“Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.”
Dreadnought, Largest Dinosaur In The World
At 85 feet long and 65 tons, the newly discovered dinosaur Dreadnoughtus schrani probably didn’t have to worry about predators. Its massive size is the reason researchers decided to name it “fear nothing”—its name recalls the massive battleships, Dreadnoughts, that were built at the turn of the 20th century. ...
It weighed as much as a dozen African elephants or more than seven T. rex. Shockingly, skeletal evidence shows that when this 65-ton specimen died, it was not yet full grown. It is by far the best example we have of any of the most giant creatures to ever walk the planet.
So write the folks over at the Smithsonian's website. When reading about "Dreadnaught" I couldn't but think of this passage from Job:
Look at Behemoth,
which I made along with you
and which feeds on grass like an ox.
What strength it has in its loins,
what power in the muscles of its belly!
Its tail sways like a cedar;
the sinews of its thighs are close-knit.
Its bones are tubes of bronze,
its limbs like rods of iron.
It ranks first among the works of God... (Job 40:15-19)
I know most people today understand Job to be poetically describing a mighty hippo, but the little boy in me much prefers imagining something like Dreadnoughtus schrani.
Human obsolescence
Soon many fast food workers may have cause to look back on their jobs with sad nostalgia, thinking... "Maybe that wage wasn't so bad after all. At least I had a job..."
A company called Momentum Machines has built a robot that could radically change the fast-food industry and have some line cooks looking for new jobs.
The company's robot can "slice toppings like tomatoes and pickles immediately before it places the slice onto your burger, giving you the freshest burger possible." The robot is "more consistent, more sanitary, and can produce ~360 hamburgers per hour." That's one burger every 10 seconds.
The next generation of the device will offer "custom meat grinds for every single customer. Want a patty with 1/3 pork and 2/3 bison ground to order? No problem."
Momentum Machines cofounder Alexandros Vardakostas told Xconomy his "device isn’t meant to make employees more efficient. It’s meant to completely obviate them." Indeed, marketing copy on the company's site reads that their automaton "does everything employees can do, except better."
Leadership (not)
“There go my people. I must find out where they are going so that I can lead them.”
Accountability
“Every pastor, minister and evangelist, like every government leader, whether elected or appointed, needs an accountability network with real authority and power to check him. At least some of the people in that accountability network need to be independent of the minister or evangelist—not under his influence.
Unfortunately, we American evangelicals have created a system of ministry superstars on pedestals that sets them up for failure. When it happens I tend to look around at his followers and ask “Why did they flock to him and trust him so eagerly and unconditionally?” When everyone else is pointing fingers at the fallen one, I tend to point at them. My advice is simply this: Never follow a leader who is independent and unaccountable. And if you find yourself in such a situation, flee. There should not be such situations. And if you stay, you are part of the problem. And if he falls, you have yourself partly to blame.”
A Legacy worth Leaving
From J.D. Greear:
Photo Credit: www.nybg.org
In Psalm 127, Solomon refers to children as a “heritage” or an “inheritance” from the Lord. It’s easy to miss how revolutionary that statement is. Solomon isn’t saying that children will receive our inheritance. He is saying that they are our inheritance. But what does that mean?
It means that the most important task we have as a church is to teach the next generation the gospel.
An inheritance is what you leave behind for future generations. So when a church thinks about what they are “leaving behind” for their city, they shouldn’t be thinking of ministry plans or church buildings, but kids. The children in our church are the first ones that God has given us to win for the gospel. They are the inheritance we are leaving for our city.
The whole post is well-worth taking the time to read... and ponder.
Quotable
“it’s important for us to deal with the Bible we actually have, not the one we wish we had.”
Food for thought: Bible translation, gender, and Leadership
I thought I knew this subject well, better than well really. I still learned a few things reading this blog post by Kristin Gatza at Arise.
As a person with an undergraduate degree in biblical studies, completing an MA in theology, I am quite concerned about English versions of the Bible I use and recommend. For years I have been loyal to the New American Standard Bible (NASB), because of its dedication to remaining close to the Greek grammar. A few months ago, however, I was genuinely bothered reading 1 Timothy 3, which begins, "It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do" (3:1). What was behind the word translated as "man" in this passage? Was it anēr, meaning "man" or "husband"? Or was it anthrōpos, which may mean "man" but more commonly refers to "humanity"? In my mind, if the word was anthrōpos, it would be misleading to translate it as "man." Given this, I was amazed when I realized that the word behind "man" was tis, which literally means "anyone." Even if one wants to argue that the context of 1 Timothy 3 narrows the role to men specifically, should not a Greek word meaning "anyone" be translated as "anyone"? How would an English reader trusting the biblical translation possibly guess that it was not Paul who said, "man," but our contemporary translators?
This realization addressed questions I had concerning the role of women in God's plan. Soon after, I began to study 1 Peter 5: "Therefore, I exhort the elders among you... shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight..." (5:1-2a). The word behind "elders" in this passage is presbyterous. I agree "elders" is a good translation given the description of those in the passage. But are the "elders" only men? To resolve my increasing concern, I looked into other usages of this word. 1 Timothy cautions, "Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers, the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity" (5:1-2). Our word is found here twice, translated not as "elder" but as "older man," and the "older women" is the feminine form of the word translated elsewhere as "elder"! How can we with integrity say that a woman may not be an elder when the feminine form of "elders" is directly stated in Scripture?
I need to hit the books and verify some of this, but her findings resonate with much of what I already know from the best of scholarship on this topic.
The Hard Work of Reconciliation
“True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the hurt, the truth. It could even sometimes make things worse. It is a risky undertaking but in the end it is worthwhile, because in the end only an honest confrontation with reality can bring real healing. Superficial reconciliation can bring only superficial healing.”
Quotable
“The Bible’s way of talking about the Bible is “Word” and a word is spoken by a Person, who is engaged in a covenant relationship of love, and the proper response to the Word from God is to listen because, as covenant people, we want to know what God says and do what he wants.”