December « 2010 « deviantmonk

December, 2010

Let It Be Silent

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.¹

Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.²

Worship to God through music has been an integral aspect of the Christian experience from its inception. In the aforementioned passages, St. Paul exhorts believers to have their worship be not simply an act of interiority, but to allow it to overflow into a tangible and auditory expression. Continue reading →

Colossians 3:15-17 NIV ↩
Ephesians 5:18-20 NIV ↩

Life / Philosophy / Theology — No Comments
18
Dec 10

Word Up (or down, as the case may be…)

Google Labs has a new Ngram tool where you can compare results for specified words from within Google’s collection of scanned books. Simply input whatever words you wish, and nearly instantly you can track its usage over the specified time range. (Granted, for some words you probably need to already have some familiarity of when it started to be used in literature.) Continue reading →

Church Fathers / Classics / Theology — 1 Comment
16
Dec 10

Of Gods and Elephant Tusks

{Photo by twospoonfuls}

But though I see his point I disagree;
For man, to me, is fabric of the gods,
One stuff with them, potentially themselves;
Less in degree, less purified, less free,
But of their being, one at heart with them;
Descended from them, seeking them up again
To shed this close-constricting shell, and rise
To the intensity and freedom of their power.¹

Continue reading →

Pheidias, John Galen Howard, p. 150 ↩

Life — 4 Comments
14
Dec 10

Kindle

Over the weekend I got the Kindle. Being someone who likes to read a lot, I have been watching the Kindle go through its various iterations, wondering if I should get one. Up until the Kindle 3 I have been rather hesitant because of some lacking features, but the newest version finally addressed them. Continue reading →

Design — 2 Comments
14
Dec 10

MAC Track Shirt

This is the design for the MAC Track shirt for this year. MAC Track is rezlife’s ‘Ministry as a Career’ program where students are introduced to the various ministry options that they may feel called/choose to pursue on a professional basis. From pastoral roles to music ministry to technical arts, MAC Track attempts to expose students to the myriad aspects of ministry to help them discern if that is something they would want to do.

Church Fathers / Paraphrase / Theology — No Comments
11
Dec 10

Your Kingdom Come

This installment of my church fathers paraphrases comes from St. Cyril of Alexandria.

Cyril lived in the early to mid fifth century, dying in AD 444. He was the nephew of Theophilus, the patriarch of Alexandria, and later assumed that office in Alexandria.

Like many of the church fathers, historical circumstances thrust Cyril into a role that would subsequently define him as a Doctor of the Church. He ascended to the patriarchate of Alexandria in 412 and a decade later inserted himself fully into the Nestorian controversy. Nestorius was the Patriarch of Constantinople, and, before the controversy to which his name would be forever attached, he was quite well-respected, both in Constantinople and elsewhere. Continue reading →

Motion — No Comments
10
Dec 10

The Most Interesting Man on Earth

Another installment for the Faith Like a Child series. This one is essentially a highlight reel of Moses’ life.

Megan and I were talking about it the other day, and she remarked that Moses probably had the most interesting and adventurous life of anybody who has ever lived. Let’s consider a few highlights:

+ slated to be murdered as a baby, but saved when his mom put him in a basket and floated him down a river
+ found by an Egyptian princess and adopted into the royal family
+ discovered his relatives were actually the slaves of the Egyptian people
+ killed a guy
+ went into voluntary exile, became a shepherd
+ talked to God in the form of a burning bush
+ received the power to perform signs
+ went back to Egypt and confronted Pharoah, demanding the release of his people
+ called down 10 plagues that devastated a powerful nation
+ escaped from the angel of death
+ parted the sea
+ went up a mountain to talk to God again
+ got the 10 commandments
+ gave an entire nation its set of laws
+ led an entire nation through an unknown wilderness
+ water from rock
+ manna and quail
+ bronze snake on a stick
+ saw an earthquake that swallowed rebellious people
+ pillar of cloud and fire

There are other things, but that’s just a sampling. Moses must have needed a lot of naps.

Enjoy. And as Moses would say to the Egyptian army: “Stay thirsty, my friends.”

Classics — 2 Comments
8
Dec 10

Narnian Servants are Better

A letter from Pliny the Younger to Pompeia Celerina:

What treasures you have in your villas at Ocriculum, at Narnia, at Carsola and Perusia! Even a bathing place at Narnia! My letters — for now there is no need for you to write — will have shown you how pleased I am, or rather the short letter will which I wrote long ago. The fact is, that some of my own property is scarcely so completely mine as is some of yours; the only difference being that I get more thoroughly and attentively looked after by your servants than I do by my own. You will very likely find the same thing yourself when you come to stay in one of my villas. I hope you will, in the first place that you may get as much pleasure out of what belongs to me as I have from what belongs to you, and in the second that my people may be roused a little to a sense of their duties. I find them rather remiss in their behaviour and almost careless. But that is their way; if they have a considerate master, their fear of him grows less and less as they get to know him, while a new face sharpens their attention and they study to gain their master’s good opinion, not by looking after his wants but those of his guests. Farewell.¹

Continue reading →

Letters of Pliny the Younger, http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/authorsps/a/Letters-Of-Pliny-The-Younger-Book-I-1_5.htm ↩

Church Fathers / Philosophy / Theology — 1 Comment
6
Dec 10

Individual Substance of a Rational Nature

A month and a half ago I was inspired by my brother’s foray into the burgeoning world of auto-tune theology (which, no doubt, is suffering from an over-population problem) and decided I would make my own attempt. However, as the market for auto-tune theology is surely quite crowded, I went a slightly different, albeit related, route.

Listen to the auto-tune track here. Continue reading →

Motion — No Comments
4
Dec 10