Hidden Meanings, Masonic Secrets, Google and Enlightenment
He has done it again! Another best selling book by Dan Brown about Robert Langdon's journeys to find secrets surrounding the mysterious history of faith. (Note: Spoiler alert! Just got done reading the book myself and I am glad no one spoiled it for me so don't read below unless you want to know what happens... and if you want to know what happens that is cheating in my opinion. This is not sparknotes.com, it is my blog so don't expect to get all the information... ok back to the point).Sadly, what I would like to inform people is that if Robert Langdon had known his Bible and the origin of languages better, he would have understood for himself that what Katherine and Peter So

Rainbows in Jesus' Teachings
(No, Jesus does not reference the story of Noah... but on a side note I did watch Evan Almighty the other day... funny movie!)Now I don't normally come home and blog immediately after church, I like to eat breakfast first. But I am doing this as a special favor to Suzanne, with whom I had this conversation, and for Scott, who preached this morning which prompted the conversation with the former. (P.S. Great job Scott! I hope you enjoy my reply).This week's Gospel reading was from Mark 10:17-22, which is the story of the Rich Man who asks Jesus how he can obtain salvation and Jesus tells him to sell all of his possessions and the man leaves distressed because he ha

Bound for a world called Academia
(Movie announcer voice with fantasy movie music in the background) "The journey of one young adult through seminary bound towards a world called... Academia. A world full of books and papers, where imagination brings forth power..."Haha, right. I wish it were that glorious! I found out that my destination was this world called Academia. A world of facts and scientific reasoning (although applied mainly in my path to literature).Why bring this path up?Because recently, I have been struggling to handle the midterm assignment in my Pastoral Care class. I don't deal well with not having concrete answers, or a real way of deducting these concr

"Things are Looking Up"
As I reflect on my last week or so, I am reminded of a wonderful song by Gershwin, "Things are Looking Up." It goes a little like this:Things are looking up!It's a great little world we live in!And I'm happy as a pup since [life] looked up at me.(I changed the word in brackets to life instead of love because that is what the way it should go...)Life has looked up at me. I got a work study job (finally!) in the library working on the "Friends of the Library" program that is non-existent at this point and also putting together shelving in the remodeling process. I also just got a job at Buffalo Wild Wings (again) working as a server when the new st

The use of O.T. vs. H.B.
Okay... I need to do a little bit of complaining about something that has been bothering me for quite some time. In my Masters of Theological Studies program the title of my specialization is "Old Testament" (it is labeled on my grid for graduation). The first time I saw that I just said "Hmm... that is interesting" because it had been quite some time since I had seen the terminology "Old Testament" used in an academic setting. Then I saw it again as the title for a class. I thought "Okay, this is getting ridiculous!"I prefer to use the title "Hebrew Bible" to avoid offense and because that was what I was taught in undergrad (BTW Thanks Jessica!). I understand t