The random technotheolosophical blogging of Reid S. Monaghan
Theologically, Christians of all stripes believe that Jesus will some day bring the fullness of the Kingdom of God to the earth at the end of history. Yet there are various views of how all this will go down.
Graphics like this make me realize that the Christian family has all manner of strange views…this stuff makes me thankful that I do not believe in the Pre-trib dispensational view. Blessings to all my friends who do :-)
Let me first say that I love music, but am no music snob. I don’t know what bands are it and what bands are poo-poo. I am also not a musician and know more about choking someone out with certain wrestling holds than I do about the fret of a musical instrument. Yet I am a human being…and I do like music.
I have to say I love the new album from our friends at Sojourn Community in Louisville. I am not going to review the album, I’ll let the experts do all that schmack talking…what I will say about the new album - Over the Grave - The Hymns of Issac Watts Vol 1 is this: Get it now...
The good people over at Sojourn Music have taken the excellent poetry and lyrical hymn writing and mixed it up a bit. Well, strike that - they have writtent their own music, arranged and dropped killer tracks with these killer words. If you are new to Sojourn - their Before the Throne is very good as well.
Brooks Ritter just kills it on the track “Living Faith” - it also vibed awesomely with a message I am working on for this weekend.
Enjoy
It is a wonderfully clear teaching of the Bible that our God is a giver. He is generous and his nature is to lavish good gifts upon his kids. God is kind in giving us Jesus as our rescuer and king and he gives the gift of the Spirit to empower us for service and be an ever present help to us in the struggles of life. Furthermore, God gives spiritual gifts and callings to his people to help them fulfill his ministry on the earth to build them up individually and as a community.
In this essay we are going to look at how the triune God of Scripture gifts his church. We will do this by first looking at the biblical doctrine of the Trinity and learning together about Father, Son and Spirit. We will then look at three major biblical passages on spiritual gifts and how each person of the Trinity is involved in gifting his church. Finally, we will conclude with a focus on the reason or purpose for which God gives gifts to his people. One note is in order as we begin.
Depending upon what sort of spiritual situation you grew up in, the term “spiritual gifts” could mean absolutely nothing, absolutely everything!!! or simply be a strange term of confusion. This essay is not getting into the issues which separate charismatic and non charismatic Christians. If that doesn’t mean a thing to you, no worries, just read on. If you have a spiritual gifts fight to pick about “those spiritually dead churches” or “those crazy charismatic people” drop the gloves and read on; there is something bigger going on with spiritual gifts that we all need to hear and heed. Now to something much simpler, the Trinity—uh, yeah right.
The creator God is completely unique; God is holy, there is simply no one and no thing like Him. The God revealed to us in our ancient writings is marvelously one, yet a loving community of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The book of Ephesians is one of the most Trinitarian writings in the Bible. Father, Son and Spirit seem to pervade all Paul’s thoughts of God. We notice this profoundly in his prayer which closes chapter three.
14For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19 (ESV)
The mystery of the triunity of God is one of the most precious, deep, holy and wondrous truths of our faith.1 Though this will be but a miniscule treatment of the wonder of the Trinity, please see the notes for two recent works on the subject for further reading.2 We will first briefly describe each person and role of the Triune God and then move towards how this God gifts his church.
The Bible often refers to God as “Father” and this was the preferred description used by Jesus to describe him. The Father is the initiator of creation, the sovereign sustainer of creation and the all wise ruler of all things. The Father is also the one who decreed to redeem the world through the Son. The Father is the blessed one, a spiritual being who is worshipped and praised in spirit and in truth (John 4:23,24). When the New Testament speaks of “God” in a general sense, it is usually the Father which is in view.
The Son is second person of the Trinity and the one through whom creation came into being (Colossians 1:16, Hebrews 1:1-3). The Son is also the one who was sent by the Father into our world to be its Savior. The Son fully reveals the character of the Father (John 14:1-11; Hebrews 1:1-3), is our redeemer who died for sins and was raised from the dead by Father and Spirit (Acts 13:26-33; Romans 8:11; Galatians 1:11). The Son is the head of the church which is his body (Ephesians 4:15,16; Colossians 1:15-24) and he is LORD, God’s appointed King who will rule and reign forever. The Son is the world’s appointed judge and only savior (John 5:22-30; Acts 17:31).
The Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity who was the active agent in creation (Genesis 1:2). The Spirit is given to the church by the Father and sent by the Son (John 14:26, 15:26) to teach us, help us, comfort us and empower us for service (John 14:15-26; 1 Corinthians 12; 1 John 2:26,27). The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin (John 16:8-11), makes believers alive to God (John 3:1-8; Titus 3:5) dwells in the believer and the church (2 Timothy 1:14) and represents a foretaste of the coming Kingdom. The Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing the promise of God and our coming inheritance with him (2 Corinthians 5:5; Ephesians 1:14).
There are four main passages in the New Testament which speak of God’s giving of spiritual gifts to his people. Interestingly enough, God the Father, Jesus the Son and The Holy Spirit are said to be the giver of these gifts to his people. We will look at these three passages in turn.
In the ancient church in the city of Corinth there was a church that was a mess. People were getting drunk at communion, a dude was having sex with his Dad’s wife and the churches gatherings were a bit chaotic. People were showing off with certain spiritual gifts (Greek term—charismas) which caused Paul to address questions concerning these things . A few quick observations about Paul’s teaching are in order. First, he clearly says that the main point of the gifts is to honor Jesus as Lord. Second, the gifts should be exercised in a way that unifies and serves the common good of the church. The gifts are not to exalt the gifted person. Third, the gifts unify because they are given by one Spirit and are given out in diversity to his people. Finally, the giving of the gifts is by the will of the Spirit as he sees fit so we need not despise the gifts given to us nor covet the gifts of others. On the contrary, we should rejoice in the diversity of the body and use our gifts to build up the family of faith to serve in Jesus’ ministry and bring him glory. All of this should be done in love for God and one another otherwise we will be completely missing the point.
In Ephesians 4 we find that God gives grace in various forms to members of his church. In particular, he gives his church gifted leadership to help equip Christians to do the ministry of Jesus and to grow up the church towards maturity. Whereas the gifts of the spirit to individuals is the subject in 1 Corinthians 12, God’s gift of people to the church is in view in Ephesians 4. In our day where “organized religion” is the object of public and personal disdain, we should observe that leadership (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers) is actually a gift of Jesus to his church. The grace of Christ is the source of leaders in the church. Furthermore, these people are gifted by God with various abilities (teaching, service, leadership etc.) to fulfill their ministry. So in a sense, gifted people, are great gifts to the church. We also want to be clear that every person God adds to his church are gifted gifts for the body and when anyone’s gifts are not exercised the church’s life and ministry will gradually become impoverished.
One note should be made at this point. Leadership in Christ’s church is an act of service and should be exercised in the way of Jesus. This means two things: proper exercise of authority in the manner of a servant. Many pastors and leaders today are passive and will not exercise humble, godly authority. They will not preach and teach the truth, confront sin or guide others because of a fear of people and a need to be liked. Furthermore, many church leaders today act as if they are little gods wearing CEO hats and do not see their roll as servants of the people. Peter’s exhortation to church leaders is so needed in our day; I’ll simply quote him here:
1So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: 2shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 3not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. 4And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. 5Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 1 Peter 5:1-5 (ESV)
In Romans 12, Paul is encouraging Christians to think of themselves in humility and to realize that the measure of faith they have is indeed a gift of God the Father. The metaphor of a body is once again employed to urge us towards unity in the diversity of people in the church. We should use and exercise our uniqueness and our giftedness in line with the faith we have been given. Once again, the context is in a loving community where we use our lives and gifts to serve others so that God would be honored and our community would reflect his goodness in the midst of a world darkened by evil and sin.
We will now close with an all to brief discussion of who and what God’s gifts are for. Why does he gift his church and individuals therein. I do pray that some clarity is beginning to emerge from the texts we have been discussing.
As Americans we are simply soaked and saturated with individualism. Even the subject of spiritual gifts has been turned into a pursuit for individuals to “discover their gifts” through personal tests and assessments. I am not saying these sorts of tests are wrong; I have used them myself. What I am saying is that they can be reflective of an excessive individualism in relation to God’s gifting of the church. Spiritual gifts are simply never to be about “me” but always about “us” and how we can honor God and fulfill his ministry on the earth. I hope you have heard the language of the Bible throughout our discussion—gifts are given for the common good, to build up the body, to joyfully serve one another in Jesus name.
Furthermore, spiritual gifts are never for some supernatural magic show where spiritual super people can show off on television. The Role of the Spirit is to bring glory to Jesus. (John 16:14) Jesus was clear he came to do the will of the Father.(John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38) The Father created the world to display majesty, glory and wonder to creatures made to worship him (Revelation 4:11). So let me give you a short, hopefully memorable, raison d’être for spiritual gifts as a bottom line in our short journey here:
Spiritual gifts are given by the Trinity, for the good of his people, to build them up so that they might display the glory of God together.
The final passage in the New Testament referring to Spiritual gifts is found in the first letter written by Peter, an early apostle and central leader of the Christian movement. His words summarize well what God would have us know about his gifting of his church. We’ll give him the last word:
10As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 4:10-11 (ESV)
And amen.
This weekend people throughout America will celebrate Independence day. Grills will be grilling, fireworks will be firing and people will be enjoying the freedom our nation experiences because of the courage of our fastidious forefathers back in 1776.
So much of our view of freedom in America is conditioned by the idea of throwing off the oppressor or getting rid of the man. After all, the King of England needed to go in the birth of the new nation. Yet I have been intrigued for some time about the Scriptural view of freedom. It certainly involves freedom from certain oppressive enemies (sin, death, demonic powers and hell come to mind), but it also involves freedom to a new dependence upon God and one another.
I have to admit that I can tend towards rebellion and want to live strong, independent and free. Nothing wrong with most of that…well, maybe the rebellion part needs some work. Yet I am reminded by the gospel that God sets us free through Jesus into relationship, into community and into service.
A few passages on freedom for the road:
This weekend as we thank God for our nation and then let us join together on the 5th of July to give thanks for our unique freedom in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Oh yeah, to all my patriotic Jesus friends - just remember, Jesus was not an American…so lets hold off on the artwork with Jesus drapped in American flags surrounded by bald eagles and such. Please?
Here is how to be dorky, have fun, compare two technologies without becoming a weird zealot. Not sure who these two dudes are, but they do a fair job discussing the Palm Pre and the Apple phone…
I have been playing with Bing a bit as a search engine…I have to say that it works quite well. The way Bing presents search results is creative and useful - it is worth giving it a shot.
The commercial below is also pretty well done.
My boys Rhett and Link are repping some waterproof cams while Phatdippin…ahhh yeah. Other internet vid peeps make some cameos as well…think Chocolate Rain, iJustine and a great Obama.
I am waiting for the day that a crazy young couple asks me to mimic that crazy preacher in Princess Bride at the opening of a wedding. Not likely to happen, but I’ll go on record that I am more than willing to oblidge - would be funny.
On a more serious note I love weddings and I love marriage even more - it is God’s gracious gift to men and women as they travel through this world. This weekend I enjoyed doing the wedding of my friends Shaun and Lesley - a great time celebrating the faithfulness of God in our lives and the gracious gift of the marriage covenant.
Later this summer we’ll be looking at Marriage through the great lens of Scripture in Ephesians 5. I look forward to looking at this passage of our holy writings to see the beautiful living metaphor tha is the marriage covenant. In a husband’s sacrificial servant love for his bride and a wife’s joyful submission and love for her husband we get a picture of Christ’s love for his church. Though it is an ancient vision of marriage that many snub arrogant modern noses at, it is a beautiful dance that this much better than “the battle of the sexes” and randomly defined, throw away relationship we see in our culture today.
Anyway, true wove, is from God - not from romantic hearts saying things at a wedding. The show of a wedding quickly fades into the reality of life together in a fallen world. It is then that the love of God, the grace of God and the hope of God is the rock upon which marriage must be found. The type of fare in chick flicks is awesome (yeah, I said it, you got a problem?) but it is vapid and blows away before fickle hormones and the daily torrents of life.
Deepening love is founded on a covenant promise of the soul before God - other things called “Mawwiage” tend to blow away like chaff in the wind. None of our marriages are immune to the challenges of sin, selfishness, vanity, unforgiveness, infidelity and hopelessness. Pray for marriage today - that no matter what others want to do with it - redefine it, slander it, throw it away - we would bring back some old school words to our marriages today: a promise of faithfulness til death do us part.
A good comparison between basic use and navigation of Palm Pre and iPhone 3G. It looks like this guy is an iPhone guy and just got a Pre. I have used both and this is a very good comparison of basic use. No, I know the Pre is not better than iPhone - that would be considered blasphemous so save the hate.
One thing I would add to this demo is the guy did not need to close his cards when going back and forth from browser and contacts. You can keep them both open and instantly flick back and forth. I will admit that closing apps is so fun that I do what this guy does - I close stuff down all the time when I probably do not need to. Yet when you get tons of apps running performance does slow a bit so closing apps isn’t a negative or anything :)
Also, he had his iPhone browser cached so the web browser came right up with page already loaded. Anyway, kudos to the author of the video - he does a good job.
As we look to find an enduring hope there are many questions that human beings must face in order to build a foundation in a relationship with God. First, we must know that God is real; this is the metaphysical question. Second, we must know how we might be in relationship with God and to know God in our own experience; this is the existential question. Finally, we must face a massive problem in our own nature. Even if we know that God exists and that he loves and desires relationship with us we still resist and turn away. This is the anthropological question. Human beings by nature are rebels and sinners; we do what we want with our lives rather than that which for God has made us. This is reflected by either active rebellion or passive indifference towards God in our attitudes in actions. In today’s essay we will wrestle with these three questions and marvel together how God has graciously answered them all in his incarnate Son, Jesus Christ.
From the beginning of history until now, human beings have been asking about the nature and reality of the universe. We probe the outer world and the inner world of our own souls searching for what is good, right, true, just and ultimate. Various cultures and peoples seem to all be called towards some transcendent reality as a cacophony of voices echo the names of various goddesses and gods throughout the ages. Yet our search seems to prove futile for many and some retreat into a blasé agnosticism being content to only say “I don’t know what is out there.” Such frustration is warranted for to be able to ascend the heights to look upon the face of God seems to be a daunting task. I once remember hearing one teacher describe the difficulty of describing God when someone posed to him a rather strange challenge: “define God and give two examples.” God is utterly unique so there simply are no examples of what God is—there is only God. So in order for us to wrestle with the metaphysical question we must ask if there is any help given from above. As such many traditions have held that we need God to self-define or self-reveal in order for us to know him.
Our Scriptures teach that God has been kind to human beings to do just this, to reveal himself to us in many ways. The first way God reveals himself is what we call general revelation. In some simple ways we can all know that God exists from looking at nature and conscience. The apostle Paul in the book of Romans teaches us that God can be clearly seen from what has been made (Romans 1:18-24) and that we know our moral responsibility to God from the moral law written on the heart (Romans 2:12-16). The skeptical German philosopher Immanuel Kant even realized nature and conscience as a place of profound reflection in describing his awe at the starry hosts above and the moral law within.1
Furthermore, both the every day person and philosophers have inferred from our world and conscience that there is indeed a God. Over the years I have done informal surveys with college students and other adults as to why they believe in God. The answers usually fall along these lines:
Interesting enough philosophers for years have developed intellectual arguments along many of the same lines.2 God reveals his existence and our moral responsibility to him to all through what he has made and by impressing his law on our hearts. Yet this sort of general revelation3 only gives us a knowledge that God is real, but many still suppress this knowledge. Though all can know something of God through nature and conscience this is still not enough to definitively answer the metaphysical question.
Even when we come to the conclusion that there is a God, there is still the question as to how we relate to God. Is God personal? Is God loving? Does God relate to people at all or is God a distant deity or force lurking behind the curtains in the universe. We long for there to be a path shown to us, a way demonstrated and a connection with God made. The existential question is ultimately related to how we might know God personally, rather than simply know about him.
In our experience we find life to be a mixture of good times and bad, joys and pains, struggling to find meaning and purpose. Many times life can just leave us numb, longing to be more alive than our current experiences. Most of the time we just medicate our emptiness with shopping, substances, relationships, food, drinks and toys. In doing so we place things other than God at the center of our lives and build the foundation of our hope on things which do not last.
In the ancient world, the Hebrew King Solomon had more money, power, women and influence than anyone. He would make the finances of a Bill Gates and the activities of Hugh Heffner look smallish. He had tried everything in life and all that money and power could afford. Yet his conclusion after doing it all was that life was quite empty, quite meaningless all together. The book of Ecclesiastes in our Old Testament records his meditations and reflections on the emptiness and vanities of life lived apart from our creator.
Our modern world is filled with example after example of the very rich and very successful making it “to the top” only to realize emptiness still pervaded life. The existential question longs for meaning and relationship that is stable; it reveals the longing of the human heart for a connection with the divine. Whereas the metaphysical question wrestles with the question of God’s existence and identify, the existential question is the soul begging to be connected to God in meaningfully, loving relationship.
If we think for a minute about the human struggle, we will realize something quite strange. If someone knows God is real and knows it is possible to relate to God in loving communion and worship, why doesn’t everyone jump in. Why are people still resistant to the idea of God?
The Scriptures teach that we are not honest seekers of God and his goodness and truth. In fact, human beings rebel against God’s rule in their lives and choose to live apart from him. Even if intellectual answers to God’s reality are given to solve the metaphysical question people still will not love God. Even if a person hears of God’s love for them they may not drawn near to him. The most massive problem that needs to be overcome is the problem of our own sinful resistance to God. The anthropological problem demands that forgiveness for sin and reconciliation must happen before someone really becomes a follower of the living god.
I have always found it fascinating that in the incarnation of Jesus, God answers deeply the longings of the human heart and overcomes our deepest problem of sin. Let me explain.
As we wrestle with the existence of God, he chose to give very specific evidence of his nature by becoming one of us. God gives a special and detailed revelation of himself by becoming a human being and actually showing us what he is like. Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), God become a human (John 1:1-14) and the imprint of God’s nature (Hebrews 1:3). His apostles and prophets have told his story, conveyed his teaching and explained his message to us in authoritative Scripture. God could have written in lasers across the heavens “I am like this and I am like that” but instead he became one of us to show us his love for us in a form we most easily understand. His portrait is painted for us in the gospels of the New Testament.
The gospel according to John tells us that God is actually seeking out worshippers and desires to be known by them. John 17:3 declares And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Jesus came to show to us the Father (John 14:9) and to connect us in a real relationship with our creator. Our longing for significance and purpose is fulfilled in a love relationship with God. God himself, in Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, becomes the answer to all our existential longings.
Finally, and most importantly, Jesus over comes our sin by dying for us so that we can find peace and reconciliation with God. Whereas the metaphysical question is answered by the revelation of God in Christ and the existential questions is answer in knowing him, Jesus death actually makes it all possible. In Christ’s death on the cross God reconciles us with him providing full pardon and forgiveness for our sin. Our resistance to God is removed and we are given a deep desire for God that only finds culmination in worship. Former archbishop of Canterbury William Temple described the fulfillment of the human soul in worship as follows:
Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness, nourishment of mind by His truth, purifying of imagination by His beauty, opening of the heart to His love, and submission of will to His purpose. And all this gathered up in adoration is the greatest of human expressions of which we are capable.
So it is in the incarnation that God became human so that we might see a revelation of God. It is also in the incarnation that we come to know God face to face. Finally, it is through the work of the incarnate Son that we are reconciled to the Father. The late British journalist Malcom Muggeridge so eloquently described the marvelous effects of the incarnation of Jesus:
Thereby [by the incarnation], He set a window into the tiny dark dungeon of the ego in which we all languish, letting in a light, providing a vista, and offering a way of release from the servitude of the flesh and the fury of the will into what St. Paul called the glorious liberty of the children of God.4
The question of God’s existence was answered fully when God put his feet on planet earth. The knowability of God was established fully when God stretched out hands and feet to die for us. As Scripture teaches us, God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
I will close with a small stanza of a hymn written by the 18th century song writer Charles Wesley.5 It’s words describe the amazing depth of the gospel whereby God would reveal himself, lovingly encounter us and set us free into a relationship of joy and worship.
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
Following with you,
Reid S. Monaghan
Apologies to those who visit the POCBlog via RSS, Google Reader, etc. We have been switching our domain host and it has gone less than smoothly. Thankfully all is now well and all the links, feeds, etc. should be working. If you had trouble getting here via RSS but now can happily see us again, drop me a comment to let me know that everything is working again.
Thanks guys. There has been some flow on the blog while we were away, enjoy the essay on the church and first impressions of Palm Pre.
Holla back
The Church
Gospel and Culture
Two new books on God/secular/Atheism type stuff are floating around and getting some interesting discussion…
Theological Reflection
Technology
OK, this is not going to be a full on tech review - others more qualified and with more time have done that elsewhere (see entry here). Yet I wanted to drop my impressions here briefly after having the Palm Pre for two days. Mind you, I am a pastor so Saturday and Sunday did not afford as much time to play with technology but I have put it through its paces a bit.
Before I begin though, these links are some response in the press to the Pre and its launch:
When I first grabbed the device in person on Saturday morning (yes, I am one of the nerds who waited in line) I was amazed at how small it really is. It resembles a smooth river stone and fits nicely in the palm of your hand. The screen is 3.1 inches and seems roomy as you never have the screen real estate used up by a virtual keyboard. It feels sturdy in the hand and has a glossy finish. If you pay the ridiculous high price for the touchstone charger (I must admit I did) the back panel is replaced with a really nice matte finished piece that grips nicely. To say the least it is attractive in person and I recommend those considering the phone to go by a store to see the demo.
The build quality is good and it does not feel like a cheap phone in the hand. There are dedicated volume button on one side and ringer/vibrate and on/off button on the top right. These are perfectly located for use with the index finger when holding the Pre diagonally in the left hand. The entire front looks like one black panel with a small pearl like button on the bottom. When the screen comes on it really pops and is as vibrant and clear as anything I have seen. In the past I have not been a big fan of slider phones, but the Pre has changed my mind here. The slider is quick and sturdy and makes the phone a nice curved shape that is nice when talking.
The keyboard has been a feature of some discussion as to whether it is too small, cramped etc. Let me preface my remarks in saying that I am switching from a Palm Centro that has an even smaller keyboard. So far I have had zero problems with the keyboard and it works really well. It is a big thin as it lives on the bottom of the slider, but I am adjusting to that fine. I have typed on virtual keyboards and I found no love for those - having the keyboard hidden away keeps all your screen available and it is accessible when needed.
The touchstone charger is just cool and works as advertised. It does cost too much but I had a 25% off discount as a long term SPRINT customer that at least brought the price down a bit. The phone just sits perched upon the angled hockey-puck like touchstone and charges inductively through the special back panel. Did I say this is just cool?
OK, here is where I am going to make iPhone fan boys angry. I find there is no comparison between webOS and iphoneOSX. I have nothing but superlative praise for the thoughtful design that went into this UI. The multitasking card metaphor just works fantastically and the handling of notifications (alarms, emails, texts, music playing, GPS nav running) is simply brilliant. The experience is way better than I anticipated. I will say that you do have to learn all the gestures and unlearn certain ways of doing things. If you are convince that you always have to “go to a home icon screen” to move around and switch applications you will waste time on the Pre. You can leave apps running, switch quickly with flicks and swipes, use quick launch, universal search etc. It is better on Pre but I have found myself going to the launcher when I don’t need to. Here is an example. If I want to Google search something on some phones, I would go to Home, launch Google and search. On Pre I just start typing search terms from anywhere and then click Google. Fast, simple - but something I need to learn to do more intuitively rather than always launching the browser.
The contacts, calendar and email apps are all great and they really “just work” in pulling in information from various sources on the web (Gmail, Facebook, etc). When the Sprint guy asked me “do you want to transfer your old contacts to the phone” - I said naw, I’ll just sync it with my Gmail contacts. Done. The web browser is fast works well on both WiFi and EVDO Rev A. I downloaded Tweed a twitter app from the beta App Catalog and it is awesome. The apps are thin now but I sense the developer world will show up more and more in the coming days. PC Mag plays with the apps here.
GPS nav from Sprint is robust and supports turn by turn voice directions as well as the animated interface. I will say that GPS drains the battery pretty quickly but this is the case with most phones. One last thing, the iTunes integration works great. I dropped about 2GB of music over to the Pre and it plays fantastically on the Pre’s media player.
The only concerns I have are battery life as if you are constantly surfing, emailing and enjoying the data connection the 1150mA battery can get chewed up. Yet because this is not Apple, you can have a spare battery - this is your choice and choice is good. I have heard that SEIDO’s 1350mA battery for Centro/800w will work but I have not ordered one yet. Will look for others review of doing this…
Also, the apps do have to load on the Pre as it is a smartphone and there is a tiny pause when loading applications. The response is instant though when you switch to an app that is already running. Multi-tasking is good friends and the Pre’s UI makes it much easier than other phones.
One final hardware issue that I will complain about. The center button on the front should also be able to turn on the device. I want to do this ALL the time. The button’s main use is to bring up card-view for switching programs and it is effective in that role, but it should turn the phone on.
All in all, I have enjoyed my first two days with Palm Pre. The team at Palm did a fantastic job with aesthetics, user interface design and did all the small things right. As a Palm user since 1996 I was stoked when Pre was announced and even more stoked to purchase the phone (saved my pennies from Jan-June :) I am also a SPRINT customer who has had zero complaints about the network and find its data connections robust and speedy. The customer service issues from a few years ago are also better (it was bad) and we are glad to continue with the company.
For those of you who are not religiously affiliated with Apple, Inc. the Palm Pre is a great smartphone and from the initial response it seems it has a bright future. As to whether or not it is better than iPhone, I will not say. I will say that I do not want an iPhone and after using my Pre I see no reason why I would. It just would be a clunky and disappointing user experience for me.
For all those out there who incorporate data from multiple sources, need to work on the go, want a device that merges personal/business functions (small biz owners, church planters :) I can think of no better device than the new Palm Pre.
Cheers.
In a few hours, Mapple fans throughout the universe will unite publicly at the pilgrimage known as WWDC. At 10am PST, those in the temple will hush into a silence and Mapple computer screens (and some PC screens - gasp!) will tune in to see what the priests have to give. Cheaper iPhones, more flash memory, 3.0 software (that will underwhelm Pre owners) and leopards that dash about in the snow! Will Steve step out from the shadows…oh, if Steve steps out on the balcony to wave we know the spirit of the age of Aquarius might be born anew. Gizmodo and Engadget will be blogging…many will stream video.
The true believers will party, begin to smugly mock RIM and PALM and WINDOWS and generally feel good about the world again. After all, the webOS is better than current iPhone offerings - and this is just an unbearable, impossible situation that the high priests of “i” will certainly rectify today. Right?
Church. A short word, a simple word. Yet it can conjure up all manner of ideas, emotions and imagery. There are book length treatments on the church so today I just want to focus on some simple basics—what the church is. It can be easy to think of church as a building, a religious service, a denomination or formalized institution but the biblical definition of church is a bit simpler and a bit more wonderful. The basic word for church in the New Testament is ekklesia, which simply means an assembly of people. So this gives our first little hint in our exploration. Namely, the church is a group of people gathering together for something…or someone.
In this essay we will only attempt to answer a few questions about church. First, we will look at the nature of the church as a community of people called by Jesus through the gospel. Second, we’ll track a little about this community living with Jesus as a people being transformed to be more like him. Third, we will look at how this community is a sent people into the world with message and mission. Finally, we close by seeing the church as a community that represents and reflects something about the goodness and glory of God.
The first thing we learn in the book of Ephesians is that the church is made up of people who have been called by God through the gospel. God purposed before the world began to save his people and adopt them as his children. This would be accomplished by redeeming a people for himself by the work of Jesus on a cross. This would be a people called by Jesus, given a promise in the Holy Spirit and an inheritance with God forever. The church is reminded that prior to Jesus saving them they were dead in sin, separated from God and under his wrath (Ephesians 2:1-3). Furthermore, they were separated from the promises of God that came through Israel and described as without hope and without God. Yet, in his grace God saves them, Jew and Gentile and makes them into a new community of people. Steve Timmis and Tim Chester describe this well:
We are not saved individually and then choose to join the church as if it were some club or support group. Christ died for his people and we are saved when by faith we become part of the people for whom Christ died. 1
The book of Hebrews also describes these people as those whom God has made a “new covenant” with through Jesus Christ. They become a community of faith comprised of worshippers that the Father has sought out and saved (see John 4). They will worship God together in gratitude because of his great mercy and love for them (Ephesians 2:4). Yet the church is more than just a forgiven people called together by the gospel to sit in seats on Sunday mornings. The church is called together to live life with Jesus and see our lives changed by Him and sent to be active players in his mission and purposes on the earth.
One of the most amazing metaphors in Scripture for the church is that we are the body of Jesus Christ (Romans 12:5, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4:12; 5:23, Colossians 3:15). We live in relational union with Jesus as he works in us to transform us throughout our lives. Ephesians 2:22 talks about us being joined together and growing as the people of God. We are being changed, we are being set apart by God (sanctified) to be made more like Jesus. The biblical doctrine of sanctification is that we are now being changed and conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. This transformation happens as he works in us and as we obediently follow him. We repent of sin, love others, fight temptation, grow in humility, walk in friendship in the church and follow God’s word together.
Furthermore, our the church is shaped by spiritual practices that Jesus left for us as means of his grace and transformation. The church therefore hears the Bible and heeds it together. It reads, studies, preaches , meditates upon God’s holy Scriptures. New members of the family are united with Jesus and his church by the outward sign of baptism and the church continues in fellowship with God and one another at the Lord’s table. The church prays together, sings together, serves together and as she sins—the church repents together. Jesus has given us the Scriptures, spiritual practices and life together to shape us into different people. The church is a transformational community of grace due to its union together as the body of Christ.
Accordingly, the church is a people both saved by the gospel and changed by the gospel and it is also a people sent into the world on gospel mission. To this “sentness” of the church we now turn.
All too often the church can simply remain a group of huddle followers of Jesus who are AWOL from his mission in the world. The church is not a religious club or cloister but rather a sent people in the world so the world might hear and see the gospel through their lives together. Furthermore, many Christians see “the church” as a dispenser of religious goods and services that accessorize their lives and even shop for these services. Rather than asking “what does this church have to give me” we ought to ask how we might be sent together on Jesus’ mission in the world. We are called together to serve together and be a blessing to others ,not to simply ask “what’s in it for me.” Darrell L. Guder questions this view of the church in his book The Missional Church — A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. He writes the following:
Does this image of church correspond to the cluster of images found for the church in the New Testament? Does it correlate with the New Testament speech about the nature and purposes of the church? At the very least, this producer-consumer model separates its notion of church (a religious firm producing and marketing religious products and services) from its members (potential and hopefully committed customers consuming those products and services). Members are ultimately distanced in this model from their own communal calling to be a body of people sent on mission.2
A metaphor used in the New Testament to describe this “sentness” of our lives as God’s people is that of being Christ’s ambassadors. As ambassadors we have a two fold role as the church sent into the world. First, we proclaim the gospel and urge others to be reconciled to God through Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 describes this well:
17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (ESV)
The church is not out to promote itself or proclaim its own majesty, but rather we “proclaim him” (Colossians 1:29). Second, we represent and announce the reality of the Kingdom of God, the rule and reign of Jesus, in the midst of a dark world. We’ll cover that a bit more in the next section. At the close of the apostle John’s writing about the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus, he records the following words of the Lord:
19On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
John 20:19-21 (ESV)
Jesus came into the world, sent as a servant from the Father. He gave his life for others and loved them so that they would be reconciled to God. He now sends us to people in the world to model his sacrificial life for others and to proclaim his gospel so that many more will be saved and added to the family. His final words, often called a great commission, gives us instructions as his people:
18And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV)
To simply come together without the mission of Jesus is to ignore the teaching of Jesus. It is a self-absorbed enterprise that ironically leaves many Christians weary and bored with insular religion. God has called and sent his church—it is our joy to go on his behalf to those in our neighborhoods, in our dorms, in our building, at our work, at the gym, at the pub and wherever he calls us to be.
Ephesians makes it evident and clear that our individual salvation and forgiveness is in Christ is to display the glory of God’s grace (Ephesians 2:7). Furthermore, his creation and calling together of the church is to display his wisdom is to demonic and spiritual powers (Ephesians 3:10). The church is also described in Ephesians as the bride of Jesus which he is making beautiful. In this we see the committed, faithful, covenant love of God (Ephesians 5:22-33) for us in Christ. The ultimate ends of both our salvation and the forming of the church is to represent and praise the glorious grace of God in the gospel.
The church community is itself an in-breaking of the Kingdom of God where we live under the rule and reign of Jesus. We have a different King, a different way, a different calling as we live as sojourners in this world. Jesus is the center and focus of the church, our baptism symbolizes our union with him in the gospel and our remembering at communion is a participation with him in his faithful new covenant . Our fellowship together is in light of his grace so we extend similar love and grace to one another. When we rep him in this way, he told us that people would know we are truly his followers and that others would know that God sent him (John 13 and 17). As such the church is a body of people together that bears witness to the gospel of the crucified and risen Jesus all to the glory of God.
Last word. We don’t just need to “go to church”, but rather we need to presently be the church. A people which gathers in various places for worship, is instructed in the teachings of the apostles and prophets and is then sent to love and preach good news in Jesus name.
Remember, you can’t shop for that—we live it together.
Lots of Pre-press coming in on the net…here are just a few compiled courtesy of boing boing…Also, Palminfocenter has their full review up as does Engadget.
Oh yeah, the ad went out on Facebook last night…not sure I like the ad - maybe there is a dude version coming. Engadget had this to say about the ad “an impassioned plea that approaches gently upon the pads of kittens, gazes in your direction, and then walks away. If we didn’t know better, we’d guess that Pre was a new brand of feminine deodorant…it made poppies seem bruttish…” You decide:
Here are the thoughts/links from the early reviews:
David Pogue, leaked by the Financial Chronicle, at The New York Times:
So do the Pre’s perks (beautiful hardware and software, compact size, keyboard, swappable battery, flash, multitasking, calendar consolidation) outweigh its weak spots (battery life, slow program opening, ringer volume, Sprint network)? Oh, yes indeedy. Especially when you consider that last weak spot might be going away. Verizon Wireless has announced that it will carry the Pre ”in the next six months or so.”
Steven Levy, at Wired:
It’s a huge win … The Pre emphatically shows that Palm has not reached the stage of suffixes. And multitasking rules!
Walt Mossberg, at the Wall Street Journal:
The Pre is a smart, sophisticated product that will have particular appeal for those who want a physical keyboard. It is thoughtfully designed, works well and could give the iPhone and BlackBerry strong competition — but only if it fixes its app store and can attract third-party developers.
Joshua Topolsky, at Engadget:
To put it simply, the Pre is a great phone, and we don’t feel any hesitation saying that. Is it a perfect phone? Hell no. Does its OS need work? Definitely. But are any of the detracting factors here big enough to not recommend it? Absolutely not. There’s no doubt that there’s room for improvement in webOS and its devices, but there’s also an astounding amount of things that Palm nails out of the gate.
Jason Chen, at Gizmodo:
The software is agile, smart and capable. The hardware, on the other hand, is a liability. If Palm can get someone else to design and build their hardware—someone who has hands and can feel what a phone is like when physically used, that phone might just be one of the best phones on the market.
Mark Spoonauer, at Laptop Mag:
We’ve seen many smart phones come and go since the original iPhone, and the $199 Palm Pre is the first device we’ve tested whose user interface not only matches up well to Apple’s offering, but also beats it in some areas. … Palm and Sprint have a hit on their hands with the Pre, and the webOS is a smart phone platform to be reckoned with.
The OS is great. There’s no ifs ands or buts; it’s really refreshing to see something that’s brand new with a UI unlike anything else out there. The only problem with this is, Palm’s never been a hardware company that anyone’s really cared about. … Couple that with the nation’s underdog carrier at a $299 price-point (before rebate), and we’re not sure how many people are going to be lined up overnight, yet we’re pretty confident once people are able to play a real unit themselves, there will be more than a lot of happy Palm Pre customers.
Bonnie Cha, at CNET:
Despite some missing features and performance issues that make it less than ideal for on-the-go professionals, the Palm Pre offers gadget lovers and consumers well-integrated features and unparalled multitasking capabilities. The hardware could be better, but more importantly, Palm has developed a solid OS that not only rivals the competition but also sets a new standard in the way smartphones handle tasks and manage information.
Ginny Miles, at PC World:
The long-awaited Palm Pre lives up to the hype with a responsive touchscreen and an engaging interface, but a few hardware design flaws keep it from being the perfect smartphone.
Stephen Wildstrom, at at BusinessWeek:
If the Palm Pre had appeared a year ago, it might have turned the smartphone market upside down. It would have beaten out Apple’s iPhone 3G and the iTunes App Store, Google’s Android, the BlackBerry Bold and Storm as well as BlackBerry App World, and possibly taken the spoils. But the field has grown so crowded with clever entries in the past 12 months that the Pre, ingenious as it is, seems evolutionary rather than revolutionary.
Sinead Carew, at Reuters:
The long-awaited Pre has nice new touches, but Palm Inc has a lot of work to do if the device is to be a serious competitor to the iPhone.
…it is a pretty good-looking device, but it feels a little plasticky and is lower in build quality than a BlackBerry. It is squat, has a nice screen, and is easy to grip. It is round in the right places. However, the slide-out keyboard seems flimsy and cluttered.
Peter Svensson, at the Associated Press:
Move over, iPhone. You’ve had two years on top of the smart phone world. Now there’s a touch-screen phone with better software: the Palm Pre. In a remarkable achievement, Palm Inc., a company that was something of a has-been, has come up with a phone operating system that is more powerful, elegant and user-friendly.
Ed Baig, at USA Today:
The first Palm Pre will certainly give the iPhone and other rivals a run for their money. To be sure, there are areas where it could improve: Bring on the apps. But Palm has delivered a device that will keep it in the game and give it a chance to star in it.
Everyone knows that the Apple iPhone is a cool product. Its keyboard really sucks, but the product is an amazing piece of technology. Yet for those who are not fanboys of the throng led by Steve Jobs the cool phone pickins have been pretty slim.
You could get a Windows Mobile phone and be stuck with a slightly worse than crappy user interface and a kludgy experience (apologies to my friends at Microsoft - I am a PC apologist, but the WinMo space stinketh). You could get a Crackberry and be happy enough…but the cool factor is lower and the Storm was well, underwhelming. Finally, if your were a Tmobile person you could get the Google phone (G1) and use it for about 47 minutes a day before recharging. Plus, I can just see how Google will be slappin ads everyone on your phone at some point in time.
So, what was a gadget loving guy to do if he did not want AT&T and to fully embrace the Apple. Well, before now, he would just be a bit sad. No longer my friends - there is now choice coming. This Saturday the much awaited Palm Pre and its webOS newness arrives (although perhaps in low quantities) to Sprint stores, some Best Buys and Radioshacks.
As a current Sprint customer, I will be picking one up in the morning if a kind providence affords the opportunity. I have saved my pennies and resisted the iPhone man - looking forward to playing with my new little friend. Pray that no idolatry creeps into the soul.
Brought to you by the fine folks at Despair Inc. Here is the link if you want one…
My wife and I had an adventure over the years when asking God for a family. We have had numerous miscarriages and disappointments along the way, most of which occurred before our first little girl bounced into our world in September of 2001. After a second baby girl batted her eyes at Daddy in 2003 I felt as if I was meant to be a father of daughters. Knowing several wrestlers and wrestling coaches that God gave all female squads at home (my high school coach and the legendary Dan Gable both came to mind) I deeply suspected that a man child might not be my future. Yet an ultra sound in 2006 changed all that. Well, it was actually a genetic combination at conception that changed it all, but my knowledge became aware of things at the ultra sound - ontology before epistemology…being always preceeds knowing. Thomas Reid Monaghan was born in August of 2006 and struggled a bit in his first weeks of life. After some time in the NICU we brought home a baby boy.
Now that little baby is a two year old whirlwind who is bouncing off the walls left and right. His level of energy and his ability to turn everything into a sword or light saber continues to amaze. I enjoy each of my kids and I enjoy learning how to lead and teach them. I pray about this often, try to pay attention to what is going on in moments with them and try to seek wisdom from God to channel my kids in good directions. Recently, Tommy and I bonded over what I am calling our “man words”
Of course it is quite evident to him that we are both men and that we are different from Mom and his sisters. We are working on potty training and all I have to say is that he knows only Daddy can “shoot dat water.” Anyway, the other day I was praying virtues over him at bed time. Not that he has a clue yet what virtues are, but I was praying man prayers over his little life with some vigor. Three words kept coming to me as I prayed for the little gremlin…Courage, Truth, Valor.
So I decided to make these our “official man words.” So in the midst of an intense sword fight with turkey basters (yeah, seriously) I yelled out three words with some pause in between and with my turkey baster held high. COURAGE! TRUTH! VALOR! The little guy just looked at me curiously, jumped in the air, spun around and shouted a bunch of two year old accented nonsense. It was awesome! But now he knows Daddy and he have something special - we share man words. I will sometimes just drop out a “COURAGE…TRUTH” on him and he’ll smile sheepishly and let loose a “Vawor”
Someday we’ll discuss that a man must have courage to walk in a way that is good and right and true. A man must have courage to face his own inner demons, stand and lead others in a chaotic and challenging world. He will know that it takes humble courage to repent of pride and bow his knee and strength before the God who can save him.
Someday we’ll discuss that courage must lead a man to truth and the one who is truth. He will learn the integrity of his word and to take God at his. He will lean that the truth is painful, must be fought for and he must stand in truth no matter how the winds and waves of history flow.
Finally, someday he would learn to combine courage, virtue and battle in the arena of his peers, his family and his own children. Valor is a lost thing among many men today - I pray it not lost in the Monaghan home team. Valor means to be of worth, strength in mind or spirit that enables a man to encounter danger with firmness. Valor walks through fear in the strength of God and then climbs upon the walls of life to stand for faith, family and friends.
The ancient warrior Joshua once had God speak man words into his life:
Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:6-9
As little Thomas continues to grow, we have lots of work to do with the little guy. Yet the call is clear - Courage, Truth and Valor my son - the fight is before us and God is very near.
Here is a short highlight video of the interview with the Palm guys about the Pre which took place at D7 today. Enjoy:
