits in it so far. Our new landlord helped us unpack when we arrived. We left more than half the stuff on the truck and got started the next day on that part. A friend came over and we had the truck empty by 1:00 pm. The garage is rather full, but we’ll get there.

Some praises:

• No major damage.
• The part of the shipment the pros moved was supposed to arrive Monday. I have school Monday, my kids will be at my mom’s and my wife will be out of town for a short-term mission trip. We tried to call the military to postpone the delivery but they were closed because of the 4th and not supposed to open till…you guessed it: Monday. They called me this AM and we’re scheduled for a day after my wife’s return.
• I already own most of the books I’ll need for Beginning Greek I.

The good hand of our great God is indeed with us!

We made it to Council Bluffs. It was a long, straight drive and it took about 10 hours. Gotta run since we’re heading out on the last leg of the journey. Can’t wait for it to be over. :)

Church this morning was…interesting. When we came in (yes, that means we were late) they were singing ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ and a bunch of other Americana songs. The guest speaker was one of the missionaries the church supports, a guy with Youth for Christ in Minnesota. His message was from Amos 4&5 and actually wasn’t that bad (compared to the singing, someone reading the ingredients from a box of Bisquick wouldn’t have been bad.) I think I would have handled the text differently but he still did pretty good.

After the service we headed off to the Sonshine Cafe (gag) for coffee and donuts. Donuts were 50¢ each. After we stood around and talked to the people we came with (no one came over to introduce themselves) we went off to Sunday School. This was a class on the book of Revelation. As as soft Amill sort of guy I knew that what was going to be taught was not my cup of tea but I’d decided to keep my yap shut any how. Good thing. The woman who taught the class (forget 1Ti 2:12 I guess) was a big Kay Arthur “Precept” person here. I was plesently surprized to find that she was at least post-trib, but she was making some pretty bold statements with very little scriptural back up. My friend who is pre-trib tried to nail her on some stuff but she was very confident. I find it hard to tollerate teachers who are not teachable.

BTW, I’m on my friend’s DLS with my iBook. Cool and fast. He has a wireless LAN too but it is encrypted and when I enter the password via my AirPort card it doesn’t work. The AirPort finds the base station no problem but I can’t log into it. I must be doing something wrong.