The Dawn Treader

Sounds like a good book.  Maybe the good folks at Worthy Publishing will send Mr. Dawntreader a reader's copy so I can review on my blog.

"He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way." ~ Psalm 25:9

I am camping out in Psalm 25 these days.  It is indeed rich pasture to graze in.  Today's truth comes from verse 9. Humility is a precondition to wisdom.  Indeed, it is the mark of wisdom.

The humble maintain a posture of honesty, repentance, teachableness, and faith.  You see these attitudes beautifully displayed in Psalm 25.

"Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins."
"For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great."
"Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions"

"Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths."
"Lead me in your truth and teach me"
"Good and upright is the Lord, therefore he instructs sinners in the way."

"O my God, in you I trust"
"for you I wait all the day long."
"Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me! Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you."

Humility is active.  It is a posture.  It is a way of living.  It is ongoing.  It is the hallmark of wisdom.

Lord, thank you for the full textured view of a humble, well-lived life in Psalm 25.  Help me to imitate such a life for your name's sake.

David at Jollyblogger eloquently and honestly reflects on the greatest danger of blogging to the Christian: self-promotion.

"Facing death does at least one thing that is marvelous – it frees you to be honest with yourself and with God.  I don’t have to pretend I was only sold out to Jesus through the years.  He knew I wasn’t, and since I may see Him soon, I have less reason to keep up the charade.  The truth is that I had many personal ambitions which I looked to stamp with His name on them.  These ambitions included a certain level of achievement within the church, recognition of gifts and ever expanding influence.  So in truth, my preaching and blogging served those ends to quite a degree."

David was a great influence on me in my early blogging years.  I admired his writing, wisdom and wit (and still do).  He blogged in a gospel-centered way that I found inspiring and worthy of imitating.  As I pursued blogging and began to experience early blogging success in 2004 and 2005, I began to taste the allure of self-promotion.  I began to make a name for myself.  I sensed that blogging had become part of my identity and self-worth.

Taking four years off from serious blogging has really helped me.  The danger is always there, however.

David's reflections are spot on and all of us who blog and name the name of Christ ought to read his post and pray and honestly reflect that we are in it for the right reasons.

David closes with this truth.

And I know this beyond a shadow of a doubt – self-promotion can not be accommodated in true Christianity.  In True Christianity, the self has to disappear, not be promoted.

I know one more thing beyond a shadow of a doubt.  Jesus died for people who find it hard to die for Him.  He’ll catch you when you are dying.  You don’t need that self you were trying to promote, you need His grace – to the degree you can ditch the self, to that degree you’ll get more of Him.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/evangelist-chuck-colsons-final-mission-spiritually-cloning-himself/2011/03/01/AB10oL9_story_1.html

An army of Centurions ... including Mr. Dawntreader.

http://townhall.com/MediaPlayer/AudioPlayer.aspx?ContentGuid=3d0c6821-ef92-43be-8ca9-02a5e7a17afb

I have spent some time discussing the movie with other knowledgeable fans of the Chronicles of Narnia.

Here are some further reflections.

I was hoping to love the movie, The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader.  I really was.  Unfortunately, I did not.

Beware ... spoiler alerts lurking.

I have never heard of Alex Jones in my life. Drudge linked him this morning, so I went and watched his Youtube video about the nation's sick obsession with Lebron James.

Given my worldview convictions about God's sovereignty, I don't freak out about the U.S. collapsing the way Jones does and some of my conservative and libertarian leaning friends do.  The state of our nation and our world is, and always was, in God's capable hands.  Even Rome in 410 A.D. was in God's hands, right?  Nevertheless, there is a grain of truth in what Jones is saying about the state of our nation.

I agree with Jones that we are largely a nation of non-thinkers who would rather worship and obsess about Lebron James than spend the time to read a book or think critically about life.   Sports (and celebrity worship, did you hear the latest about Lindsay Lohan?) has become the major religion of culture.   It is what people use to fill the hours and escape the boredom and in some cases pointlessness of reality.

By far, the most disturbing part of Alex Jones' video was seeing the governor of Ohio serenade Lebron James to stay in Cleveland.  That "we are the world" moment was unsettling at best and nauseating at worst.  Did that really happen?

Song : Slide

Song Writer : John Rzeznik

Group : Goo Goo Dolls

The group has sold nearly nine million albums in the U.S. alone.  While not a huge Goo Goo Dolls fan, I enjoy their ballads (e.g. Iris, Slide).  Recently I was learning to play the bass line to Slide.  It is a hooky (i.e. catchy) song and the upbeat chord progression is played in a beautiful A# minor pentatonic.  The song reached number one in 1998 and 1999.

I never closely listened to the lyrics, however.  I thought the song was a love ballad about two young people falling love and wanting to get married, mainly because of the words "I wanna wake up where you are" and "Do you wanna get married?".

The key to the song lies in the second verse.