Jesus: He Died Because...

This post are some comments on this week's Sabbath School lesson, Lesson 10, The Meaning of His Death.

How would you complete the sentence, "Jesus died because...?" That's the question this week's lesson attempts to answer. This is a question people spend entire lifetimes trying to figure out, and the Christian church has been trying to come up with the definitive answer for nearly 2,000 years now. So I doubt spending a week on it is going to make much of a difference one way or another. In fact, I think we all have some pretty strong opinions about what Jesus' death means, what it accomplished, and how. Going through it again probably isn't going to change things much, if any.

The lesson emphasizes the importance of the substitutionary aspect of the atonement. Tuesday and Wednesday lessons briefly touch upon three other ways of looking at the atonement: ransom, satisfaction (of "God's wrath"), and reconciliation. Throughout this week's lesson, though never directly mentioned but alluded to, almost in a dismissive and derogatory way, is the moral influence theory of the atonement. There is another fairly recent (okay, it's almost a century old now) theory called Christus Victor (founded upon both the ransom and recapitulation theories) which is not mentioned at all.

There was an article, "A Multifaceted Gospel," in Christianity Today a short while back that proposed that Christians ought to look at the different theories of the atonement as different facets contributing a little bit to the understanding of the whole. In other words, there is no "best" or no single "right" way of understanding the atonement; rather all the pieces must be taken together if we are to better understand what Jesus' death means. (But also see this article and this other article where CT defends the penal/substitution theories as being at the center of the gospel.)

In one of my recent posts reviewing George Knight's book on the atonement, I noted that I am somewhat uncomfortable with the penal/substitution theory of the atonement. I don't dismiss it completely away, because there are a number of scriptural passages that seem to provide a strong basis for the theory. Perhaps I am uncomfortable with the emphasis historically and traditionally placed upon this particular theory of the atonement.

At this particular segment of my spiritual and Christian journey, I find that the Christus Victor (also examine this lengthy discussion comparing C.V. to Satisfaction/Substitution linked to from the previous C.V. page) theory best represents the God that I've come to know. This may or may not help you in your understanding.

Here are several other discussions specifically on this week's lesson:

• Walla Walla University's Good Word (15 min. audio + written study guide)
• Jonathan Gallagher's Sabbath School discussion (1 hour audio + written study guide)
• Ron Corson's counterpoint response to this week's Sabbath School study guide (blog post)
• Spectrum Magazine's online Sabbath School commentary (reader comments follow main commentary)

I provide all the links in this blog entry to show that there is more than one way to consider Christ's atonement work. I think that it is important to become acquainted with different ways of approaching the "diamond" that is Christ's atoning work for us. I believe that by seeing the atonement from multiple perspectives, it can enrich and deepen our understanding and appreciation of God's love for us.

Watching some boats go by

Last week when Amy had her birthday party, I moved my office/study area from the kitchen table (where it's been in both the apartment and in our house) to our bedroom right next to the front window.

Now that I've had some time up there, I think I'm going to leave my office/study there. It's just so nice to be able to view the eagles, gulls, ravens, and yes, even crows flying about. It's nice to watch the tides come in and out. And I can watch the boats come and go.

The following is about a 1-minute video clip (there is no audio) of the comings and goings of some of the boats that I saw today. I originally wanted to catch some eagles in action, but as soon as I got a camera, they all disappeared. So all you get are boats. You do get a variety, though.

The rain returns on day 10

Most of the day was overcast, though during part of the afternoon there was some sun coming through. By this evening though, the rain started to drizzle down.

Earlier in the day, I went out into the muskeg one more time to get a little better image of a Sundew (carnivorous plant). While there I also noticed that the Labrador Tea blossoms were starting to open up, so I came back with one photo of that. This time of year, what can be seen in the muskeg changes quite rapidly. Here's the gallery from today:

I finished working on photos from a couple of days ago. I didn't work on all of them. The ones that are different from the original are noted as such in the description text. Click on the cottongrass image to open the gallery::

I received back today the Canon EOS-10D that I had left in Oregon for repairs. I held down the shutter for repeated shots and the shutter works fine now. The total repair bill, including adjustments to the mirror assembly and a new shutter was just under $200. If it lasts me another few years, it will have been money well spent. Now I can have two bodies with me so that I don't have to keep changing lenses.

Finally, this town has no rice. Well, that's not exactly true, but all that's left are 1, 2, and 5 lb. bags of various types of rice. I don't know if the rest of the country is experiencing rice shortage, but the last large bags of rice disappeared nearly a month ago (just a couple of days after we came back). It looks like I'm going to have to change my menus to include a whole lot more pasta and potatoes and use rice very sparingly.

Muskeg photos from 29-May updated

I just finished working on all the muskeg photos from 29-May. You can view the completed images HERE.

Now on to the images from yesterday...

Sermon: The Holy Spirit in John - Part 2

(Click HERE to listen to MP3 sermon audio.)

Today sermon looks at John 16:8-11.

This sermon continues the discussion from last week regarding the Holy Spirit's work as described by the apostle John. Specifically, the subject of the Holy Spirit "convicting" the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment is discussed.

Sunny - day 8 of 9 - more muskeg

Today might be the last day before rain begins again. A stretch like this of dry and almost all sunny days is a very rare occurrence here. After lunch we went out into the muskeg behind our house.

The other images are at the gallery below. The Gorilla Pod I purchased last month came in handy a few times. Two days ago I took along my industrial-strength tripod. This afternoon, I opted to go lighter with just the Gorilla Pod. It was useful for basically setting the camera on the ground without actually having to set it directly on the ground. The Gorilla Pod was able to keep the camera just off of the wet moss and ground.

Click on image to open gallery.

Jesus: Love, Compassion, and Justice

This week's (Lesson 9) lesson study subject is The Tenderness of His Love.

I think most Christians are quite aware of Jesus' love. There's a rather famous song, Jesus Loves Me, about the topic. I'm sure many non-Christians are also quite aware of it. So why do we need to discuss something that we should all be in agreement over?

The lesson text begins by proposing that the kind of love Jesus demonstrated is compassion. The memory text, Matthew 9:36, the lesson suggests demonstrates Jesus' kind of love.

What is compassion? When the word is taken apart and the roots examined, it turns into com- and -passion -- "with" and "suffer." We can, therefore, reasonably conclude that to shown compassion is to "suffer with" another party who is suffering. Is this the kind of love Jesus demonstrated? Did He suffer with the people around Him?

This brings up the age-old and difficult question that people have asked of God: What good is it for God to suffer with humans, if He doesn't do anything about it? In other words, is it enough for Jesus to simply suffer with us -- to feel the pain, disappointment, sorrow, hurts, rejections, etc. that we experience? If that is all God did for us, to just say, "I feel your pain," I don't think I'd want to have much to do with Him. Love that simply joins us in our suffering isn't enough.

If God is love, then it has to go beyond just compassion. It must act to right the wrongs that causes suffering. But as we look around us, we just don't see God intervening in most suffering that happens. Is God weak then? Or is there something else going on?

I don't have space nor the time to try to figure all this out during this post. What I observe in the studies this week is that compassion, as part of Jesus' foundational nature, is what moved Jesus into action:

• For the woman caught in adultery: He acted to save the woman while upholding the demands of the law. Kenneth E. Bailey in his recent book, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (ch. 17), proposes that the story of the woman caught in adultery can be seen as an allegory of the atonement. Bailey suggests that in the story, Jesus takes upon Himself the "wrath" that was directed against the woman.
• In the incident with the children coming to Him, Jesus acts to remove the obstacles (the disciples) that are in the way between them and Himself.
• In the story of Martha becoming annoyed with her sister Mary for stepping out of the accepted roles and norms of women, Jesus again acts to encourage the closeness that He desires with those who seek Him.
• As the lesson suggests, God, through Jesus, came to love His enemies. I don't think God ever looked upon people as enemies, but we certainly thought and behaved as enemies of God. Because of His compassionate nature, He could not help but be moved to act to restore us to Him.
• Throughout history and into the present time, God continues to act to bring people to the awareness that we need Him. Like Israel, however, each person is free to accept or reject the offer of salvation secured for us by Jesus at the cross. The cross and the resurrection is the promise that love and justice will someday prevail.

I can only begin to understand the depths of God's love and compassion. However faintly I can comprehend it, I think that it is precisely because of His tender love and compassion that He allows the world to continue on, so that as many people as possible will choose to accept His mercy and grace. One could argue that with population growth exploding, won't God have to wait forever? I have some thoughts and theories, but that would be going way off topic for this week.

In summary, compassion and justice are an integral part of God's love. Compassion is what causes God to act in order to save and to administer justice. My ideas of love and justice usually don't have much tenderness associated with them. That may be why I have such a difficult time understanding God's tender love for the people of this world. May I learn God's compassion and begin to make it a part of my being.

Sun - Day 6 out of 7 - into the muskeg

Yesterday didn't see any sun. Neither did it rain. So although the consecutive count of sunny days has been broken, I think I'll continue to count the sunny days until there is actual rain.

Today was a mixture of sun and clouds. It felt somewhat hot and muggy compared to this past week.

While out running errands yesterday, I noticed that the muskeg flowers were blooming. This afternoon I stepped out the back door, walked across our yard, and into the vacant lots behind our property. (Same route I took for snowshoeing this past winter.) There I spent some 2 to 2-1/2 hours wandering about the muskeg and taking photos of some of the flora and one fauna, a dragonfly.

As noted on the gallery page heading, I haven't spent any time with these images other than to sort them and convert them to JPEGs. There are a number of them where I took multiple frames with different exposures and I need to combine them. But that will all happen as time permits. With the weekend approaching, I get quite busy.

(Click on contact sheet image to open gallery page.)

Book Review: The Cross of Christ

The Cross of Christ: God's Work for Us by George R. Knight

Jesus' death on the cross is a (or the) central tenet of Christianity. Yet I think for many of us, myself included, it is one of the more confusing and complicated teachings to grasp. I've been wrestling with various theories about how the atonement works and how it deals with the problem of sin and God's judgment upon it. I readily admit that I am one of the multitudes of Christians uncomfortable with the sacrificial, substitutionary images of the atonement. George Knight recognizes this trend in Christian thought, and this book is his attempt to show why the substitutionary aspect of Christ's atonement must be the center around which all of Christianity forms.

I don't think I'm quite ready to fully embrace all that Dr. Knight writes, but what he has put into words seems to put more sense into the concept of the substitutionary atonement than some other things I've read in the past. What also seemed to help is Dr. Knight's differentiation between sin and sinners, and his recasting of God's "wrath" as God's "judgment" on sin. Even prior to reading The Cross of Christ, I could not simply dismiss the substitutionary aspects, because they do exist and seem fairly plain in the Bible. This book helped me become a little more comfortable with it.

I found it interesting that in the last couple of chapters, as Dr. Knight wraps up the different lines of thought, his summary of the practical applications of the atonement are very similar to ones I've also formed. It comes down to essentially two questions asked by God of every person. 1) Will you be happy living forever with Me in an environment of 100% selfless service, acting love to everyone else? 2) Will you trust Me and depend on Me for 100% of your needs? The atonement through Christ demonstrates God's justice and mercy, and also gives God the right to save everyone who answers affirmatively to these two questions. Conversely, those who respond negatively remain under the judgment (or wrath) already handed down against sin because through their responses, they choose to remain under the object judged. Dr. Knight's conclusion is that God's final act of mercy is to remove the misery of sin from even those who reject Him but placing them into an eternal sleep of the final death.

This isn't the easiest book to digest. However, it is written in a readable and engaging style. I think it's the concept that is just plain difficult to fully grasp (and as Dr. Knight mentions right up front, it's probably something that no one will ever do). I expect I'll be going back to it from time to time to try to better understand the atonement.

Overall I believe this book is good in getting a global perspective on the theme of the atonement. I'm also looking forward to the upcoming companion volume, Sin and Salvation.

Hot - Day 5

What more is there to say? No photos today. I actually tried to get a few things done. Rain is very helpful in keeping me focused on actually accomplishing things, rather than say go out for four hours on a bicycle.

Today I mowed the lawn, sweltered inside the house while working on some reading and writing, went out for a couple of errands, tried out a new creamy tomato pasta sauce, and helped Shelley make some lemon sherbet.

Clouds started coming in later afternoon. All weather forecasts say there is an even chance of showers tonight and into tomorrow, and a little bit of cooling. As for whether or not the skies will remain cloudy the rest of the week, the forecasts have differing opinions.

Many people about town have been seeing looking a little darker and/or red in their noses, faces, and arms. So the next time you want to get a little tan, you might look north... Hawaii better watch out!

The benefits of RAW image capture

There were a few images that I got yesterday that, on first look seemed to have completely blown highlights. But after using Capture One and dialing down the exposure, I saw that sufficient details were recoverable. Here are a couple of examples (click to see full resolution crops):

As shot

-1 stop

-2 stops

Above combined and worked in Photoshop

Full photo

 

As shot

-1 stop

-2 stops

Above combined and worked in Photoshop

 
Full photo

 

There are several disadvantages to RAW capture. The first is that it takes up more space than JPEGs. The second is that it takes more time (sometimes much more) on the computer for post-processing to make the images look like what I saw with my eyes. The third is that with action shots where I might be shooting continuously, RAW not only quickly fills up the memory card, because of its size it takes longer to write to the card; consequently it more quickly reaches the point where the camera buffer is full and continuous shots start to lag.

For landscapes and nature, I find RAW capture useful in preserving a wider dynamic range. If you have a camera that supports RAW capture and haven't really used it, you might consider it for some applications.

Sunny, Day 4 - Up to Frederick Point

(Updated entry. New text in this color.)

Today was another sunny, warm day in Petersburg. I went out for a mountain bike ride up to Frederick Point and around the loop back to town. I was out this way once before, last year, when it was quite miserable for a long bicycle ride -- drizzle, rain, and cold. It was completely different today. Today was also the first time I went up this road with cameras. It was quite scenic, with visibility all the way out to the distant mountains.

While riding along, probably in the second hour, I startled a couple of black bears. They might have been cubs. I took a quick 360-degree glance to see if there were any big bears in the road, on the hill, or in the nearby brush. And then I quickly decided to take leave of the area without waiting for a possible mama bear to come by. If I was with a group, perhaps I might have stuck around, but being all alone and out of cell phone range, I figured the wisest course of action was to make noise and go down the road. Fortunately I did not encounter any more bears or other predatory animals.

However, I ended up being out about an hour longer than I had planned. I didn't realize that the "Y"-intersection with the road that returns to Mitkof Highway was much farther out than I imagined. I thought the turn-off came at around 10-12 miles out. I kept going on, figuring the intersection would be just around the next corner, or just down the next hill. Frederick Road is a constant up and down with no respite. It's all dirt and gravel. When I finally did get to the intersection, it was 17 miles. And then it was another 4 miles after that back to the highway. When I finally reached the highway and saw that I was at Falls Creek rather than Twin Creek (where I thought I would come out), my morale was pretty much shot. It was 9 miles back to town instead of 6.

My muscles started to cramp and seize up, my right knee (the one that always has trouble) began to hurt. Once on the road I tried to call Elise, but coverage was still spotty. Not only that, but she was still asleep from working last night. I tried multiple times, and on about the fourth try, at around 5.5 miles back to town, I finally got a hold of her. Our girls needed picking up at about 4 miles, so I had her come out to pick all of us up. We met at about 2 miles out. I chose to continue on into town, or until my legs completely gave out. They did -- just about at the road going to our church. I was about to cramp in a terribly agonizing way. I worked myself into a position where there was least pressure and strain, and then I took the electrolyte capsules that I should have taken earlier. A few minutes later Elise came by, loaded the bicycle (Shelley helped) and me into the pickup, and got back home. I was just 1.5 miles from finishing the loop. How disappointing. I should have started taking the electrolyte capsules at about the second hour.

My arms are sunburned! I didn't think that could happen in Petersburg. But it did.

If you want to follow the route, click HERE to open a Google Maps to the starting point of my ride. (Wrangell Ave is where our house is located. From there I took N Nordic to Sandy Beach Road, and then to Frederick Sound Drive. The return to Mitkof Highway was on Three Lakes Loop Road.)

The first 1.5 hours was quite pleasant, and I got a few nice scenic images along the way. Click on contact sheet image to open gallery page.

Altered images

It's been quite some time since I've spent time experimenting with alternate visualizations of some of my photographs. I took some time this evening to have some fun coming up with alternate interpretations of what the camera saw. Our eyes and minds are constantly interpreting reality and subconsciously altering it to conform to what we want to see.

What you see below are a little of what my eyes and mind "saw" today.

Sermon: The Holy Spirit in John

(Click HERE for MP3 sermon audio.)

Today's sermon does a grand tour of the Gospel according John, working through passages that contribute to the theme of the Holy Spirit and to the theme of "replacement."

The first part of the recorded audio (about 1 minute 20 seconds) was a video slideshow showing three different images of a marching band, followed by Mickey Mouse, followed by a quote from our Shelley (when she was about 2 years old), "Is that the Holy Spirit?" referring to Mickey Mouse. The next few minutes tries to explain the context of the quote before I really get into the sermon.

I'm pretty sure I'm done with Disney-related sermon illustrations and introductions for quite some time now that there's been three in a row.

Sun, day 3

And it was HOT today. We drove out to Blind Slough picnic area. On the way back, the temperature gauge on our pickup indicated 78 to79 degrees. As we made our way back north, the temperature dropped to the lower to mid 70s. The airport weather station read 68 degrees.

Shelley, with the help of a few other girls, drew up enough courage to jump off the bridge and into the icy waters below. Amy waded out to her armpits, but then scampered back to shore.

(Click on image to open new page to gallery.)

Two sunny, warm days in a row

That's two. And we're counting. Though I myself might prefer somewhat cloudier conditions. I was in shorts this afternoon, during our afternoon picnic at Eagle's Roost Park. The one-week forecast doesn't have much clouds or rain in it. How high can we count?

  

Start of Memorial Weekend

And in Petersburg that means the start of the annual Salmon Derby. This morning at 7 am. the contestants signed-in and then raced off to their respective fishing locations. We saw a number of boats speed by shortly after 7 am.

You couldn't ask for a better day to kick things off. Absolutely clear, no clouds in the sky, sunny, warm, and not even a whole lot of wind.

This afternoon I took down my road bike for a spin down the south side of the island. Along the way I stopped a few times to take some photos. The absolute clearness of the sky is actually quite a bit of a problem for photos. Because I had just a limited amount of space to carry a camera, I debated whether to take my years-old compact digital, or take my DSLR with a fixed 35mm lens. This lens is very small, yet I find it to have pretty good image quality. I opted for the latter, simply because the image quality would be better and I'd have more flexibility in the PC during processing. The camera fit nicely into my small Camelbak compartment, so I was happy about that.

I had hoped to stop a few more times to capture a few more waterfalls along the way, but I started to feel ill and made a beeline back.

Anyway, here are a few of the sights from today.

 
 
 

Amy's Birthday

Yesterday was Amy's birthday. Her party will actually occur next week. However, we still got together for a small party.

Prior to that, during the afternoon, she and several others went to Papke's Landing where there is a nursery and a florist. They said that the flowers and plants there was simply amazing and beautiful -- the kind that makes you want to purchase everything there. They got a few things, including Amy, and she got a small handheld garden rake as a birthday gift. She also got a few wildflowers as a gift.

Here's the cake that we had in the evening.

   

Jesus: His Walk vs. Ours

The following are my comments on this week's lesson, Lesson 8: The Intensity of His Walk.

In my mind, this week's lesson tries to make two somewhat contradictory points. The first is that we, Jesus' disciples, ought to imitate His walk as described in the gospel accounts. The other point is that the gospel accounts are only the very end of His life: there is very little we know about how He lived between His birth and about thirty years of age.

The questions raised by this week's lesson are similar to last week's: how much of Jesus' life is something that we are to take and imitate as examples applicable directly to how we live life in the 21st century? And for me, as I write this, I also have to add the qualifier, "In the United States."

The big question for me regarding this lesson is: Does God expect and demand at all times the same level of "intensity" in my devotion to Him? Luke includes an interesting sentence (Luke 9:51) that seems to tell me that Jesus himself entered into a new level of intensity as he began his journey towards Jerusalem:

"When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem." (ESV, emphasis mine)

Is it even possible to retain the same level of intensity in one's life? A rubber band eventually becomes useless if it's kept at high tension for a long time. In fact it can eventually break. Could a Christian's efforts to imitate Jesus, to have an "intense walk" with God like Jesus did, lead to a breakdown? Could it turn into such a legalistic (defined as "trying to achieve something through one's own strength") effort that it leads a person away from God? For that matter, what does it mean to have "an intense walk" with God? In fact, what does it mean to "walk with God?"

The lesson text can give the impression that an "intense walk with God" somehow has to eliminate the enjoyable things -- fun, joy, friendships, joking, playing, hobbies, recreation -- from life (see Thursday's text). Now there may be times when there are certain summits to be reached that do call some of us to set aside some things in order to achieve the goals we believe God has called us to reach. But is that supposed to characterize the entire Christian walk, all the time, for every Christian? Again, I go back to the fact that the gospel records are primarily about the last 3-1/2 years of Jesus' life, and the majority of the accounts are the very last part of even those 3-1/2 years.

I also take issue with some of the text in Monday's lesson where it reads,

"He had to live completely above the sinful sphere... He had to remain immaculate. We might compare it to going through 33 years... and never making a single mistake."

I don't know about you, but on the surface the above could be inferred to mean that Jesus never made any mistake. And even further, it could be inferred that all mistakes are sin. I don't buy that and I don't go there. I don't believe that the effects of sin (some mistakes) are necessarily sin (c.f., Jesus' take on this in John 9 in the story of the man blind from birth).

I believe that Jesus could make mistakes and yet be without sin. If Jesus was unable to make mistakes while learning carpentry, in school, while learning about the physical world, how could He relate to how we learn? (How did Adam and Eve learn about the world? Did God teach them every specific detail and they carried it out precisely? Or did God provide general guidelines and then allowed them to learn through trial and error within the boundaries? Hmm...) Does this idea make Jesus any less divine, or does it allow us to identify better with Him?

For me, the main point of this week's study is that it is vitally important to balance Jesus' divinity with His humanity. If I overemphasize His divinity and try to use that portrait as my pattern, I could become disillusioned and discouraged. On the other hand, if I overemphasize His humanity, I might become self-sufficient and self-reliant. I believe there is a critical balance that must be maintained in how I see Jesus.

Logitech VX Nano Wireless Notebook Mouse

I've had this mouse for almost a month now and I have to say it is one great mouse.

It was about a year ago that the right mouse button died on a wired Microsoft notebook mouse. It's amazing how much use that right mouse button gets. Fortunately on notebook PCs, usually there's another way to perform right mouse button clicks. It was still quite inconvenient, however. I wasn't about to pay a king's ransom in Petersburg for a replacement mouse.

The day after we arrived in Oregon, I made a beeline to BestBuy to look at the wireless mice available. I looked at the different ones, but choosing the Logitech VX Nano was a no-brainer. The feature that was key to my decision was the USB receiver. It plugs in and only extends out maybe 1/4 inch. There is no need to unplug it when moving it about. There's no fear of bumping it and damaging it. If there is ever a need to unplug it, there is convenient storage for it inside the battery compartment.

The next feature that clinched the deal was the on/off switch located on the bottom of the mouse. Why has it taken so long for a wireless mouse to evolve to have this convenient feature, I wonder?

The feel of it is very good in my hands. I don't have huge hands, so a smaller, notebook-oriented size works much better. I have one of the original Microsoft wireless mice somewhere in storage. It was a good mouse, but I always thought it was a little too big for my hands.

I haven't personally seen great advantages of some of the other touted features such as the laser technology, or the hyper-fast scrolling. The forward/back buttons are somewhat more convenient in navigating web sites than using the browser forward/back buttons (or right mouse click and selecting the popup menu item). The carrying case is nice especially during transport inside a notebook bag to prevent more than necessary scratches on the mouse body. The unit also comes with a wired USB receiver for those that also want to use this with a desktop PC. (I suppose one could try to mouse in both notebook and desktop PCs at the same time... I just thought of it...)

You might be getting the impression that I really like this mouse, and you would be right. It's one I'd highly recommend to anyone looking for a new notebook (or even a desktop) mouse.