A late response

I was today made aware of this somewhat old post that Simone ... um ... posted. I thought it amusing.

In the Christmas season spirit of bitterness, then, I thought I'd post this. For all you jilted lovers out there. And anyone else. If you like.

Oh, and try not to look at the lyrics before listening to the song. That might spoil it.

I hope that our few remaining friends
Give up on trying to save us
I hope we come up with a failsafe plot
to piss of the dumb few that forgave us
I hope the fences we mended
Fall down beneath their own weight
And I hope we hang on past the last exit
I hope it's already too late
and I hope the junkyard a few blocks from here
Someday burns down
And I hope the rising black smoke carries me far away
and I never come back to this town again
in my life
I hope I lie
and tell everyone you were a good wife
and I hope you die
I hope we both die
I hope I cut myself shaving tommorow
I hope it bleeds all day long
Our friends say it's darkest befor the sun rises
We're pretty sure they're all wrong
I hope it stays dark forever
I hope the worst is'nt over
I hope you blink before I do
and I hope I never get sober
and I hope when you think of me years down the line
you can't find one good thing to say
and I hope that if I found the strength to walk out
You'd stay the hell out of my way
I am drowning
there is no sign of land
your are coming down with me
Hand in unloveable hand
and I hope you die
I hope we both die

My awesome wife

Check out this very cool collection of Christmas cards that she made out of bits of scrap. They're designed to celebrate the incarnation, God stepping into His own creation, which is an absolutely mind-blowing concept. The series shows Jesus (Ie, the infinite God) involved in a series of mundane situations, with the title 'God in skin' highlighting the absurdity and the verses providing amusing reference points.

Enjoy some of my favourites.

Still only 'back-ish'

Everything is both relative and absolute. Everything has at least its existence as an absolute. Nothing exists in and of itself but in relation to the rest of creation.

When you make anything one but not the other, you run into problems in your thinking.

Back! mostly...

After a very busy holiday period and some craziness with computers blowing up, I'm hoping to be back in business soon.

Please pray that my motherboard isn't stuffed. :s I may possibly have managed to stuff it worse by trying to fix it, though I can't understand how I could have and hope I haven't.

The meaning of 'Kutuzov'

An excerpt from a conversation with Lubov Alexcyeyevna Kutuzov, my babushka.

PK: What does our last name mean?

(pause)

LK: I think, how do you say, 'booze bus'.

PK: What do you mean? It's like a breathe tester? *confused*

LK: It is where you lock people up. Not for being charged or going to prison but just for when they've had too much vodka.

PK: Oh, so like the watch-house?

LK: I guess so.

An apology

Sorry for my lack of posting. I've had a tough* week or two. I'll be back posting hard and fast soon, probably only a couple before this weekend, though.

*By tough, I mean in my head. The actual things I've had to do haven't really been too bad. College is over, which means all the things you put off because of college stuff rear their ugly heads.

T-shirts #8

This is the first one that I've actually done since I started the blog. The others were all from a year ago when I should have been listening to an intensive at QTC.

Here'sa my latest work. Fresh from the sewing machine this morning:



Phew! Just did a quick search and I did spell 'Driscoll' right.

Seriously messed up

I was sitting there, thinking this thought which was, in a way, quite sinful. And then, suddenly, it hits me that my wife is about to start teaching her Scripture class. I hurriedly start praying for her, the kids and the truth of the message that she'll be teaching them. All the while, I'm feeling very weird about making such prayers, because of the immediately preceding thought.

Such contradiction in such a short space!

So after I pray, I want to continue thinking along the sinful lines that I had been previously. I genuinely wanted to. I really needed to distract myself with something productive to give that thought room to leave.

Jesus, I be a messed up follower.

Joel Olsteen's latest

Check the original here.

What happens when a society loses trust?

The poor get exploited.

Psalm 12 goes:

To the choirmaster: according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.

Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone;
for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.
Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;
with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

May the LORD cut off all flattering lips,
the tongue that makes great boasts,
those who say, "With our tongue we will prevail,
our lips are with us; who is master over us?"

Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan,

"I will now arise", says the LORD; "I will place him in the safety for which he longs."
The words of the LORD are pure words,
like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times.

You, O LORD, will keep them;
you will guard us from this generation forever.
On every side the wicked prowl,
as vileness is exalted among the children of man.

The Psalm seems to be saying that the end result of lies and deception in a culture is that the poor and the needy are exploited and oppressed. Particularly so, if you (as I do) see the Psalm chiastically (sp?), with v5a as a sort of interpretive key.

If the first casualty of war is the truth, the first casualties of the absence of truth are the vulnerable.

And yet, God's response isn't to cut off the lips of the wicked, as requested. They keep on. What he does do, is to speak into the situation himself. But his words are true. Truth that will guard his people for the duration, until the day when he will finally give David what he prayed for.

Brothers and sisters speaking the word

We must keep a close watch on ourselves and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing we will save both ourselves and our hearers.

You know what I hate?

When you're inspired with interesting thoughts on an idea, and then decide to go research the net to see if it's been talked about in other place, and then you read some up-themselves people talking about how passe it all is and then you lose inspiration.

>:-(

Back now...

And I'm alive. :) Pretty unscathed, just a knock or two.

Scored a goal from half-way, but the team went down 4-1. I just smacked it as hard as I could, nice and low. It was straight at the keeper, swerved about 1mm, or perhaps 1pm, and he didn't keep it out.

Such are the things that make a night like that ok.

Oh, and the fact we had Tim Moore. And Tim Moroney. Do I like all the Tims I play soccer with, or is it just these two? Could it be that I have a genetic pre-disposition to enjoy the company of Tims who play soccer?

Or is it that Tim bought me a beer?

Right, I'm off then.

To play 6-a-side soccer. I've finished my final assignment (Huzzah!) and am now officially free. (Except for the sermon prep I have to do that I've not had a chance to do properly yet)

So, who thinks it's a good idea to play soccer after doing 2 straight all-nighters?

I'll let you know how I get on in a few hours...

I need an extrinsic telos

Now you're all thoroughly confused.

My wife watched on in amusement today at my behaviour in the pool. Usually unable to swim laps for enjoyment, it seemed to her that I had found a method of doing so. This being the appearance on the outside, I was actually just playing with my ball.

A tennis ball.

The game is to stand at one end of the pool and throw the ball in order to hit the section of the pool wall showing above the water, like so:
See, it's not that easy, eh?

So, after each attempt I would swim to the other end of the pool to fetch said tennis ball, which mostly hit the water before the wall, or overshot the wall. My wife found this very amusing, given that neither can I run for any given length of time unless there is the prospect of a soccer ball being at the end of one of the next 20 strides. Upon retrieval of said ball, the process was repeated, but facing the opposite wall.

This activity led to much philosophical speculation about the nature of our marriage and the differences between men and women, enjoying the process not the goal vs the telos but not the journey, etc, but we'll just keep that between ourselves.

Do you chase balls like a puppy?

The first all-nighter...

Now that wasn't so bad, was it? Now for just one more and the year is finished...

Ps. I don't recommend handing in 100% of one of your assessment for one ACT unit in the space of 20 hours.

Things I've said to my wife

Don't think of me as a nice guy who doesn't like you.

Think of me as an arsehole who loves you.

Just when you think Richard's a genius...

... someone else has already thought of this as a word.

That's ok Richard. I still think you're a genius.

I had an awesome idea for a post!

I had it 2 days ago. I've been trying to remember it ever since.

Just sit back and pretend you're enjoying the enlightenment and savvy of a witty and pithy post.

Stop the Melbourne Cup?

This article was interesting to hear coming from someone other than the usual Christians I hear ranting about this topic. I also think

The comment by Zibethicus, however, is really worth a look. Scroll down after skimming the article.

The righteous sufferer

In many of the psalms of lament or complaint the speaker uses the first person singular (‘I’, ‘me’, ‘my’) and frequently asserts innocence and/or faithfulness to YHWH. Who is the ‘righteous sufferer’? Why is the person suffering? Consider various answers.
This was my brief for my last assignment. There've been plenty of (some dodgy) answers given since the start of textual criticism. Mostly because they decided that most psalms were written post-exile. Here's the last paragraph of the essay. (Full essay available to masochists via email upon request)

How shall we then read?

The strength of the argument for a representative king shows us that not all parts of all psalms can be directly appropriated by Christians, but in the light of the Christ’s reign. The strength of the ‘everyman’ argument is not found in its power to explain the origin of the psalms, but to describe their function. The individual laments came to be collected and used centrally partly because of their empathetic value. That many of them came from David in no way lessens their value for the everyman. In fact, for those who hold David dearly, it increases it. Individual laments are not open windows into that great man’s life, but portraits and self-portraits of it that the everyman can gaze at. Depending on the portrait he might see Christ, himself or both, and be instructed.

Hmm.... perhaps posting excerpts from assignments isn't the best idea after all. That didn't really make sense, did it?

Who do YOU think the righteous sufferer is?

How to be a good lover

According to 1 Timothy, it comes from:

A pure heart
A good conscience
A sincere faith

I could psychoanalyse this stuff and demonstrate just how each of these are absolutely necessary for real and true love, but perhaps I'll do a Paul and just say them, and leave it for you to ponder.

Perhaps you could share your wisdom with each other in the comments about how it works...

Big or small?

I posted this the other day, describing Simone's as a 'lovely and personal little blog'. Why did I stick the 'little' in there? What makes me think of her blog in that way? More generally, what makes a blog, big? I can imagine describing some blogs as 'monsters', even though the first page is only as long as any other.

Is it the weighty theological issues that are/aren't posted? Is it the average post-length? The busy-ness of the web page? What blogs do you read that you would describe adjectivally because of its vibe?

How would you describe this blog? Ambivalent? Turbulent? Flatulent? Opulent? Fraudulent? Covalent? (the nerds will love that one) Virulent?

The possibilities are endless!

Is it a crime?

I play an online football management simulation game called hattrick. It's a very cool game. It currently has 913,447 active users from all over the world. Over 4,000 of these are in my 'country', Oceania. (It's the only 'nation' in Hattrick (HT) that isn't a true nation)

I've managed to make it into the top league of Oceania. Currently, I'm sitting in 2nd place because of a completely undeserved loss last Sunday.

The question is, should I be happy about this achievement, or does this cast me into nerd-dom and and loser-dom and other-doms forever?

Commentors, how does your inner nerd express itself?

Shirts #6

While I'm doing these little 'spurt posts', I might as well give you a shirt to go along with it. For all you Germaine Greer fangirls out there who are simultaneously computer geeks reading xkcd:

I hate

My phenomenal lack of memory. I feel like I am robbed of profound thoughts, beautiful memories and encouraging reminders every single minute.

I am constantly mourning what I continue to lose every day.

Good advice

Simone R. (who writes this lovely and personal little blog) gave me this good bit of advice the other day that I'm benefitting from. This is my recollection anyways, so don't (a) blame Simone for poor sentence construction or (b) get confused by the quotation marks.

"When I was going through my questioning time at college I decided that I had to have an anchor. I made my anchor the Bible. Everything and anything else could be wrong. Everyone else in the world could be wrong. The whole of history of the church could have got this thing wrong. But I decided that the Bible must be right. And it was very freeing."

I think that was about it. A good tip.

A series of deep thoughts: post #1

Everything is spin. Everything.

Apology and shirt #5

Sorry about my lack of posting lately. I'm trying to make up for it with a mini-marathon this morning.

Here's another shirt for y'all.

This is definitely the best edition I've seen of this classic piece of theological writing.

The big bang

Explosians are cool. And while this guy actually isn't cool enough not to look at his own explosions, he's still pretty cool. And by cool, I mean nerdy. Which is cool. When you're making blowing things up. And even sometimes when you're not.

A public perception of Christianity...

This article was quite interesting to me. I know that Christians are always dealing with the perceptions (often wrong) of non-Christians on how they ought to be acting. This particular version, however, hits interesting points because of the public character of the debate.

Does K. Rudd's stance on asylum seekers have any conflict with his Christian morality?

Interestingly, the comments on the article itself take a singularly 'anti-Rudd' bent.

Shirt #4

I don't have the energy for any cool theological insights, or even mediocre ones. So, you just get a shirt.



This one may mean more to you if you've seen the shirts that proliferate the Fortitude Valley markets, saying:

"I've found Jesus! - he was hiding behind thecouch the whole time!"

Education at its finest

It has recently come to my attention that not everyone has been introduced to Strongbad's emails. This should be rectified.

This is the first ever SBemail.
Some kinda robot

This is one that a friend's child from church showed me a drawing of today.
dragon

This one is especially for those child educators out there.
kids' book

Check them all here.

Oh,and this one is especially good for you fans of fine Japanese anime.
japanese cartoon

Enjoy!

Shirts #3

Thought I'd put up another one to keep y'all interested. Or shaking your heads. Either way.

If you're familiar with the local State member for Brisbane Central, Grace Grace (true story), then perhaps you'll like this one:

A bolt from the bloon...

Just spent 4 hours straight in the same position, hunched over a bunch of balloons. It was great. :) Our church put on a community movie night for free in the park. The movie was Bolt. See more evidence of the evening at Simone's blog.

I enjoyed making cool things for the kids. What would have made it better was if there was less pressure to make them more quickly. It was too many, too quickly to sit back and enjoy the look on each face as they got their masterpiece, and by the end I was too glazed over to really chat to them much as I worked. Still, nice to bring some joy.

I managed to create some dogs, giraffes, bumblebees, swords, hummingbirds, hats, jester hats, cats (bearing remarkable skeletal similarity to the dogs and giraffes) and flowers. I think that's it. If I can get hold of a picture I'll post it here.

Edit: Here 'tis! I'm really not that fat though (quite), honest! It's just the shirt is ballooning out...



The back is sore now, but hopefully some kids feel blessed and have thanked God for their night, and so God gets glory.

Shirts #2

Here 'tis. For all you Rick Warren fans out there. (Concept IP in connection with Nathan Campbell of St. Eutychus fame.)

Anything you ask for...

Now, perhaps like many of you, I've heard a lot of defences for why "ask for anything and you'll get it" doesn't mean "ask for anything and you'll get it". Perhaps, like me, you've always thought that they sounded weak as a skinny white guy drinking diet-caffeine-free coke on a weekday.

Especially that whole smug "Well, what does 'in my name' mean then, hey?" comment. Pffft....

Well, today I was priveleged to have a crack at translating John 15, and get a bit of an insight into what is going on under the hood. It comes up a couple of times, but in particular vv16-17 are one which seem different in Greek than in English.

ESV:

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
(Joh 15:16-17)

Now this is a good translation, I'm not complaining about it. What I had missed previously was 2 things.

1: The links between the sentences: the 'that's and the 'so that's.
2: That everything in the sentence after the first 'should' is in what is called the subjunctive mood. That means, it's a more hypothetical way of speaking. This is what the 'should' is trying to achieve.

Putting these together, you could outline the verse like so:

You did not choose me, but I chose you and have placed you
- so that
- - - - you might go
- - - - and you might bear fruit
- - - - and your fruit might remain
- so that
- - - - whatever you might ask the father in my name
- - - - he might give to you

When placed in this context, and so understood as a purpose statement (ie, it is the goal of the choosing, not a universal promise) it starts to look a little different to my eyes.

However, I don't think this gets completely gets Jesus off the hook for me not being in Spain playing professional roller hockey. More to come tomorrow. (some hints in the bolding)

Tonight I really feel like ...

I ought to have something inspired and inspiring to say. Some thought that plumbs just one depth of the human experience. (This is a lot harder to do when in a headlock from your wife. Much nicer though.)

You know, those times when you feel that the depths of your heart are in tune with the souls of those who have gone before, knowing just what they've been through, and they're looking on, understanding just how it is for you. And it just feels like it's that kind of night when that thing should be communicated.

Do you ever get those nights?

Chemical changes when inner thoughts meet reaily

LsI + 6Fp + HhS -> 1Aa + 20NMa

Legend:
LsI = Lame skit idea.
Fp = Face Paint.
HhS = Hey hey it's Saturday.

Aa = Angry American
NMa = Negative media attention

Shirts I may one day market #1

For a while now I've been contemplating entering the t-shirt design game. Nothing popular, mind you. No, that's way too mainstream for me. See, I'm old skool me, from the back streets. Cult classic, not best-seller.

So, I've decided that before exposing them to people in *gasp* 'real life', I'll post a few of the designs that I've done here, on the blog.

If anyone wants one, or likes them, then please let me know in the comments! :)

And now, for my first effort.


If you're a man looking for love, or trying to re-kindle it, then this is the shirt for you! For those blokes who aren't too bright, have a 5-second memory or the attention span of a 3-month old, this is the must-have book of the summer (so you can find your 'summer girl'). Voila!

Reminding myself of the truth

I decided to try to write something to remind myself of some important things. It turned into a series of chiasmic thingies. Here 'tis. (Certain specifics removed)

You are:

A loved and wanted son of your God.

Talk to him and listen to him.

You love and want to be close to him.

A loved and wanted husband of M.

Pray for her, talk to her and listen to her.

You love and want to be close to her.

A loved and wanted member of your church, and the rest of Jesus' family.

Pray for them, talk to them and listen to them.

You love them and want to be close to them.

A loved and wanted brother and friend of DL, KP, BS, NC, PB, MC, TM and TF.

Pray for them, talk to them and listen to them.

You love them and want to be close to them.

A loved and wanted citizen/stranger of Brisbane.

Pray for her, be part of her and listen to her.

You love and want to see her redeemed.

What do you do ...

... when you're really behind in your assignments?

Tips anyone?

Theologians have strange...

... taste in book covers.

Remember this post? Well Billy Dumbrell liked it so much that he made it the front cover of his book. My Dad found a copy somewhere. Needless to say there weren't many of this edition printed, and the next printing saw the publishers overruling the fetish with something a little less ... aerobic.

Mixed futsal is...

... weird.

(1) After you beat a couple of players and just feel like smashing the ball past the keeper, you can't. Because your team can't have a male score 2 goals in a row, the next must be scored by a female.

(2) Some guys get physical and competitive, and hack and hit you. This would be fine in blokes only futsal, when I'd simply smash the guy in return and then he wouldn't touch me again. However, it's mixed, and you can't play angry in mixed. It's just constricting somehow.

(3) Girls play sport strangely.

As I said, weird.

a bit of a stretch

My friend Daniel assures me that this is "not the kind of picture of Samson that I was looking for!" I certainly hope he's telling the truth.

He found it here.

He walked on the water, and swam on the land...

Just in translating John 6 today, have you ever wondered what it was like watching Jesus walk on the water? The waves were really big, so how did it work? I mean, was he just sortof floating, and as the waves went up and down he did too? Or did he kind of just pass through the waves? Or did he just happen to chart a path where the waves always manage to kindof move around him so he just kept walking straight?

This is probably the deepest post on John from me yet, so take a deep breath before responding.

Chemical changes when inner thoughts meet reality

SuSo2 + M -> Sl + PrM

Legend:
Su = Suave
So = Sophisticated
M = Male

Sl = Sleazy
Pr = Pretentious

Why has the church failed???

Why does society still suck? Why doesn't the gospel convert everyone who hears it? Why the denominational wars and so many people who proudly wear the badge 'Christian' and yet seem to deny it by their actions?

Emil Brunner has an interesting answer:

No Christian possesses absolute faith, no one is is really wholly converted, if regard these expressions empirically.

It also forms part of the incognito of Christ that the final significance, the absolute turning point, which His Cross means, can never appear historically in its effects.

It's all because of the 'incognito' of Christ, his veiled-ness. Reckon he's onto something?

#1 | Connection is ...

... the difference between a good beard and a bad beard.

I can't...

...ever find the right aisle in the supermarket for what I want. Regardless of how massive the tinned tuna secion is.

Is it because I'm male?

Chemical changes when inner thoughts meet reality

FJ -> NfJ

Legend:
F = Funny
Nf = Not funny
J = Joke

What did a faithful Israelite believe?

My favourite 2-hour period of the week is the 2 hours on a Tuesday when I translate a chapter or so of John's gospel. Not least because it means I feel good about my ability to translate when it's really because John is the easiest thing in the world to translate!

Now, on to another cool discovery.

John 5:46(ESV)
For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.

However, the word 'believe' is both times in the imperfect tense. (ἐπιστεύετε) This means it is talking about a continuous action that happened in the past. The following translation would bring this out more:

For if you were believing Moses, then you were believing in me.

I reckon this is a fascinating little saying of Jesus. Is he essentially saying here that a faithful Israelite who was trusting in the testimony of the OT that pointed to Christ was in effect trusting in Him?

Very cool.

Why I like roller hockey

Because you can smash someone if they're being a tool without worrying about causing them a career-threatening injury.

Unlike football(soccer), where you're playing the ball with the same thing you've got your weight on, and can snap someone real easy... So it's not as simple to sort someone out when it needs doing.

Potentially socially awkward . . . #1

... a toilet that only flushes for as long as you hold down the button.

Journalism 2.0?

Having just watched the Media Watch 20th anniversary special (old news, I know) I've been quite interested in the future of journalism now that the web has become the source, and mode of transportation, for information.

This has affected print newspaper sales to the point where the format has been described as a 'dead duck'. And yet, even the web media of papers reputable in print seem to have succumbed to the temptations of tabloid journalism with plenty of freak and celeb goss stories being posted every day.

So, where will the journalism fraternity end up? Are they a dinosaur waiting to die out? Will the industry collapse, or merge into the seedy world of blogs?

The year's funniest fringe

Dan Antopolski was awarded this year's Edinburgh Fringe Funniest Joke for this 'gem'.

"Hedgehogs - why can't they just share the hedge?"

Some of rest of the top 10 were:

Paddy Lennox - "I was watching the London Marathon and saw one runner dressed as a chicken and another runner dressed as an egg. I thought: 'This could be interesting'."

Jack Whitehall - "I'm sure wherever my dad is; he's looking down on us. He's not dead, just very condescending."

Marcus Brigstocke - "To the people who've got iPhones: you just bought one, you didn't invent it!"

Rhod Gilbert - "A spa hotel? It's like a normal hotel, only in reception there's a picture of a pebble."

Dan Antopolski - "I've been reading the news about there being a civil war in Madagascar. Well, I've seen it six times and there isn't."

Simon Brodkin (as Lee Nelson) - "I started so many fights at my school - I had that attention-deficit disorder. So I didn't finish a lot of them."

You'll thank me for not sharing the 'worst jokes' list...

So, do you reckon any of these will make a sermon illustration in the next few weeks?

How do you deal with...

Being the weak link in the team?

Today I played in a soccer quarter-final, and the game ended 2-2. I'd played pretty well, I thought. Then came extra time, and I really dug deep, and thought I'd helped out the team with my performance, but we didn't manage to score.

So, penalty shootout it was.

I put my hand up to take one, and was taking the last kick of the 5. I had to score, or we lost and our season was over.

I did not score.

Where to go?

This is a topic which was touched on here, but not directly.

How do you decide where to go in ministry?


Some of the factors I hear bandied around are:

Need: Where have people not yet heard the gospel? Where are they the most downtrodden and in need of Jesus' transformative power? How can they believe if they have never heard? And how can they hear without a preacher?

Gifting: I should find out my 'gift-mix' and work out what the best utilisation of my unique combination of strengths and weaknesses is. Where can my particular abilities be put to the most use?

Passion: Shouldn't I just do what I'm passionate about? Surely that means I'll do it better, and have a greater impact for the kingdom, as well as fulfilling those ends that God gave me the desire to achieve?

A 'call': Clearly I should only do what I've felt and inner calling from God about. Otherwise I could find myself working at cross-purposes to God.

'Strategicness': Tim Keller would say we need to reach the cities and then let the gospel work its way out from there, just like Paul did. Should strategy be the key factor in our decision on where to do ministry?

Personal/Family 'fit': How much of a part should my 'fit' into a type of ministry as a person and a family come into it? If my kids like the city, does that mean I shouldn't go overseas or go country? What if they've got medical issues?

Now some of these are as much paradigms for decision-making as much as they are factors for decision making. Please feel free to reject or pick apart all the paradigms/dichotomies/ that you want! What are the strengths and weaknesses of using each of these?

How should we then build?

Now, while I haven't decided yet what I think about the final conclusion of this monster post, I think there's some interesting food for thought in there. The juicy bit is the critique of 'the trappings of modern evangelicalism' which he claims actually put people off, instead of inviting them in.

This oughta set the cat amongst the pigeons...

Also, has anyone seen a good piece on a Biblical view of efficiency/economy/utility?

How does God give the Spirit?

To be honest, I'm not quite sure. But I do know how he doesn't give Him to us.

My translation of John 3:34 (which, some Greek scholar can correct me on later) I think is actually more encouraging than the standard:

"For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. "

I think a more literal rendering for the final phrase would be:

"for he does not give the Spirit with a measuring cup."

I really like that. It's not all gushy about how generous God is, it's a beautifully negative statement about God not using a measuring cup when he liberally pours out the Spirit. I like that image. No stingy shop owner making sure he doesn't give too much away, no finicky worrying about putting too much flour in a cake.

God just pours.

A bit dusty...

Luther reckoned the early church fathers were to the Scriptures what a sackful of coal dust is to a glass of milk. Fair call?