"Baptist Creation Care" aka Genesis 1:28-30

This morning I signed my name to a Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative. Read it and you'll see that the declaration stops short of giving specific directions to SBC Christians as to how we should now act on these issues. I think the following short list outlines a minimal number of prudent actions Denver/Boulder-Area Christians should now take:

1. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle as much as you can.
2. Take steps to reduce home energy use (turn off lights & appliances, get a programmable thermostat, purchase high-efficiency furnaces, water heaters, etc.)
3. Combine car trips to reduce how much driving you do.
4. Walk, Bike, & use public transportation when possible.
5. Keep studying the issues and talking about them with your Christian friends.
   

There may be other steps we need to take to act morally and obey God's cultural mandate in Genesis 1:28-30. What do you think?

Book Review: Backgrounds of Early Christianity

This will be a short review of a long book.

In over 682 pages, Everett Ferguson goes a long way toward his stated purpose of illuminating the historical setting of the 1st century in as many of its ramifications as feasible so as better to understand the real world in which people lived in the days of Jesus and the apostles. And he makes it readable too. Ferguson surveys political history, society & culture, Hellenistic (Greek) & Roman religions, Hellenistic & Roman Philosophies, Judaism, and many references to early Christianity found in literary evidence outside the Bible and in archaeology.

Here are 6 items from Ferguson's work that will affect my understanding of the New Testament:

1. My teaching on the kingdom has been affected by gaining a more thorough knowledge of the political context of the Gospels and its use of words such as “King of the Jews”. As I more accurately understand the political overtones of such words, I hope to more accurately teach these texts to people today.

2. A more detailed understanding of the Roman practice of adoption has strengthened my understanding of the New Testament doctrine of adoption. It also leads me to connect my teaching on adoption in passages like Galatians 4:1-7 with the broader New Testament doctrine of the lordship of Christ.

3. Greater awareness of Plato’s philosophical emphases (such as nonmaterial reality, a deathless soul distinct from the body, the idea of cosmic religion, and a just society) has impacted the way I evaluate the biblical faithfulness of American Evangelical Popular Religion, which has too often uncritically accepted much extra-biblical philosophy.

4. I was surprised to learn that the biblical injunctions concerning the units of society (Eph. 5:21-6:9; Col. 3:18-4:1; I Pet 2:13-3:7; etc.) show Stoic influence in both form and content. That Paul was familiar with philosophical, especially Stoic, idioms and assumptions and used these to express his own arguments has motivated me to deepen my understanding of Stoic philosophy as I seek to interpret and apply and teach passages like Romans 1-2 and Acts 17.

5. The historical background of synagogue worship, with its emphasis on hearing the Word of God, has strengthened my conviction that reformed worship, with its emphasis on the centrality of preaching, is the way God wants His gathered people to worship Him under the New Covenant.

6. The significance of the Gallio inscription for dating the life and ministry of Paul in Corinth in early A.D. 50 has awakened me to the importance of archaeology for background studies in the New Testament.


Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 3rd edition, 2003, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 682 pages, paperback.

History of Hymns

St. Ambrose, Jan Hus, Martin Luther, Isaac Watts, Anne Steele, Charles Wesley, Augustus Toplady, Joseph Hart, John Newton, William Cowper, Horatius Bonar, Charlotte Elliott, George Matheson, Charles Albert Tindley and so many others...

These hymn writers have given a great gift to God's people in both songs and devotional poetry. Today, I'm enjoying learning from Rev. Kevin Twit, RUF campus minister at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a leader of indelible grace music.

Four Words Artistically Portrayed

When I spoke during my grandma's funeral earlier this week, I summarized the Biblical storyline in 4 words: Creation, Fall, Redemption and Consummation. Think of the story of the Bible as a great play with 4 acts. In God's world today, we still experience echoes of the goodness of creation from Act 1. But the fall in Act 2 explains why our world is now not they way it was supposed to be. We now find ourselves in Act 3, the historical age of Jesus' redemption. And we wait for Act 4 to begin, the great reunion of God with his people in a new heavens and new earth, especially when we go to funerals.

Here is another way to illustrate these four words that help us make sense of the world we find ourselves in. Thanks to Jason Mirikitani for forwarding me this artistic portrayal of the Biblical storyline earlier today.
This work of art is called God's Story. The artist's name is David Arms.

Dude, wanna buy an iPod?

Leave it to a CU Freshman to steal $30,000 in electronics from the campus bookstore and try to get away with it.

I imagine a conversation may have gone like this...

Gullible Freshman #1: "Dude, where did you get all this stuff?"
Brandon Michael Reuter: "Dude, like my uncle's a rep for Apple."

This does not help maintain Boulder's reputation of being the smartest city in the US.

Snow in St. Louis

My grandma's funeral was yesterday. It was good to worship God, honor her life and reconnect with so many aunts, uncles, cousins and second cousins. I delivered my first funeral sermon from John 13-14 and I Corinthians 15:50-56. We enjoyed dinner at my folks house last night, and then we stayed at Meg's folks place. Today, we attempted to visit some of our favorite museums in St. Louis, but IT SNOWED! We were only able to make brief stops at the St. Louis Art Museum and Washington University (our undergraduate alma mater). The girls are at the airport now, waiting for their flight back to St. Louis. I'm back to studying now, trying to catch up for my class tomorrow. I'm excited about my studies here this week, but part of me would rather be sledding, like this kid.

Grandma Kelly's Funeral

Tomorrow I preach my first funeral sermon and give my first eulogy. My grandma, Virginia Kelly, died on Wednesday night. She was 96 years old and had 8 kids. Those 8 kids all had kids. And all those kids had more kids. And even some of those kids had kids. Please pray for me and my relatives as we grieve and as we reconnect tomorrow. Pray also for God to give my non-believing relatives a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26). Pray for me to as I tell the story of God's redemption through Jesus and of the hope of the resurrection during the funeral tomorrow.