Odds & Ends

Rainy Monday. Rain feeding the four transplanted pines that Tim and his friend Chris put in our yard on Earth Day. And I sit here blogging, and listening to Into the Worship Circle, which I still haven't grown tired of. This week's big event in my humdrum life: I get my first pair of reading glasses! Yippee! The doc couldn't believe I was 47 and having my eyes checked for the first time in over 30 years!

I'm going to get to the last chapter of Moule's book today, but first I want to mention a few things more about The Purpose-Driven Life. I don't intend to blog intensively about this program. I'm only two days in, and will withhold evaluation till the end. Yesterday pastor Mario gave the first sermon in the series. I will say that I think so far that the fundamental message of the book is a sound and solid one. It is a good thing to think about our God-ordained purpose. On the other hand, like some others, I have an innate reaction against parade-following and slick marketing, so, yes, I am not totally enthused about everything to do with this book. But I also trust my church's leadership, so I'm happy to participate in the project. Oh, but I do think that the paraphrases used by Warren are just fundamentally inadequate. They serve the book's purposes well enough, but they often badly miss the point of the original passage. It's not so much that they express unbiblical ideas, only that they seem to drain the depth and complexity, whole realms of meaning, out of the verse. So I'm taking Tim Challies' advice and keeping my Bible handy as I read. Thanks, Tim.