Kurt Warner

One of the upcoming Superbowl quarterbacks reminds me a little of King David: a teenage boy bagging bears and lions as he made his living in the hills of Israel living with sheep. He was unexpectedly grabbed and ordained the new King of Israel.

Kurt Warner was bagging groceries in Ceder Rapids Iowa as he made his living after washing out of football. He was unexpectedly grabbed and now will make his second Super Bowl appearance.

I read this story a couple weeks ago and identified with Kurt as he struggles with communicating his love for Jesus, but at the same time struggling with the fact that Jesus is offensive and repels people: he invited his entire team over for a party but only a handful showed up. Kurt inquired of a teammate and the prevailing view was they were afraid he was going to get up on a podium and preach at them.

Fortunately, we have been given Jesus' Spirit and it has the same effect as 2,000 years ago: draws some in like a magnet and others do not only not want to show up at your party, they want to murder you.

Some people love Kurt Warner and some hate him; then (2000 years ago) and now - not much has changed.

The Shack: The Good, the Bad and the Scary

This is by no means a thorough review of the book. I promised my cousin I would read it, for he is friends with the author. The thoughts I posted in an earlier blog have not changed. The following are some current thoughts from a small man with a big God:

The Scary
To build a false image of God is not just sloppy writing, but scary. The author builds this she-male god in a gripping manner, but constructs some subtle falsity into the image: Papa (this is God if you have not read the book) is portrayed as not just peace-loving (which is true), but anti-violent. Papa detests the gun as she holds it out at arms length.

God is a great warrior. Listen to Moses worship God on the shore of the Sea of Reeds after the exodus from Egypt. God, with his creation-power, gives salvation to his new chosen nation with violence that surpasses what any gun could do:

The Lord is a man of war;the Lord is his name. (Exodus 15:3)
Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power,your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy.In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries;you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble. (Exodus 15:6,7)(ESV)

The Shack scares me, for an image of God has been erected that takes God’s glory, his powerful right hand that inflicts violence, and portrays the glorious hand of God falsely.

I am not condoning violence or guns, for I doubt we will see either in God’s ultimate kingdom. More important than societal problems, or my feelings, is the image of God – never add to it and make God into something he is not. Sometimes God deals with this by his right hand.

The Bad
God created man and woman in his image; every race and gender bares a resemblance to their creator. Though God is spirit and is not composed of the mass of biology we live in, he does have an image – Moses is a witness to this and his face fell to the ground when he saw God’s back. God’s image is important - he has one and it is good to be cautious on how one portrays it.

I can identify with the author in desiring to paint a picture of God as an African-American woman: my next door neighbor is one and her love and service to our family will echo into eternity. There are four women I kiss: my wife (of course) my Mom, my Mother-in-law and my neighbor of whom I speak. This African-American woman demonstrates God’s love in a manner that we could all learn from. I have learned much more from her than a love for collard greens.

Nonetheless, I believe it is good to not venture from Jesus’ example of painting the picture of God as anyone other than the Father.

The Good
The author does a great job of answering the age old question, “how could a good God allow evil?” He also gives the reader a grasp of a world existing beyond our myopic view.

I loved the scene were Mack has been introduced to the Trinity. They explain who they all are and in a puzzled manner he looks from one to the other and asks, “Which one of you is God?” They all answer in unison, “I AM”.

Uncharacteristically, I cried as I read a part of this book: Mack was preparing to leave his incredible experience, just before he departed Jesus met him in a room and on the table were bread and a cup of wine. Someday we (if you are a believer) will share bread and wine together with Jesus. The thought of what it represents and anticipation of the future event brought emotion.

If you desire, comment with your thoughts, for I would be interested to hear them.

Now and Then - Actions Speak Louder than Words

Now: Three years ago we brought Ryan home from the hospital following his birth, Jacob who was three at the time, did not want to have much to do with this new sibling, but he told us, “he loved his new little brother”. Ryan was only a couple of days old, I laid him on his back on a blanket in the living room and Jacob was playing with a die-cast metal space shuttle, flying it around the living room. I was half paying attention to him as he was walking around the living room, flying his metal toy, saying, “running out of gas...running out of gas...running out of gas”

At the exact moment he flew it over his newborn brother… “Out of gas" and the shuttle free falls and tags Ryan on the forehead. Ryan screams as a red mark grows on his forehead.
“Jacob”, I say in surprised displeasure and Jacob answers, “but dad, it ran out of gas”.
Actions speak louder than words: Jacob’s words of, “I love my brother” rang hollow as he inflicted pain with his action.

Then: The Israelites at Mt. Sinai promise with their words to do everything the Lord has commanded – they enter into a covenant relationship and then with their actions they begin breaking commandments. One commentator likened the golden calf incident to committing adultery on your honeymoon. You take the marriage vow in front of many, promising to be faithful until death and then on your honeymoon your spouse finds you in another’s bed. Your spouse hears and discovers. Actions speak louder than words. This is what Israel did to God; this is what we do to God.

This gives us a feeling for the depth of God’s justice (sin was atoned on the cross) and the depth of his grace (salvation was given on the cross).

An Old Testamant Resource full of Riches

In studying and teaching Exodus this year a resource that continually provides deep and insightful truth is Bruce Waltke's An Old Testament Theology.

My brother Sam and brother-in-law Chad, turned me on to him, for they sat under his teaching at Regent College.

A little taste from Mr. Waltke regarding God's gift to us from the Old Covenant:

At Mount Sinai Moses mediates God's word that seals God's covenant relationship with Israel and defines Israel as a nation set apart from the other nations. Israel's ratification of it empowers them to construct an earthly replica of heaven itself for the worship of their God. No other nation is defined by its holiness or by its obedience to a moral law. The United States repealed its only constitutional moral law, "Thou shalt not drink."

Veteran's Day Excursion

The Crummett boys spent Veteran's Day in San Francisco. First stop was the newly remodeled ($500 million worth) California Academy of Sciences. Jacob's favorite was the Philippine Coral Reef; Ryan's was the turtles.

Second stop was Rodeo Beach: Ryan flew his first kite, found a dead sea gull that he carried over to show me, Jake and I threw a football around and we all played chicken with the waves for hours.

Dr. John Piper is Real and so is God.

A Christmas gift from Dad and Mom addicted me to this author. From books, over the years, I got to know this man, but in September I met him face to face, shook his hand and told him thanks – John Piper is real.

A gift from God in the form of a burning bush addicted Moses to God. From personal conversations and interaction over the years Moses got to know God, but on Mt. Sinai he met him personally. God passed before him and showed himself to Moses – God is real.

We will not all have the privilege of meeting our favorite author; we all will meet God some day - face to face. It will be the climax of our lives or it will be the deepest disaster?

The Pumpkin Patch

Expelled DVD is Available

My degree names me as a scientist, and my job classifies me as one. I have been looking forward to watching Ben Stein's DVD "Expelled". I found some time and watched it with Susan. It focuses on the scientific educational system and its view toward intelligent design. If you are interested in this, or want to know what your children will be up against in higher education, give this DVD a couple hours of your time.

I gave one example in an earlier post. The following are a couple more examples from my own, so be it very limited, experience with the scientific elite:

1) One morning in Historical Geology class, as I was focusing on keeping my eyes open more than the content of what was being taught, the teacher called me by name and asked how I could just explain everything we observe using no science, but answer everything with "divine intervention". I assured the class this man knew nothing of what I believed. I looked at the professor and told him, "just because you try and shove something down my throat does not mean I have to swallow it. Do you desire for your students to think or just swallow?" He did not answer.

2) Another professor, on a field trip, asked me in front of the class about my belief in God. I asked if she believed in right and wrong. She answered, "no". I asked her if she condoned Hitler's action. She answered, something like, "we now know a reduction in the gene pool is not healthy for the overall species". I made sure I understood her answer and repeated back to her, "the only thing Hitler did wrong was reducing some genes that may have been passed on to the future species?" She answered "yes".

Just two examples, and overall I was not a very good apologist - nor a very good student. My concern was for my fellow students; a few did come to me with questions about life and God. Sadly, they literally came to me under the cover of darkness and I could feel the fear, for if their professors or other Darwin-bumper-stickered classmates found out, there would have been a price to pay. I pray for two fellow classmates in particular; I had some good conversations with them about who Jesus the Christ was and is. I pray their souls have evolved since then and their eyes have been opened to their creator.

Road Kill Kitty Cake

Of the five Crummett kids, Sam has the highest education; he is also the only one of us who could win the prize at his work’s Halloween Potluck for the “spookiest dish”.

A True Coach

I was on the couch or in bed all day yesterday with a cold - for the first time this year I was able to watch some college football. I watched Georgia beat LSU. After I saw the following video, I am happy Georgia won. As long as Mark Richt remains the head coach, and they are not playing a PAC 10 team, I will root for Georgia.