It is interesting how theology, probably (and unfortunately) inadvertently, seeps into Contemporary Christian Music. I’m listening to a Christian radio station and heard Point of Grace’s ‘More than Anything’ for the first time.
The lyrics are below.
(Chorus) God loves people more than anything
God loves people more than anything More than anything
He wants Them to know
He'd rather die than let them go
'Cause God love people more than anything
God loves the weary
When they're too weak to try He feels their pain,
He knows their shame
He cries with those who cry
He won't give up or walk away
When other people do
'Cause God loves people more than anything
(Repeat Chorus)
God loves the wounded Who've stumbled into sin
He reaches down and pulls them out
And cleans them up again
And He will heal the broken heart
That's given up on love
'Cause God loves people more than anything
(Repeat Chorus)
More than anything He wants us to go
And show the world so they will know
That God loves people more than anything
I don’t agree with the song’s message. For while God certainly loves people, I believe He loves His glory more and loves people as the outcome of His love, not as His primary object of love. I also disagree that ‘He'd rather die than let them go’ and ‘More than anything He wants us to go And show the world so they will know That God loves people more than anything.’ The song is a good example of what happens when popular human-centered theology is put to a tune.
I do agree with some parts of the song though. I especially like how the song reminds us that God heals and helps the weary.
I much prefer the new song that aired shortly afterwards. It’s called ‘Glory Revealed’ and performed beautifully by Mac Powell, Mark Hall, Steven Curtis Chapman and Brian Littrell.
The lyrics are below.
He was pierced for our transgressions
He was crushed for our sins
The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him
And by His wounds, by His wounds we are healed
He was pierced for our transgressions
He was crushed for our sins
The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him
And by His wounds, by His wounds we are healed
We are healed by Your sacrifice
And the life that You gave
We are healed for You paid the price
By Your grace we are saved
We are saved
He was pierced for our transgressions
And crushed for our sins
The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him
And by His wounds, by His wounds we are healed
We are healed by Your sacrifice
And the life that You gave We are healed for You paid the price
By Your grace we are saved
We are saved He was pierced for our transgressions
He was crushed for our sins
The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him
And by His wounds, by His wounds we are healed
And by His wounds, by His wounds
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
Amen!
Friday, March 30, 2007
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Son of Man
I’ve often wondered what Son of Man means. The editors of the Reformation Bible provide a helpful explanation, from which the below post is adapted from.
This title occurs only three times in the New Testament outside the Gospels (Acts 7:56; Rev. 1:13; 14:14). All of the occurrences in the Gospels involve assertions made by Jesus about Himself and can be classified into three categories.
A) Son of Man means a human being, especially in statements about what is typical of humanity generally. This use is similar to God’s calling Ezekiel ‘son of man’ (Ezek. 2:1), or Paul’s reference to the human race as ‘the sons of men’ (Eph. 3:5).
B) Jesus also refers to Himself by this title when He predicts the suffering, death and resurrection He accomplished for humanity (17:22, 23).
C) Finally, it can refer to the apocalyptic ‘Son of Man’ who appears at the Judgment of the end time (24:30). This usage stems from Dan. 7:13; 14 where ‘one like a son of man’ appears before the Ancient Days and receives world dominion and worship. Jesus may have used ‘Son of Man’ and avoided using ‘Messiah’ because of popular conceptions that the Messiah would be a political and military leader.
This title occurs only three times in the New Testament outside the Gospels (Acts 7:56; Rev. 1:13; 14:14). All of the occurrences in the Gospels involve assertions made by Jesus about Himself and can be classified into three categories.
A) Son of Man means a human being, especially in statements about what is typical of humanity generally. This use is similar to God’s calling Ezekiel ‘son of man’ (Ezek. 2:1), or Paul’s reference to the human race as ‘the sons of men’ (Eph. 3:5).
B) Jesus also refers to Himself by this title when He predicts the suffering, death and resurrection He accomplished for humanity (17:22, 23).
C) Finally, it can refer to the apocalyptic ‘Son of Man’ who appears at the Judgment of the end time (24:30). This usage stems from Dan. 7:13; 14 where ‘one like a son of man’ appears before the Ancient Days and receives world dominion and worship. Jesus may have used ‘Son of Man’ and avoided using ‘Messiah’ because of popular conceptions that the Messiah would be a political and military leader.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Willing Away
‘If you will it, it’s going to be true.’
That was the comment from a contestant on Deal or No Deal tonight. I don’t watch the show very often, but this week the contestants were twins, so I decided to watch.
Her comment struck me because it speaks to a faulty worldview that appears to be gaining popularity.
Whether it’s the prosperity gospel or the new age mantra touted in the best-selling Oprah-endorsed The Secret – it’s a bizarre belief system that reflects the confused spiritual state of so many.
An article in Newsweek, referring to The Secret’s DVD, puts it this way.
"In a dramatized interlude in the film, a young woman ogles a necklace in a window, and the next thing you know, it’s around her neck. A child imagines himself with a new bike, and it appears outside his door. No need to do a lot of boring chores or get a newspaper route: the universe provides. Contrariwise, a worrywart who obsessively checks the locks on his bicycle returns to find it stolen; the law of attraction has called down on him just the predicament he hoped to avoid."
God provides for all of our needs, not some mysterious force.
Source: Jerry Alder, “The Secret: Does Self-Help Book Really Help” Newsweek. Accessed 19 March 2006. 5 March 2007. Available: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17314883/site/newsweek/
That was the comment from a contestant on Deal or No Deal tonight. I don’t watch the show very often, but this week the contestants were twins, so I decided to watch.
Her comment struck me because it speaks to a faulty worldview that appears to be gaining popularity.
Whether it’s the prosperity gospel or the new age mantra touted in the best-selling Oprah-endorsed The Secret – it’s a bizarre belief system that reflects the confused spiritual state of so many.
An article in Newsweek, referring to The Secret’s DVD, puts it this way.
"In a dramatized interlude in the film, a young woman ogles a necklace in a window, and the next thing you know, it’s around her neck. A child imagines himself with a new bike, and it appears outside his door. No need to do a lot of boring chores or get a newspaper route: the universe provides. Contrariwise, a worrywart who obsessively checks the locks on his bicycle returns to find it stolen; the law of attraction has called down on him just the predicament he hoped to avoid."
God provides for all of our needs, not some mysterious force.
Source: Jerry Alder, “The Secret: Does Self-Help Book Really Help” Newsweek. Accessed 19 March 2006. 5 March 2007. Available: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17314883/site/newsweek/
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Loving the Census
I think I was in grade 7 when I spent a portion of March break methodically combing through a four-volume children’s encyclopaedia set and recording alphabetically each country’s population. My infatuation for figures remains. Which is why today, for me, was a can’t-sleep-the-night-before day.
For the first wave of data gathered from last year’s census was released today.It came online at 8:30 am, and I was on Statistics Canada’s website waiting, refreshing my browser every few seconds until the information appeared.
It’s a far cry from the loose blue-lined paper I used to pencil in country statistics inside a shaky hand-drawn chart. Over the years I have spent much time on Statistics Canada’s website probing the endless data they supply. I have also done my own statistical fieldwork research, of sorts.
Curiosity, coupled with car boredom, compelled me to undertake my license plate project. I recorded every out-of-province license plate I saw (just the political or state jurisdiction, not the actual letters and numbers) in small notebooks and fed that data into a computer database. I subsequently prepared tables, pie charts and reports. When my intake of plates was sparse, I occasionally asked my dad to drive through hotel parking lots.
Seven years and upwards of 24,000 licence plates later, I phased out the project in 2005. My interest has since shifted primarily to religion-related figures.
I have spent many happy hours devouring the data compiled by the Association of Religion Data Archives. Denominational websites are also useful sources, although their accuracy and currency vary.
My favourite is the Presbyterian Church (USA) which provides extremely detailed profiles of its congregations (including yearly membership gains & losses, attendance numbers, and financial information). The Seventh-day Adventists, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Methodist Church are also good at membership recordkeeping. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Southern Baptist Convention are pretty faithful at keeping records, although, owing to their membership methodology, their numbers are usually inflated. The Anglican Church, by its own admittance, does a poor job of maintaining its membership records.
My fixation with facts and figures, of course, isn’t unique. Sure, very few people can give you an estimation of, for instance, how many Latter-day Saints live in Las Vegas. But lots of people can spurt out how many movies Tom Cruise stared in, or the number of strikes Nolan Ryan pitched (As an aside, why I must ask, are such people known as ‘movie buffs’ and ‘sports fans’ while I am a ‘nerd’ or a ‘policy wonk’?)
With all respect to sports enthusiasts and movie aficionados, the data I study is actually relevant. In fact, as a recent Toronto Star article pointed out, it’s potentially life changing. Urban planners and civil servants are among the litany of influential groups who will rely on the information released today to formulate public policy. That includes everything from transfer payments to where new bus stations will be added. It assists businesses to stake out potential areas of expansion, church planters to find under reached areas, and young people contemplating a move to seek better career opportunities.
Perhaps that’s why I love absorbing census data. Numbers are just numerals on a page or pixels on a screen, but the people they represent - each created in the image of God and each distinct in their skill sets and personality traits - is what truly fascinates me. I am left awestruck at the incomprehensible craftsmanship of God and join with the Psalmist in declaring “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:3).
Such awe combined with an unquenchable curiosity will continue to compel me to inspect figures over and over again.
For the first wave of data gathered from last year’s census was released today.It came online at 8:30 am, and I was on Statistics Canada’s website waiting, refreshing my browser every few seconds until the information appeared.
It’s a far cry from the loose blue-lined paper I used to pencil in country statistics inside a shaky hand-drawn chart. Over the years I have spent much time on Statistics Canada’s website probing the endless data they supply. I have also done my own statistical fieldwork research, of sorts.
Curiosity, coupled with car boredom, compelled me to undertake my license plate project. I recorded every out-of-province license plate I saw (just the political or state jurisdiction, not the actual letters and numbers) in small notebooks and fed that data into a computer database. I subsequently prepared tables, pie charts and reports. When my intake of plates was sparse, I occasionally asked my dad to drive through hotel parking lots.
Seven years and upwards of 24,000 licence plates later, I phased out the project in 2005. My interest has since shifted primarily to religion-related figures.
I have spent many happy hours devouring the data compiled by the Association of Religion Data Archives. Denominational websites are also useful sources, although their accuracy and currency vary.
My favourite is the Presbyterian Church (USA) which provides extremely detailed profiles of its congregations (including yearly membership gains & losses, attendance numbers, and financial information). The Seventh-day Adventists, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Methodist Church are also good at membership recordkeeping. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Southern Baptist Convention are pretty faithful at keeping records, although, owing to their membership methodology, their numbers are usually inflated. The Anglican Church, by its own admittance, does a poor job of maintaining its membership records.
My fixation with facts and figures, of course, isn’t unique. Sure, very few people can give you an estimation of, for instance, how many Latter-day Saints live in Las Vegas. But lots of people can spurt out how many movies Tom Cruise stared in, or the number of strikes Nolan Ryan pitched (As an aside, why I must ask, are such people known as ‘movie buffs’ and ‘sports fans’ while I am a ‘nerd’ or a ‘policy wonk’?)
With all respect to sports enthusiasts and movie aficionados, the data I study is actually relevant. In fact, as a recent Toronto Star article pointed out, it’s potentially life changing. Urban planners and civil servants are among the litany of influential groups who will rely on the information released today to formulate public policy. That includes everything from transfer payments to where new bus stations will be added. It assists businesses to stake out potential areas of expansion, church planters to find under reached areas, and young people contemplating a move to seek better career opportunities.
Perhaps that’s why I love absorbing census data. Numbers are just numerals on a page or pixels on a screen, but the people they represent - each created in the image of God and each distinct in their skill sets and personality traits - is what truly fascinates me. I am left awestruck at the incomprehensible craftsmanship of God and join with the Psalmist in declaring “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:3).
Such awe combined with an unquenchable curiosity will continue to compel me to inspect figures over and over again.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
New Day, Same Paper
As I was flipping through a biography of Stockwell Day I had borrowed from the municipal library I noticed a small blue piece of paper with two Dewy Decimal numbers on it. It is my writing; so I must have accidentally left the paper when I last signed out the book– which was over six years ago!
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Wahlberg’s Inward Change
I read fascinating interview in USA Weekend with Mark Wahlberg, a celebrity whose moniker precedes the man.
I had heard of ‘Marky Mark’, although I was unfamiliar with the man until yesterday.
He has a storied past. He was arrested as a young man for assault. Several times. In the early 1990s he was a rap star, a movie star and an underwear model. He continues to act and was nominated for an Oscar for his role in The Departed.
This fascinating nugget buried in the story caught my eye. He calls his Catholic faith “the most important thing” in his life. He attends Mass every Sunday and, is described in the article as “clean-cut as an altar boy with his neatly trimmed hair and polite manner.”[i]
Apparently a Roman Catholic priest reached out to Mark and encouraged him to return to the fold.
It appears as though he has changed, as this quote attests: “He used to love the spotlight, the paparazzi and the all-night partying with his boys, but now his routine is to get up ‘when it's still dark out, have breakfast with the kids and hit the gym,’ Wahlberg says.”[ii]
The good news continues. “He says he'll never model again or make a movie like 1997's "Boogie Nights," in which he played a porn star. And he deeply regrets not finishing high school.”[iii]
Amen to that!
It is a wonderful story of an inward change.
And yet.
My heart fell when he attributed this change not to his Heavenly Father, but to becoming a father himself.
He is, I suppose like all of us, a work in progress.
[i] Hilary de Vries, ‘Mark Wahlberg’s Rocky Road to Hollywood’ USA Weekend. 25 Feb. 2007. Accessed 28 Feb. 2007. Available: http://www.usaweekend.com/07_issues/070225/070225wahlberg.html
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Ibid.
I had heard of ‘Marky Mark’, although I was unfamiliar with the man until yesterday.
He has a storied past. He was arrested as a young man for assault. Several times. In the early 1990s he was a rap star, a movie star and an underwear model. He continues to act and was nominated for an Oscar for his role in The Departed.
This fascinating nugget buried in the story caught my eye. He calls his Catholic faith “the most important thing” in his life. He attends Mass every Sunday and, is described in the article as “clean-cut as an altar boy with his neatly trimmed hair and polite manner.”[i]
Apparently a Roman Catholic priest reached out to Mark and encouraged him to return to the fold.
It appears as though he has changed, as this quote attests: “He used to love the spotlight, the paparazzi and the all-night partying with his boys, but now his routine is to get up ‘when it's still dark out, have breakfast with the kids and hit the gym,’ Wahlberg says.”[ii]
The good news continues. “He says he'll never model again or make a movie like 1997's "Boogie Nights," in which he played a porn star. And he deeply regrets not finishing high school.”[iii]
Amen to that!
It is a wonderful story of an inward change.
And yet.
My heart fell when he attributed this change not to his Heavenly Father, but to becoming a father himself.
He is, I suppose like all of us, a work in progress.
[i] Hilary de Vries, ‘Mark Wahlberg’s Rocky Road to Hollywood’ USA Weekend. 25 Feb. 2007. Accessed 28 Feb. 2007. Available: http://www.usaweekend.com/07_issues/070225/070225wahlberg.html
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Ibid.
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