Augustine Confessions, just a tid bit

iv (4) Who then are you, my God? What, I ask, but God who is Lord? For ‘who is the Lord but the Lord’, or ‘who is God but our God?’ (Ps. 17:32). Most high, utterly good, utterly powerful, most omnipotent, most merciful and most just, deeply hidden yet most intimately present, perfection of both beauty and strength, stable and incomprehensible, immutable and yet changing all things, never new, never old, making everything new and ‘leading’ the proud ‘to be old without their knowledge’ (Job 9:5, Old Latin version); always active, always in repose, gathering to yourself but not in need, supporting and filling and protecting, creating and nurturing and bringing to maturity, searching even though to you nothing is lacking: you love without burning, you are jealous in a way that is free of anxiety, you ‘repent’ (Gen 6:6) without the pain of regret, you are wrathful and remain tranquil. You will a change without any change in your design. You recover what you find, yet have never lost. Never in any need, you rejoice in your gains (Luke 15:7); you are never avaricious, yet you require interest (Matt. 25:27). We pay you more than you require so as to make you our debtor, yet who has anything which does not belong to you? (1 Cor. 4:7). You pay off debts, though owing nothing to anyone; you cancel debts and incur no loss. But in these words what have I said, my God, my life, my holy sweetness? What has anyone achieved in words when he speaks about you? Yet woe to those who are silent about you because, though loquacious with verbosity, they have nothing to say



Saint Augustine, Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick (New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), pg 4-5.

Passing your class vs your opinion?

So I’ve been curious if it is wrong to write something in a paper you don’t necessarily agree with? I don’t mean write something heretical or anything of that nature. What I mean is that I wonder if it is wrong to write the answer your professor is looking for? Sometimes they are not looking for the right answer but rather their answers. Not only are they looking for their answer, but if you write you answer you will be penalized.

So is it wrong to put something in a paper you don’t agree with to be a good successful student?

You are as counter-culture as you want to be

I read this in the Southwestern Journal of Theology and it really made me think. So I just wanted to share this.

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Southwestern Journal of Theology. Volume 49. No. 1. Fall 2006
Russell D. Moore
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Louisville, KY.
theology@sbts.edu

Southern Baptist Sexual Revolutionaries: Cultural Accommodations, Spiritual Conflict, and the Baptist Vision of the Family.

Page 23

"We have become the people that Jesus warned us about. Southern Baptists want to more and more distance ourselves from our blue-collar, economically impoverished roots, and more wish to be seen as affluent, suburban, and politically influential. But this comes with a cost. The reason we have made peace with the sexual revolution is because we are captive to the love of money. Southern Baptist men and women want to live with the same standard of living as the culture around them and, as the Spirit warns, we will grind our churches and our families to pieces to get there (Jas 4:1-4). Why does the seemingly godly deacon in a conservative Southern Baptist church in North Georgia drive his pregnant teenage daughter to Atlanta undercover of darkness to obtain an abortion? Because, however he votes his “values,” when his crisis hits, he wants his daughter to have a “normal” life. He is “pro-life” with, as on feminist leader put it three exceptions: rape, incest, and my situation.

Why do Southern Baptist parents, contra Paul’s admonition in 1 Corinthians 7, encourage their young adult children to delay marriage years past the time it takes to discern whether this union would be of the Lord? Why do we smiling tell them to wait until they can “afford” it? It is because, to our shame, we deem fornication a less awful reality than financial ruin. Why do Southern Baptist pastors speak bluntly about homosexuality and X-rated movies, but never address the question of whether institutionalized day-care is good for children, or for parents? It is because pastors know that couples would say that they could never afford to live on the provision on the husband alone. And they are right, if living means living in the neighborhoods in which they now live, with the technologies they now have. Christian pastors know that no godly woman will say on her death bed, “If only I had put children in daycare so that I could have pursued my career.” But do Southern Baptist pastors ever ask whether it might be better to live in a one-bedroom apartment or a trailer park than to follow this American dream? Rarely, because it seems so inconceivable to us that it doesn’t even seem like an option. When confronted with the challenge of a counter-cultural, family-affirming—but economically less acquisitive—life, too often we see what are inerrant Bibles define as the joyful life, and then we walk away saddened like another rich young ruler before us who wanted eternal life but wanted his possessions more (Luke 18:18-30).

Light in the Darkness

Not many people know this but I once worked for an at risk after-school program. I was a teacher. One of my first days on the job and I was assigned a particular group of kids. These were the “trouble kids.” Most of them didn’t come regularly but there was one in particular I’ll never forget. His name was Gabriel.

When I met Gabriel he wanted nothing to do with me. Him, like his brother, just cussed at me and caused trouble. Early on one of my co-workers informed me about Gabriel’s family life. His parents were druggies. When Gabriel and his older brother were about 2-3 their grandparents found them in an open field by themselves. Apparently they crawled out of their parent’s trailer, while their parents were unconscious. Later, after the parents took the kids back, the kids witnessed their father get shot down by SWAT. The mother was taken to prison, and the kids were back with their grandparents. The grandparents were great with the kids; however the grandfather shortly passed away and the grandmother had her legs amputated as a result of her diabetes. As you might be able to understand these kids had behavior problems.

As I worked with this kid I always kept his home life in mind. One particularly bad day Gabriel was frustrated and just blew up. He was upset because he was done with his homework but our policy was to give the children more work to keep them busy. In rage filled tears he screamed to me that he didn’t want to do it and he couldn’t take it. He said “I’m at school all day and they give me homework and I get in trouble when I’m done and they give me more. When I come home my grandmother can’t do anything with me so she gives me chores all day to keep me busy. When my brother comes home he won’t play with me, but him and his friends beat me up. And when I come here you say we have to do my homework and when I’m done you give me more work!”

I felt horrible. I felt horrible because this kid was totally right. This kid was being overlooked by policies that were supposed to ‘help’ him. This kid didn’t need more work to keep him busy or more work to give him an academic edge; he needed love. Everything else would be a waste of time if this kid wasn’t being loved. So I told the kid he was right. Then I just played with him. From that point on we basically would do one piece of homework from each class and then play games.

A part of our after-school program included a snack time and some reading time. Well as Gabriel and I were kind of bonding he wanted to read what I was reading. The problem, if you could really say that, was that I was reading the Bible. I wasn’t sure if I was really allowed to let him read my Bible; however knowing one day I would stand before God I decided I wasn’t going to stop him, especially since I had more than one with me. So we started doing this thing where he would pick verses for me to read and I would pick verses for him to read. It was funny because he’d always pick something in Revelation about the prostitute to see if I would read it, which I would. For him I would pick Romans or the Gospel of John. He got off easy. He still had behavior problems but he was getting way better.

A few weeks later it was my turn to teach the lesson and I was supposed to teach about science. So I had my lesson plan ready and I was going to teach about light waves. I was going to teach how light can fill a room because of the way it functions. So I start by asking the kids if we shut the windows would it be dark in the room, setting up to ask how come a little tiny light source (the light bulb) can fill the room. So I asked “if we shut the windows would it be dark in here?” The kids said yes except for Gabriel who said no. He liked to be a wise guy sometimes so I figured he was being really specific because it was day outside. So I asked “ok, would it be dark in here if we closed the window AND the curtains?” Again the kids said yes but Gabriel said no. A little bit frustrated I asked “ok, would it be dark in here if we closed the window AND the curtains, duct tape the frames shut and put towels underneath the door ways?” And again the kids said yes but Gabriel said no. I figured I’d give it one more chance. I said “Ok, would it be dark in here if we closed the windows, the blinds, the curtains, ducted taped all the edges of the windows and doors, all of us got in the closest, and put a towel underneath the door way of the closet?”And again he said no. Thinking he was being a smart aleck I finally go “Ok Gabriel, why would it not be dark in the closet?”

Do you want to know what his response was? He said “It would not be dark in here because God is light and God lives in us and we are the light of the world! And darkness is overcome by light.”

I was in shock. This young boy quoted 1 John 1, 2 Timothy 1, Matthew 5, and John 1. Not only did he quote it, he quoted it in front of the whole class! I knew I was fired but I was also so happy for this boy.

Then he said “Can I say something else Mr. Brewer?” I was still in shock by what he said, trying to figure out the right thing to do, happy by how politely he asked (huge change), and just in a daze so I said “yes.” He walks up to the board and draws two big circles. He then draws little shapes inside the circles, basically earth. Then he filled all the continents with the marker but left one little spot unfilled. He then said “if all this darkness represents evil and this little spot represents God’s people, who do you think would win in a battle?” I, being completely flabbergasted said “who?” knowing that I was so fired. He said “the white spot because they have God and nobody can overcome God.” Then he drew on the board “1 vs. 9999999999999999999…” as far as he could go with the board. “God,” he said “could defeat that amount of people x forever because he is all powerful.” I simply sat down. I could only watch. He then spoke to the class about how powerful God was and got the class involved!

Luckily the other teacher with me was also Christian. I did also have to talk with the owner, but it was about how pleased she was by his behavior. I was so happy to see how much change took place in his life. For the record I did NOT tell him all the things he wrote on the board, he figured it out by reading the Bible. I didn’t get fired but a few weeks later the program was shut down and I was not able to get any contact info.

I pray for him still. I hope to see him again one day. I don’t know if he’d remember me but I’ll always remember him. Hopefully I’ll at least see him in heaven.

At the feet of Jesus

1. You let her do that while she was dying. Till she couldn’t walk. Till she stopped breathing.

2. The hatred

3. Then “independence” was declared as a method of condemnation against orphans

4. The scapegoat

5. Your destructive secrets

6. The drugs

7. You allowed and forced them to live in shadow

8. The fear

9. You ignored the red flags raised by each of their lives

10. The accusations

11. You never knew them, almost two decades and you never knew them.

12. The gossip

13. You never taught them

14. The screaming

15. You never gave them a chance

16. The betrayal

17. Vanity was your concern

18. The Wal-mart

19. You never protected them

20. The abandonment

21. At best you just watched

22. The violence

23. You led them towards darkness

24. The lies

25. Your need that was greater than their existence

26. The pride

27. You allowed the sacrifices to become scorn

28. The evil

29. Wickedness of the heart

30. You

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I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. - Matthew 12:36-37

In class

Sometimes in class I think about different things and my mind wanders.

But in my New Testament class I often think about the movie Life of Brian.



And in my Church History class I think of the game Rome Total War



Is that wrong?