Abi thinks a good shake-up is essential!

Here's what I had to say over at Matt Stone's blog. Do read his post and the comments, please!

Thank you for this thread and your elaboration in the comments, Matt.

It is no surprise to me that the Spirit continues to hold the launch of CovenantClusters as my own thoughts go along with yours...and we at The Abbey are those who do tend to be bridge builders and not separatists.

I was laughing to myself at the whole "homogeneous" discussion. I take a cue from nature here: milk. We don't drink homogenized milk at our home because the process turns the good fat into bad fat by breaking them down so small that they are no longer able to separate and come to the top as cream. They are, however, so small that they can leak out into places where they do damage.

Hmmm....

However, when you leave the cream alone, it has that tendency to rise to the top. There, everyone sees that it is separating from the milk. And in order to get it back into the milk before you drink it, so that the protein and other nutrients can be properly utilized, we have to shake everything up. Yeah...we just have to get in the habit of regularly shaking things up!

Hmmm...is that cream representative of the Holy Spirit?

Sometimes cream is scooped off the top for special purposes...like butter and ice cream. But these are special treats that we can use to help bring the wonder of the cream out into other areas. The non-fat milk is not wasted--it gets used to make other things that nourish the body.

Hmmm...the Abbess feels a future blog post coming on, so I'll stop blog-clogging here!

So...what does anyone out there "lurking" think about that?

I'm sure I'll be back to process it some more...but we do not "pasturize" here any more than we "homogonize"--so it will take a little time. The benefits of not killing the milk and pulverizing the cream are worth it!

Shaking it up regularly....

Abi Appreciates Scot McKnight's "Wholiness"

In his Weekly Meanderings today, Scot McKnight provides a link to a wonderful preview of the second half of his newest book ... the one I have just begun reading and blogging my way through -- probably lasting right up to its release in November.

Please take the time to read Scot's lead article, "Women Ministering", in the August edition of E-Quality. This is an wonderful example of exactly what I will be highlighting as I work my way through The Blue Parakeet: Scot brings a welcome and timely sense of appropriately detached wholeness (wholiness? :^) ) to our study of the Bible, where we are reminded that "Bereans" are to strive to look out through God's eyes, not slap God's name onto our, all too frequently distorted, view of the Kingdom.

The Abbess, a sometime deputy over at Scot's "One T Saloon", is grateful for his no-nonsense, truth-telling, fair-playing ways.

Abi's Processing The Blue Parakeet

At the risk of being labled a Scot McKnight groupie, I will begin yet another series of posts about one of his books...but this one is different! Scot's newest book, The Blue Parakeet, due out from Zondervan in November, is the first one I've received as a pre-release review copy.

A couple of months ago, in a brilliant marketing move, Scot announced that Zondervan's would send a free copy of the book to bloggers who would read it and then blog about it. The response quickly outstripped the number of copies offered...and Zondervans even added more books to the pot! I got in late that day, time zones being what they are, and figured I'd missed out, but I send an e-mail to the address indicated stating that I would love to be involved in this.

Lo and behold...I got a response asking whether I was still interested! I quickly replied that I was, and provided my mailing address, as requested.

And my review copy arrived this past Monday!

Now, one of the things that I decided I would NOT do is this: read other blogger's reviews before I read the book myself. This is always a good thing for me, because I like to read things fresh and get my own perspective before being influenced by another's. I learned this from my classes on Biblical Tools for Exegesis and Analysis (fondly shortened to "Tools") -- where we were challenged to read the text, try to get as much context from the text as possible, do our word studies, and ponder our interpretation before reading from handbooks and commentaries.

I wish more people would do their own thinking first, using the thinking of others to sharpen their own instead of just adopting it outright! Sigh....

The other thing I must mention is that I will be doing this as a series--much like the series I did on Scot's The Jesus Creed for Lent, leading up to his next book, 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed, which I read during Scot's Preparing for Pentecost series, which was where I blogged most of my comments about that book.

I have begun to read Scot's little blue bird book...and have decided that, again, I will blog it as I go. And I have to say that this one looks to be fabulous! For me, reading Scot McKnight is the plainer, American version of reading C.S. Lewis: he says the things that I think in straight forward language. He is asking the same questions I'm asking. And his process of getting to the answers is so familiar....

I'm just a page or two from finishing the first chapter, so stay tuned for that first post. Maybe my series will function as a lead-up to the release of the book. Wouldn't that be fun! I promise not to give the whole thing away...although I wouldn't worry too much about that. I'll be talking more about what the book prompted in my thinking than "reviewing" the book in a normal way. I don't seem to do anything in a normal way....

...they don't call me AbiSomeone for nothing, eh?

More with Abi and The Blue Parakeet soon....

Abi's Links to Articles about The Shack

Well, friends...I continue to see so many comments everywhere about the swirling controversies about Paul Young's book, The Shack, that I felt it might be a good service to offer a series of links to blog posts and on-line articles that might be helpful to folks trying to find their way through the fog.

Some of these links have been highlighted elsewhere in this blog, but I'm going to keep this post as a place to update what's happening...so I don't have to keep wondering where those links are! And if it is helpful to someone else, that's a plus, eh?

So, here goes...the following are links to a really broad look at what this book is about and what it is not about. I have included those that I feel balance the strengths and weaknesses of the book and do it in a generally thoughtful manner. This should be more than enough to assist you in "being Berean" about it all and do some critical thinking for yourself!

The Shack's Home page

Willie's Personal Journal

Wayne Jacobson's Blog

Windblown Media's Response

Internet Monk's Blog Posts

Professor John Stackhouse's Series

Brother Maynard's Blog

Ben Whitherington III's Blog

My Post from 8/2/08

My Post on 7/29/08 about Scot McKnight's Post

The Jesus Creeders Comments on The Shack

Derek R. Keefe's Christianity Today Article

Abi's Guide to Reading Fiction

Tim Challis' Review

Christianity Today's Review by Cindy Crosby

Andy Rowell's Excellent Post with Amazing Links!

David Hayward's Balanced Review

Happy reading!

Abi's Recommending "The Last Lecture" to Everyone!

Some where, some how, I managed to neglect sharing this wonderful book and poignant story with you. While I'm off today on a million little errands, I did want to stop and make amends for my oversight.

As I have been processing the cancer news of my sister-in-law, I was reminded to go back and look at Dr. Randy Pausch's personal web page and then the website for his book, The Last Lecture and viewed the charge he delivered to the 2008 graduates at Carnegie-Mellon University. It is three minutes that you really must spend. Please.

While you're at it, go to the media page and watch all the coverage of the announcement that he had finally succumbed to the cancer on July 25th. Especially, watch the interviews with Diane Sawyer, too.

This is a man who ended up having just short of 48 years on earth, leaving a wife of only nine years and three young children. But I know that there are hundreds of students and colleagues and friends--and millions of readers and viewers--who have been touched by the way he lived his life and the way he left his life as an amazing legacy that his children will not fully understand for many years yet. Carve out a little over an hour of your time to watch the actual last lecture.

And, please, after you've said a prayer of thanks to our gracious God for the amazing gift of Randy Pausch ... please say a prayer for his precious widow and her parents and extended family as they go about living life and raising the children without Randy's presence, but not without his influence.

The Abbess of the Purple Martyrdom salutes Randy as one who truly gets it. May his tribe increase....

Resting in Papa's Hands....

I have been re-reading The Shack over the past week, when our family was shocked with the news that my brother's wife had a brain tumor. The surgery today was long but successful ... but the prognosis is grim, at best. This kind of tumor is called an astrocytoma -- and there is no cure, because even when surgically removed, it almost always returns.

I've spent a lot of time today reading about this horrific type of cancer on the web ... and talking with Papa about how fond I know they are of my sister-in-law, my brother, and their three daughters. And even though I have been praying as aggressively as I know the surgeons went after as much of that tumor as they could reach, I have been asking that Sarayu has been wrapping her loving arms around the entire family. I have been asking that the family be acutely aware of Papa's love, Sarayu's power and Jesus's presence with each of them as they walk through this shadowy valley.

If you find the Spirit prompting you to pray for this precious family, know that you have my gratitude. In the meantime, I'm entrusting the entire situation to Papa....

Everyone Needs These Glasses....

There is a book discussion Scot McKnight is leading over at Jesus Creed about what makes a great teacher. Even though he's talking about college level, it really applies to every level.

Today's post saw a college science professor, and one of the significant players at McK's One T Saloon who goes by RJS, state that "The goal of a good teacher is to create peers out of students." Well done RJS! There are a number of other good comments. This entire series is very helpful -- please take the opportunity to check it out.

Down at comment #18, The Abbess chimed in with this:

"Great discussion, friends!

Following T's comments in #15, I think Jesus is the greatest example (no surprise there) of this. While acknowledging that he is the master/teacher, he does not call us slave/student, but friend/brother. And he expects us to do the same with each other.

This is different from "self-taught" ... we are to be Spirit led and taught. And the Spirit frequently uses us to teach each other -- using the foolish to confound the wise. It is the reciprocity of community where each is valued because each has something of value to bring to the table. We just have to recalibrate our value system....

Lifelong learners and lifelong teachers are the two lenses to the glasses we must all wear if we are to see with proper focus and clarity ... as well as proper humility and proper responsibility."

* * * * * * *

And, if course, as soon as I submitted my comment, something rang true in my heart that I needed to bring back here ... to go with my cHesed glasses, of course! Here it is:

Perception is reality -- as much as people resist it. Now, the Ultimate Reality is that which God perceives ... which is why we want to constantly be aligning our perceptions with Theirs! But just as a different dimension that is not visible to the human eye requires special "glasses", I believe that my cHesed Glasses can be further explained like this:

• Lifelong learners and lifelong teachers are the two lenses to the glasses we must all wear if we are to see with proper focus and clarity. Peripheral vision isn't to be trusted; we are to keep our eyes on the target -- loving God and loving others.
  
• These lenses are held together by the rims of Restraint.
• The nose pads, that keep our glasses from slipping as well as from digging into our skin, are the knowledge that Papa is especially fond of each one of us.
  
• The lenses are tinted with the color Purple because we are called to see life through the eyes of our Suffering Servant King ... the servant is not better than the master ... and frequently when we are weakest, God is strongest!
  
• Proper humility on the left and proper responsibility on the right are the arms that attach to the lenses and keep our glasses from falling off the noses right on the front of our faces. We don't think more (or less!) of ourselves than we ought -- and we take responsibility for what we see (or ignore!) and what we learn (or deny) and what we do (or don't), not shifting responsibility for our actions to others.

...and when the New Heaven and New Earth are revealed, part of our Imperishable Bodies will be healed sight that no longer needs this kind of correction.

In the meantime ... I plan to keep my cHesed Glasses on when I'm awake, clean them frequently, and set them down carefully when I sleep...so they don't get lost or sat on or run over or stepped on.

Blessedly Bespectacled....