Pisteuomen - πιστευομεν - T. Michael W. Halcomb

For Those Touched By The Havoc Of Hurricane Gustav: Lord, there are a lot of idiots in this world. To be honest with you, sometimes I feel like I just can't take them any more. Lord, there are people in this world who claim to be yours that are harsh, crude and nonsensical. They attribute evil, hate, suffering, pain and death to you. Why? Why do they do that? God, as the hurricane presses forward and before the storms touch down here, I pray that you will give your people a sprit of gentleness and wisdom. Lord, may we weep, as the writer of old did on the shores of Babylon, weep with these people instead of heaping undue judgment upon their heads (and yours). God be with those who have already lost loved ones from this massive storm and protect those who have not. We cry out Lord: "Be a balm to the souls of many". Our Lord, who is not in the storm, in the midst of all of this chaos and tragedy, may Your name be glorified. In the name of the Father, Son and Ho...

In your opinion, what is the relationship between eschatology & ethics? How does one affect the other or how do they both affect each other? Or, is there no relationship at all? What do you think?

I mentioned a while back that, recently, I picked up Matthew Fox's book titled Original Blessing . While I shy away from Fox's mystical cosmology, I am intrigued by his argument that many of us have misunderstand Genesis 1-3 because we have emphasized "original sin" over humanity's "original blessing" (e.g. being created to live in relationship with God). What do you think of this conjecture? Is it accurate? Fox seems to want to do away with the notion of original sin altogether so that he can focus on original blessing. Is this going too far the other way? Does there need to be a balance? Any input on this matter?

I just wanted to let everyone know that on September 1st at 9am, Biblioblog Carnival XXXIII will be posted here at Pisteuomen. It has been a fruitful month in the blogosphere and much ground has been covered by many people. I'm excited to host the carnival this month and I hope you find it both useful and helpful. Keep your eyes peeled.

While Mark Goodacre boasted of 4-million visits to his site yesterday and James McGrath, 150,000, I picked up my thirty-thousandth. The number of visitors to the site has been climbing consistently for the last few months. I enjoy interacting with everyone and while blogging can be challenging every once in a while, I am constantly reminded of the good that Pisteuomen has accomplished. Thanks again for helping make the site a success!

Well, another benefit of moving to MI at this point in my life is that I have found a friend who, deeply studied and entrenched in the German language, has agreed to tutor me, one-on-one, just about every week. I am sooooo stoked about this! Thus, as time goes on, hopefully I will get around to posting some German stuff on here (maybe even about Mark's Gospel, like I wanted to a while back). I am also hoping that I will recall some of the things I learned in the German course I took last year so I can build on those. Anyway, our first session is this evening and I am quite looking forward to it. Maybe it will be a nice breather from the demands of parenting, working, reffing, etc. Yeah right!

I was reading a portion of one of my previous professor's (Larry Chouinard) books and I was seriously jolted into reality as I read the paragraph below. Honestly, this is one of the most cogent thoughts on "Church" that I have heard in a while! I couldn't even read the next paragraph (and still have not) because I can't get past the depth and insight of this one (even though it is so simple). Please, give this paragraph a read and think on these things: "With all good intentions churches often assume that broken and fragmented lives can be fixed by spicing the particulars of life with a Christian flavoring. As long as the program or product is designated "Christian,” or the name of Jesus is somehow woven into the activity, the particulars of life are now sanctified and given meaning. So if we wear Christian T-shirts and only listen to Christian music, and attend only Christian weight loss programs or get into shape only by Christian aerobics, our lives w...

In II.7 of his work Meditations , Marcus Aurelius comments: "Do things external which happen to you distract you? Give yourself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around. But then you must also avoid going astray the other way. For those too are triflers who have worn themselves out by activity, and yet have no goal to which they direct their movements or their thoughts." Once again, I find some similarities of what Aurelius says here, to things the Apostle Paul said. I am thinking of the passage where Paul uses nautical imagery in Ephesians 4.14-7: "Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming...So, I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking." Meditate on these things.

Answer : They were the authors of a number of books I got this week, for dirt cheap. Here are the books I picked up, 8 of them, for $9 even (once again, at the K-Zoo public library; by the way, the are selling the first edition of the 12-volume Interpreter's Bible Commentary set, as well as the 5-volume Greek Expositors Commentary set, for $50 each if anyone is interested, you can send me the cash and I'll pick either of them up for you). Anyway, here are the steals I stumbled on this week: *Juvenal: The Sixteen Satires *Herodotus: The Histories *Raymond E. Brown: Biblical Exegesis & Church Doctrine *Matthew Fox: Wrestling with the Prophets: Essays on Creation Spirituality & Everday Life *Matthew Fox: Original Blessing *M. P. Hall: Old Testament Wisdom *P.A.T. : Talking About Genesis *Beth Moore: When Godly People Do Ungodly Things (for the wife!) I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you're ever in K-zoo, MI, you have to stop by the bookstore at th...

Watch this video, it's crazy!!! Cuban fighter, Angel Matos (at about the 1:58 mark) kicks one referee in the face (there are a number of replays!). After that, he turns around and pursues another ref and punches him (replays also). Having just become a referee, I hope I never have to deal with this kind of crap. Anyway, give this a watch by clicking the photo below:

1. I don't subscribe to the belief that God had my life planned out before the creation of the world. 2. Nor do I believe that God ever planned my life out. 3. By the same token, I believe that what we refer to as "God's will" and "God's plan" is not individualistic but rather, collective, thus meaning, God's will and God's plan is the same for all of us: To both know Him and make Him known. 4. Because I do not believe that God planned or plans everything ahead of time and I don't believe there is an individual plan for "ME" alone, I am quickly turned off by comments like: "God has a life planned for you, you just need to trust Him and it'll happen." 5. Just as well, I am annoyed by people who act as if they are more holy and loved by God because they supposedly have their life, especially the spiritual aspect, all together. They think" God has shown me what I am to do but He has not shown this or...

I have people from all over the world and especially the United States reading my blog. With that in mind, I post this picture of a young girl for whom an Amber Alert (Missing Child Alert) was just issued. I'm not sure where she's from but she could be anywhere. The children's minister from the congregation where I used to serve sent it via email today and when I saw it, my eyes welled up with tears and my stomach turned. How disheartening that someone would harm such an innocent and precious child. I could not imagine someone taking my daughter. Thus, I post this picture to say: If you happen to see this young girl, contact authorities in your area immediately. In the meantime, pray for her, her family and her kidnapper. By God's grace, may she be brought home safely!

Me, in this referee outfit! Even though the socks are pretty much pulled up to the bottoms of my boxers, and even though I have on a 100% cotton under-shirt, I'm still feelin' itchy. No wonder refs are always turning and adjusting (and yes, missing a few calls here and there--they're always itching!). Anyway, this evening I'll be taking part in my very first refereeing event (freshman footbal). I'm also going to be reffing basketball this winter. I'm excited about tonight and quite interested in this whole officiating thing. I've been shocked at how serious officials really take their jobs; I've been blown away at the level of seriousness actually. Well, I've paid my fees, attended the necesarry meetings and I've passed all three tests I had to take (scoring over 90% on them all), so, I'm a registered official now. What does that mean? Reffing in cold MI weather and memorizing and studying a lot of rules and signals. Fun times, eh!

As those of us who have studied Mediterranean antiquity know, there was a great emphasis (much greater than in 21st-century America!) on collectivism; community was of the utmost importance. The "group" took precedence over "self". But I fear that many scholars who have acknowledged this fact often forget that individualism was certainly on the rise during the era consonant with early Christianity. I was reading a portion of a book today that I found quite interesting. The author was claiming that one can tell, by simply looking at ancient architecture, that individualism was pushing full-throttle ahead in those days. Here's a snippet: "A change came with the new philosophy and the new politics of the Macedonian era. The older Greek City-states had been large, wealthy, and independent; magnificent buildings and sumptuous festivals were as natural to them as to the greater autonomous municipalities in all ages. But in the Macedonian period the individual cit...

Well, that's what Bryan, Stephen and Shaun say . Andrew Bourne suggested the late Catholic exegete Raymond Brown but nobody seconded that motion. So (according to a few people at least), it seems that Fee (pictured to the left) is the greatest American exegete? Agree? Disagree?

Today, I want to offer two entries from Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. Both are from II.2. I will mention the first one only in passing and then comment on the second one. * "Throw away your books; no longer distract yourself; it is not allowed." * "Consider thus: You are an old man; no longer let this part be a slave, no longer be pulled by the strings like a puppet by self-seeking impulse, no longer either be dissatisfied with your present lot, or shrink from the future." In the second quote (the first one's just crazy!!!) I think Aurelius sounds, once again, quite like the Apostle Paul. Actually, the first portion of the sentence sounds much like 1 Thess. 4.3-5, which says: "It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter n...

Who, in your opinion, is the greatest exegete in the United States?

"Behold, I go quickly. And I say hold fast to what you have so that nobody takes your crown (or even comes close to taking it)." - Rev. 3.11

Here is the last slideshow in my series dubbed " Images of Antiquity ". This set of photos covers the sites of Cenchrea and Corinth, both of which are mentioned in the New Testament and both of which were frequented by the Apostle Paul. The first picture of is the shore in Cenchrea. This is one of the locations where Paul, when he was sailing / boating, would have docked. Acts 18.18 reports that oen time, at this location, Paul cut off his hair because of a vow that he made to God. This is also where Phoebe ministered (Rom. 16.1). The second photo is a picture of a typical small temple; this one is of the Apollo Temple in Corinth. Following this, we see a bust of the Emperor Augustus. After that, there is a picture a colored plaque with a lion's head. I post that here to remind us that in antiquity, things like statues, columns, busts, arches, etc. were all colored. They did not have the plain, marble look that they do today. After the lion picture, we see another photo w...

I've been hunting for a song for a few weeks now and I have yet to find it in audio, tab or even lyrical format. It's a praise chorus from a few years back that begins like this: We have come to worship You We have come to worship You Yes, we have come to worship You Look deep into our hearts And You will see that We have come to worship You etc... Anybody know this song?

These commentators, though not meaning to be, are quite funny but the video, oh my goodness, it's almost too much to watch:

I had no idea this was a sport but I have to admit, it's pretty rad!!!

Here's a portion from chapter 2 of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations . I'm citing it here because it sounds uncannily familiar, kind of like, oh, let's say, Paul of Tarsus. Here's the text: "For we are made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away." -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations II.2 I like here, how Aurelius goes a step further than Paul in a passage like the one located in 1 Cor. 12 and talks about how, when the parts are not working together, it is not only self-defeating but contrary to nature. In other words, had Paul gone a bit further, he could have suggested that the "nature" of the Body of Christ has to do with both unity and diversity. That implication may be buried in Paul's metaphor but because it is not explicity, it may often be overlooked. Good stuff!!!

Today, the majority of my afternoon will consist of driving through four states: Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. Before one of those massive Michigan snow storms decide to show up, I'm going to head south to spend a couple of days (that's not very long!) with family and friends. I'll still be blogging this week but for today, I thought I'd back off and let you enjoy this awesome 14-second Japanese flic about my old stomping grounds, that is, my old KY home:

Currently, I have a couple of books I'm reviewing that will be published in journals next quarter (while a few others should actually be in-print this coming quarter). Here are the one's I'm reading right now, both quite interesting in their own right: 1) Jesus: The Village Psychiatrist , 2) Recovering Paul's Mother Tongue: Language and Theology in Galatians .

So, I raved a couple of days ago about a few books I bought in Kalamazoo at the library's bookstore. Well, I went back in yesterday, after they had stocked some new things over the course of a week and once again, I was not let down. After I spent a whopping $4, I went a couple blocks over to the city's annual Ribfest and had some good barbecue (or as we southerner's like to spell it "bbq"). Here's what I picked up at the store (again, for only $4!!!): * Daily Life in the Time of Homer (Mireaux) $1.00 * Meditations (Marcus Aurelius) $1.00 * Cicero: S elected Works (Penguin Pub.) - $.50 * Biblical Semantic Logic (Gibson) - $1.00 * The Counselling of Jesus (Buchanan) - $.50 And, here's me eating some ribs: A decent day, if you ask me!

In yesterday's post, I mentioned a number of books I recently purchased. One of those was A. N. Williams's John Mark . You can see the cover of that book to the left. What I find very fascinating about this picture is that in it, Mark is holding a number of scrolls. Not that this cover is (by any means) my starting point for ideas or the "say all, end all" of my views, but it does suggest, however implicitly, that Mark probably didn't write first. At this point, I do not think Mark wrote first and in fact, I would also say that it doesn't really matter who really wrote first. Another thing this photo suggests, and I've been pondering this view a long time, is that just as Luke traveled with Paul as an amanuensis, Mark may have done the same for Peter. But one other thing that this photo illustrates for me is that Mark was probably a traveling author. In fact, as I have argued before, I think Mark traveled around delivering his Gospel account as a type of d...

Since coming to Michigan, I've found that Kzoo has quite a number of good bookstores (when I say "good" here, I mean decent works at low prices). Honestly, the bookstore at the Kzoo library is the best used book shop I've ever been to and believe me, being on the verge of 2,000 books, I've been to a lot of bookstores! If you're ever in the area, you MUST stop there!!! Here are some of the titles I've picked up recently (from the library and another shop), all for under $13: * Oedipus Rex: A Mirror for Greek Drama (Cook) * An Anthology of Greek Drama (Robinson) * Terence: The Comedies (Penguin Classics) * The Dead Sea Scriptures in Eng. Translation (Gaster) * John Mark (Heroes of God Series, Williams) * The Hidden Jesus: A New Life (Donald Spoto) * Prayers (Quoist) * Der Protestantismus Des 17. Jahrunderts (Zeller) * Oxford Hachette French Dictionary (FR-Eng / Eng-Fr)

I'm adding a new blog to my blogroll today that is titled "Verily Verily". It is maintained by a new friend of mine that I met back in March at a conference, his name is Rafael Rodriguez (he sat in on my paper presentation and had some good thoughts and input afterwards). Rafael earned his PhD at Sheffield in the UK and is now professor of NT at Johnson Bible College in TN. Check out his blog here: Verily Verily .

I came across this paragraph recently and found myself continually re-reading,ittrying to figure out if I agreed with it or not. Do you agree or disagree?: "Very often, a commitment in faith is wrongly idenitified with morality--rather than a stance toward reality that begins the process of setting everything else in order. And so the sayings of Jesus are wrenched out of context and made, by preachers, to serve moral matters: sin versus virtue becomes the touchstone of a life well lived, and in the process there is often a failure in translating the spirit of the sayings of Jesus." D. Spoto, The Hidden Jesus: A New Life (New York, NY: St. Martin's Griffin, 1998), 151.

Here's a very interesting list: 16 movie stars who didn't live to see their last movie: 1. Tupac Shakur 2. Chris Farley 3. Brandon Lee 4. Bruce Lee 5. Jean Harlow 6. James Dean 7. Clark Gable 8. Phil Hartman 9. Natlie Wood 10. Heath Ledger 11. Marilyn Monroe 12. Spencer Tracy 13. Aaliyah 14. John Candy 15. River Phoenix 16. Gary Cooper ht: Bizarre

By accident, I found out that a "people search" website called "Intelius" can be pulled up on Yahoo, so that you can search for people there. You can see a snapshot of it at work above but here's how to get the table to show up: In the Yahoo search bar, type in this text and after you've done this, hit "enter" or click "search": first:"" last:"" city:"" state:"" Of course, first and last stand for first and last names. Put the names in between the quote marks. City and state are self-explanatory. Have fun searching!!!

In the commencing verses of Mk. chapter 2, we encounter a terribly fascinating story. I've already approached this episode from one angle, arguing that is suggests that Jesus owned a home near Lake Galilee (click HERE to read that post). I've also argued that this story, as part of a larger narrative, was one that Mark used to begin to show mounting or building hostility towards Jesus by the political and religious leaders of His day. Here, I want to take yet another angle on the story and look at it through carpenter's eyes. Of course, the carpenter I'm referring to here is Jesus. I do not wish to get into the argument about the Greek term "tekton" but I would say that the evidence is clear that it refers to someone who has worked with wood, stone, etc. It is my view that Jesus, indeed, worked in the field of construction. I have wondered too, if being so close to the Lake, He ever helped build boats? But to get to the point, in Mk. 2, we read of an instance...

It seems that new discoveries of ancient relics are constantly being made. The Jerusalem Post reported today another finding: The Zedekiah Seal . Just prior to this, in the world of archeology, you will remember that a few weeks back, The Messiah Tablet (which has actually been around for quite a while) also got people talking (and tempers flaring). Of course, archeology is nothing new and Christianity is certainly no newcomer to archeological conversations. But here's my hang-up with all of this: Why do we act as if archeology can really prove or disprove Christianity. Or, why do people act as if archeology can really prove or disprove the Bible, that is render it true or untrue. Now, I'm saying this as a person who values the historicity of the Biblical personages, stories, locations, etc. But I am also saying this as a person who used to, but no longer necessarily believes that the sacredness or the validity of the Hebrew/Greek Scriptures (e.g. The Bible) stand, fall or ris...

I wanted to post a quick note on the site today to inform my readers that I have joined "Blog Network" on Facebook. If you use Facebook, click HERE to add Pisteuomen to your FB apps list. If I already have you marked as a friend on FB, you should be recieving a message from me within the next few days asking you to join. Thanks to Alan Knox for putting me on to this app!!!