becoming

For all you fans of Philosophy:
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Monty Python – International Philosophy
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Sometimes I update earlier posts. Although WP has a field in the posts table to record the last modified time, it is not easily access or use to show updated posts or to display them in a list form. The alternate way is to modify the time-stamp of the post itself, but that would change the permalink and make external referral a big issue.

As a result, I have written a few lines of codes to pull together a list of recently modified posts and place it on the sidebar to the right. Check it out from time to time to see more info I put in previous posts.

Mar 18 2007 課堂錄音:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

筆記:

1. 加拉太書5.16-6.10筆記(pdf)
2. 加拉太書5.16-6.10經文(pdf)

延伸閱讀:

1. Walter B. Russell, “The Apostle Paul’s Redemptive-Historical Argumentation in Galatians 5:13-26.” Westminster Theological Journal 57 (1995). 333-57.

下週經文：

1. 加拉太書6.11-18

Things are getting pretty quiet here in blogdom. I guess most of the people have forgotten about blogging altogether. Can someone tell me what happened to these people in our blogging world?

• Enrico
• Jessica
• Kan
• Kevin

Blogging is a way of life. If you just think blogging is cool and so start your own, you will quit eventually. To blog means that you have a story to tell, and that you still have the passion to tell it. To blog means that you refuse to be devoured by the busyness and craziness of life; that you want to tell your story, instead of being told what your story should be.

Is there any new-comer or long-time blogger who want to reveal yourself and let us know that you still have a story to tell?

Anyone?

Well, talking about freedom, many cell phone prisoners are set free today as they can now transfer numbers seamlessly from carrier to carrier in Canada. I have waited this day for quite some time.

Are you planning a move soon?

 

"The world will know that free men stood against a tyrant, that few stood against many, and before this battle was over, that even a god-king can bleed."

–  King Leonidas, in the movie 300.

I don't claim to watch the movie because of Xerxes' link to the books of Ezra and Esther in the OT (I will save that excuse for something else in the future). As the first movie I watched in 3 years (since Passion of the Christ), I went because I am fascinated by the freedom-loving culture of Spartans. What were they thinking to have only 300 men fighting against the Persian army in millions (or so the legend has it)? 

(Spoiler ahead…. read at your own risk) 

The Battle of Thermopylae Pass was one of the many confrontations during the Greece-Persia war during 5th century BC. The Spartan king Leonidas led his 300 "bodyguards" to the pass at Thermopylae, near present-day Lamia, the main passage from northern into central Greece. It was a narrow valley adjacent to the sea. The attacker could not pass to the seaward side, and to go inland would mean a significant detour.

Other armies could risk this, but Xerxes could not. He announced his presence and waited four days for them to leave.

But the Spartans refused to bow. Xerxes ordered an attack on the fifth day. He sent the Medes, the Immortals (his best troops); but one after the other, they were all defeated.

Xerxes was furious. Another day's fighting yielded no better for the Persians. At last, Ephialtes, a man from Malis, went to King Xerxes and told him that he knew of a goat path that went around the Greek position and debouched behind their lines. Xerxes made his preparations.

The Spartans knew they were about to die and they fought all the more fiercely for it. They put up the stoutest resistance, taking their stand on a little hill and fighting in a circle facing outward with enemies all around.

At last, the Spartans were killed by a hail of spears and arrows, the Persians fearing to close with these fearsome warriors.

The Spartans lost the battle. They had come hoping for a victory and instead had been routed. But Thermopylae was always hailed as a triumph for Spartans because the Persian army was crucially delayed.

The Greeks were actually heartened by the example of Leonidas and the 300 Spartans plus allies who fought at Thermopylae. The battle served as an example to officers and soldiers alike of what courage and self-sacrifice could achieve, led to the subsequent Greek victories at the Battle of Salamis and ultimately at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC.

I enjoyed the movie very much. Yes, no doubt it is extremely violent (what else do you expect from these 300 men?), but its primitivism brought out the cruelty and brutality in every war (as it should be). It is visually stunning: in a dim and blurred sort of way, the contrast and highlights and shadows and shades give this movie a surreal, fantastical, one-of-a-kind look.

I give my thumbs up. 

What does it mean when you know from the beginning that going to a battle would mean your own death and yet you remained at your position with your very last breath and offered fearless resistance, only to buy some time (a few days) for others who have yet to decide whether they will join in and support you in battling against your enemy? In the face of overwhelming odds, what is your bottom-line?

On a different battle-ground, the Apostle Paul was fighting the same battle for freedom. In the face of overwhelming odds, and well-aware of the consequences, he fought fearlessly to defend the sufficiency of Christ in His redemption and liberation to all of God's creation. 

"A new age has come, an age of freedom. And all will know that 300 Spartans gave their last breath to defend it." said Leonidas.

And what will Christians today give to defend the freedom from sin and slavery? 

—————–

From YouTube (History Channel):

• The Battle Of Thermopylae 1
• The Battle Of Thermopylae 2
• The Battle Of Thermopylae 3

Also from YouTube (Updated: Mar 18, 2007):

• The Last Stand of 300 (1/12)
• The Last Stand of 300 (2/12)
• The Last Stand of 300 (3/12)
• The Last Stand of 300 (4/12)
• The Last Stand of 300 (5/12)
• The Last Stand of 300 (6/12)
• The Last Stand of 300 (7/12)
• The Last Stand of 300 (8/12)
• The Last Stand of 300 (9/12)
• The Last Stand of 300 (10/12)
• The Last Stand of 300 (11/12)
• The Last Stand of 300 (12/12)

黃牧師問我有甚麼討論舊約經文講道的書，大家腦海中都只能想到Walter Kaiser的Preaching and Teaching from the Old Testament。這本書原來近期有了中譯，各位同道有興趣不妨睇睇。

跟著讀到Tyler的轉載，慨嘆今日講壇不再傳講舊約的種種原因，覺得頗有同感。所以將他所轉載的原文記錄於此： 

————————————————————— 

Why Don't Pastors Preach From the Old Testament?

Dr. Ray Pritchard

The question came from the chairman of the pulpit committee of a large and growing church. In their search for a new pastor, they had interviewed the top tier of candidates, only to discover a disconcerting fact. "None of them preach from the Old Testament," the chairman said. "So far we have interviewed fifteen men and none of them preach from the Old Testament. Why is that?" he wondered.

I was a bit baffled by the question, and after considering it, I concluded that the fifteen men meant that they never preach an extended series from the Old Testament. It's hard for me to believe that a pastor would decide to skip over 75% of the Bible. Perhaps the sample was askew. I have no idea who the fifteen men were, or what age they were, or where they were trained. And I confess that I had never heard of a church asking a prospective candidate, "Do you preach from the Old Testament?"

But it does raise other questions. Is it true that evangelical pastors ignore the Old Testament in their preaching? If so, is this a recent trend? And more to the point, if it is true, why don't pastors preach from the Old Testament?

Here are the thoughts that came to me:

1. Many pastors feel more comfortable with Greek than with Hebrew.
2. Most biblical training focuses on New Testament interpretation.
3. For some there may be theological reasons why they don't preach from the Old Testament. Perhaps they view everything before Matthew as "preparation" (which in a sense it is) and therefore not worthy of extended attention from the pulpit (a sad mistake, in my opinion).
4. But my primary thought was that most seminaries specialize in teaching pastors how to preach the epistles. Our methods work best with Romans, Ephesians and the other Pauline epistles. We feel more comfortable with material that is presented logically and in a point-by-point fashion. Therefore our graduates gravitate more to Colossians than to Hosea.
5. The flip side is that we aren't so comfortable with the prophets–major or minor. Or with Job. What do you do with Job? Do you preach four or five sermons and move on? Ecclesiastes is a challenge. So is Song of Solomon in a different sense. Then you've got books like Leviticus, which most of us never touch. Or Deuteronomy, where we cherry-pick a passage here and there.
6. And how should we preach the great stories of the Bible? I personally have profited greatly from preaching through the lives of Abraham, Jacob, Samson, Elijah, the book of Daniel, and David’s early years. But I confess that preaching biblical narratives challenges and stretches the way many of us were taught in seminary.

I assume that the Christian pastor will spend the majority of his time preaching from the New Testament. That's understandable. But to ignore 75% of the Bible is to rob your congregation of the riches of God's Word.

In the end, I don't know if this is an aberration or an actual trend. If it's true that our pastors don't preach the Old Testament, it can't be a good thing.

Is it true that pastors today don’t preach from the Old Testament? If so, why?

[link] 

Mar 11 2007 課堂錄音:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

筆記:

1. 加拉太書5.2-15筆記(pdf)
2. 加拉太書5.2-15經文(pdf)

延伸閱讀:

1. Walter B. Russell, “The Apostle Paul’s Redemptive-Historical Argumentation in Galatians 5:13-26.” Westminster Theological Journal 57 (1995). 333-57.

下週經文：

1. 加拉太書5.16-6.10