Indeed

Tigers Camp

Here is a little spring training video that I found that was put together by Curtis Granderson of the Tigers...

Emphasis in Reconciliation

Evangelicals love to quote and remember 2 Corinthians 5:7... (Maybe you have met one or two that have memorized the verse, as this verse is in every "Scripture memory" curriculum!) Yet evangelicals often miss the heart beat of 2 Cor 5:7 because they miss the beauty of the following 4 verses that don't encourage a new creation for the creation's sake, but rather a new creation for the purpose of reconciliation...

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

The greek word for reconciliation is katalasso, a combination of two words... kata and lasso. Here is what Louw and Nida have to say about the word...

KATALASSO: to reestablish proper friendly interpersonal relations after these have been disrupted or broken (the componential features of this series of meanings involve (1) disruption of friendly relations because of (2) presumed or real provocation, (3) overt behavior designed to remove hostility, and (4) restoration of original friendly relations) — ‘to reconcile, to make things right with one another, reconciliation.


Louw and Nida also include a special note on the word that is worth reading...

Because of the variety and complexity of the components involved in reconciliation, it is often necessary to use an entire phrase in order to communicate satisfactorily the meanings of the terms in this subdomain. In some languages, however, reconciliation is often spoken of in idiomatic terms, for example, ‘to cause to become friends again,’ ‘to cause to snap fingers again’ (a symbol of friendly interpersonal relations in many parts of Africa), ‘to cause to be one again,’ or ‘to take away the separation.’ A particularly crucial element in terms for reconciliation is the assigning of responsibility for original guilt in causing the estrangement. Some terms, for example, imply that the individual who initiates reconciliation is by doing so admitting his guilt in causing the estrangement. This, of course, provides a completely untenable meaning for reconciliation in speaking of God reconciling people to himself through Christ. In a number of languages the contextual basis for an expression for reconciliation is often found in terms relating to the reconciliation of husbands and wives. Such expressions fit in well with many contexts in the Scriptures, especially in speaking of reconciliation of people to God, since God is frequently referred to as the husband and the believers as the wife.


Maybe a special emphasis on reconciliation has been missing... And maybe now is a better time than ever to practice this central gift of the Gospel.

Yael Naim "Far Far" Final Project

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Something was not right with Whitney's ear. It wasn't that she could not hear... In fact it was quite the opposite. Noise was overwhelming her. It was as if her inner volume had been turned up to 11, when supposed to never surpass 7. Although our insurance would not cover such a visit, Whitney needed to see a doctor, so she went. The doctor asked her what was wrong and she told him that there was something wrong with her ear. He asked if she was having trouble hearing and she politely responded, "No." "In fact," she told the doctor, "I hear too much." "What?" the doctor asked. "Did you say that there is something wrong with your ear?" Without hesitating he rudely left the conversation and went to his drawer to draw out his trusty bell. He drew the noise maker near to Whitney's dear stapes and rang and rang and rang the metal, sending deep vibrations into Whitney's sensitive auditory canal. "No, no, no." Whitney said to the doctor. "I can hear the bell. In fact, your ringing is hurting my ears, not helping them." The doctor responded, "Didn't you say that there was something wrong with your ear?"

Book Review Vanhoozer (Part 1)

Kevin Vanhoozer received his bachelor’s from Westmont College, a Masters of Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University, England having studied under Nicholas Lash. Currently Vanhoozer is the research professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is also the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology and The Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible. As an author, VanHoozer has written numerous books including First Theology: God, Scripture and Hermeneutics and Is There Meaning in This Text?. The Drama of Doctrine is a creative work that integrates VanHoozer’s work in systematics, hermeneutics, and post modernity. With the use of “creative fidelity”, VanHoozer has created a systematic doctrine for a postmodern generation that is often resistant to both fidelity and the systematic. This is the intrigue of VanHoozer’s work.
While many fall into the abyss of extremes to either fidelity or creativity, Vanhoozer provides for his readers a helpful balance between the two. He powerfully labels this balance as creative fidelity. An example of how creative fidelity manifests within his framework of thought is through his idea of Sola Scriptura. To even mention Sola Scriptura within the book implies VanHoozer’s connection to fidelity. However, he rearranges the typical approach to Sola Scriptura as a propositional truth, to a better-balanced approach to Sola Scriptura with a call to both faithful understanding and creative action. “Sola Scriptura returns, then, not by positing the Bible as a textbook filled with propositional information but by viewing the Bible as a script that calls for faithful yet creative performance.” Essentially Vanhoozer is calling for a better balance between the often forgotten and Biblically emphasized reality of orthopraxy, and the over remembered and Biblically less emphasized reality of orthodoxy.
Vanhoozer also approaches systematic doctrine through the lens of creative fidelity. “While some in the church decry using the Bible to generate Doctrine, preferring to emphasize Scripture’s ability to reframing our way of reframing the world and understanding our lives, it is preferable to see doctrine itself as an indispensable and imaginative instrument for shaping the life of the church.” Vanhoozer’s use of the word indispensable represents his post-conservative tie to fidelity. At the same time, Vanhoozer calls the church to repent of using the Bible to generate doctrine in order that the doctrine might reframe the world. He creatively rearranges the purpose of doctrine as an imaginative instrument for shaping the life of the church. While the change is minute form, it is grandiose in function. His reflection, again, is a smart balance between retaining the tradition of the past while reshaping the past to encourage the church into the future.
The excitement of this book comes in the integration of the old with the new. VanHoozer’s foundation of creative fidelity was the most powerful overarching idea that brought a vividness of color in his text not only in the area of hermeneutics of systematics, but also for the practical nature of ecclesiology and missiology. I’ll conclude with one final quote. “The canonical linguistic approach to theology has as its goal the training of competent and truthful witnesses who can themselves incarnate, in a variety of situations, the wisdom of Christ gleaned from indwelling canonical practices and their ecclesial continuations.”