John Piper is a Sham!
i was just observing that two ingredients of a popular blog are controversy and the defaming of prominent evangelicals. so, in an effort to perpetuate and perhaps even develop readership i will say:
john piper is a sham. christian hedonism is deeply offensive. god is not enthralled with himself, rather he is eternally concerned with me. he designs his every thought and motive around human activity. my virtue is ultimately tied to my identity, not christ's.
My Birthday
so the sudden inquiry into tastes in music wasn't without purpose. yesterday was my birthday. i turned 25 yesterday. it was sunday so i spent the morning at church teaching sunday school. i had lunch at my favorite restaurant-ojeda's. jonny helped me cap off the day with some skittles and cappucino hookah (one at a time--skittles then cappucino). my wife gave me an iowa hawkeyes blanket, a poker set (with the real chips), and a pair of chuck taylors. my in-laws gave me a $50 gift certificate to american eagle, which i spent on a pair of jeans and a pair of shorts. my abundantly generous parents got me a 150.00 gift certificate to amazon.com (thus the 10 cd's question). while i do care about your input on music i went ahead and ordered. i actually got 16 cd's and 1 movie:
cd's:
some fred hammond (speak those things)
patty griffin-1,000 kisses
nirvana-mtv unplugged in new york
buddy miller-universal united house of prayer
tom waits-closing time (per jonny's suggestion)
starflyer59-leave here a stranger
u2-the joshua tree (lost to a car robbery earlier this year)
u2-all that you can't leave behind
uncle tupelo-no depression
bill mallonee-dear life
tom petty-wildflowers
the beatles-sgt. pepper's lonely hearts club band (the album francis schaeffer says marks music's movement below the "line of despair")
counting crows-films about ghosts: the best of counting crows
phish-billy breathes
son volt-trace
wilco-yankee hotel foxtrot
bob dylan-blonde on blonde (i know, i know i should have had this one long ago)
movie:
bottle rocket (the first, little known wes anderson/owen wilson collaboration, cf. rushmore, royal tennenbaums, the life aquatic)
i love birthdays!
Vote or Die
my blog is as much about the readers as it is about me. thus, in an effort to maintain an air of democracy i'm once again asking your input.
say you suddenly had no cd's at all. what 10 cd's would you go out and buy immediately?
a couple weeks ago i handed in our final assignment for the seminar on jonathan edwards class--a paper simply listing ten questions we had over each major work we had read. my hebrew final had detained me from handing it in until after hours, so all the lights were off in the TS office, but dr. hannah was in his office talking to dr. horrell, so i thought i'd just slide it under the door, hannah would pick it up on the way out, and i'd be ok. well, a couple of days later i got a call at home from dr. hannah. he hadn't received my paper. i was puzzled, but realized that while i had put my name on the other one, i had not put what class it was for, so i emailed him another one, he graded it and i got an A-. everyone was happy.
this morning i checked my mailbox and found my paper--the original one--with markings and comments on it. attached was a sheet that read:
individual project evaluation form
st102 trinitarianism
dr. scott horrell
in the comments box on the evaluation sheet were the words:
tyson, are we missing a cover page? what's going on? if you talked to me (and i think you did), you still need to tell the reader what you are doing. -jsh
dr. horrell gave me a 93 on a paper that wasn't even for his class, but apparently i had cleared it with him so it was okay.
the funniest part of the whole thing is that when i took trinitarianism from horrell i only got a 90 on my individual project.
Things I Do for My Wife
i was in super target last night doing some much-needed grocery shopping, and thought i'd get something for my wife. i saw these real casual dresses on the rack and thought one would look good on my wife. it looked like it might be a little short, but it was hard to tell since it was on a hanger and everything. now, i'm roughly the same height as my wife, so there i was in a public place and i notice my arm reaching out for this dress and i remember thinking "hey tyson, what do you think you're going to do with that dress? cause i know you're not going to hold it up to yourself to check the length." well, i didn't hold it up to myself. i took the much more intelligent route of crouching beside it until my shoulders were in line with the hanger. yes, that was the picture of masculinity.
the dress was too short.
I'm an Uncle
my sister in law robin gave birth to my first nephew yesterday. noah tristan guthrie. i--like most guys except for the father traditionally do--zoned out when they started listing his stats, so i can't tell you the weight and length.
Interior Decorating
recently our apartment managers painted their apartment. it was very trendy, too, with the dark, bold color on the walls and the white trim. the result was an immediate desire in my wife to do the same. you see, they allow tenants to paint their apartments as long as they paint it back to the original color before they leave. i'm all about change myself, and i like my wife to be happy, so our walls are now clifff rock. i kinda like it.
New Music
i just got two cd's this week. first i found the newest norah jones cd, so i got that for my wife--it's great. way better than come away with me in my opinion. then as i was browsing i found pedro the lion's album control. this may be pedro's best album. (it's hard to find a friend may be better. it's definitely a better pedro the lion primer if you're looking to get into them) control is not a collection of songs, the album itself tells the story of an over-worked, unfaithful husband who loses his job. eventually the wife kills the husband. the second to last song is about his funeral where the priest delivers a less than hopeful message. the first nine songs leave you disgusted with life in general, then comes the last song, sung unbearably slowly here are the lyrics:
Wouldn't it be so wonderful if everything were meaningless
But everything is so meaningful
And most everything turns to shit
Rejoice
i had a copy a few years ago and , in my weak conscience, i had edited three songs off of it. two that depicted sexual infidelity and this last song. having listened to the cd now unabridged all the way through, i realize that in my attempt to sanctify the album i had actually corrupted it--i had removed the gospel. granted it was never explicit, but this last song takes the vivid portrait of hopeless humanity which says "this is all there is" (actually a quote from another artist) and pans out showing that the saddest part of the story is that it is meaningful, very meaningful, but for those for whom that world has become "shit" (i think he's aluding to phil 3:8 and the third line is a double entendre transitioning from the hopeless of the story to the basis for rejoicing) there remains rejoicing. it's a beautiful story and, whether you agree with the delivery or not, a beautiful message.
The Pictures
i just added these pictures, so if anybody wanted to put a face to my name they wouldn't be able to. so here you go, general public...or matt and jon. they're really random because the only pictures i have on my work computer are from a power point i made to introduce myself to my youth group.
This is me with derek webb. i look like i'm 15, but i think i was 19 in that pic. if i look nervous its cause i was man-crushin' on derek.
The Beauty that is a Freebird Burrito
as i type i am finishing a monster burrito with a cayenne tortilla, rice, mixed cheese, refried beans, steak, extra cheese, and hot sauce.
DTS
I've said plenty on my blog about what I dislike about DTS, but there's plenty of good to be said about it, too. There are departments that I dislike, but the academic departments, I think, are heading in the right direction. By academic I mean the Old Testament, New Testament, and the Theological Studies Department. These departments are almost entirely made up of professors who take scholarship seriously. We have an Oxford and two Aberdeen grads in the New Testament dept., graduates from Cambridge and Hebrew Union in the OT dept. and a Cambridge grad in the TS dept. Further, the Historical Theology faculty (Bingham and Hannah) are committed to scholarly study in the context of true godly devotion. I have a respect for these men that borders on idolatry. In short, I believe that it is possible to recieve a solid theological education from Dallas Theological Seminary. And my hope is that as these scholarly jewels of DTS become more notable, a degree recieved under them will become better reputed as well. (Having said that, I will not be seeking a doctoral degree from DTS because this is still only a hope.)
Jon Kever
every time i see jon kever perform i become a bigger fan. the first time i saw jon kever jon kever was just the unfamiliar name below bill mallonee's at poor david's. i saw jon kever and said to jon kever "i need to catch some of jon kever's solo acts." since then i've bought jon kever's album ( www.pastemusic.com/product/790) and plan to buy the one jon kever's recording now the minute it comes off the line. you can see jon kever tomorrow night (thursday) at the highlands cafe.
Ripping the theological hair from my head
Two things frustrated me today about the professor of my Hebrews, Gen. Ep. and Revelation class.
1. The professor said at least three different times about three different views of his, "I'm alone in this." I wanted to say, "hey, maybe that's because you're wrong." Not because I suppose myself to have arrived at the correct view on the subject, but because I can't imagine that the Holy Spirit would hide a truth from the church for centuries only to reveal it to Dr. _______ of Dallas Theological Seminary.
2. I was much more disturbed over the next item. My professor actually said that he believes that "Adam did not die spiritually." Furthermore any view which supposes Adam did die is based on a faulty understanding of the Hebrew verb translated "you will die" in Gen. 2:17. Now, he does believe there was sin and a fall, but says Adam never lost faith, so he passed straight from a state of Edenic perfection to what converted saints now experience. (He will not say Adam was converted or saved because Adam was never lost.) He also believes in the innate depravity of Adam's posterity, but this creates a problem for him. How could God impute something from Adam to us which was never true of Adam? i.e. spiritual death. I posed this question to him in class, but he said "you can't work backwards like that." The question I thought of quietly to myself after this was, "if what is imputed need not be true of the representative (as this professor supposes) Christ need not be righteous." If we can inherit spiritual death from a man who did not die spiritually, then we can inherit righteousness from a sinner. Nevermind the fact that this whole view is yet another which the professor is "alone on."
Doug Burr
every time i see doug perform i become a bigger fan. the first time i saw him he was just the unfamiliar name below bill mallonee's at poor david's. i saw him and said to myself "i need to catch some of his solo acts." since then i've bought his album ( www.pastemusic.com/product/790) and plan to buy the one he's recording now the minute it comes off the line. you can see him tomorrow night (thursday) at the highlands cafe.
A Good Show
For those in the Dallas area with nothing to do on Tuesday nights, may I make a suggestion? Kristy Kruger hosts a Song-writers in the Round show at Club DaDa every Tuesday night. Three artists sit on stage and swap songs and stories all night. Kristy's got a good sound, but the company she keeps makes the show worth attending. So far I've seen her with Doug Burr, Salim Nourallah, Chris Holt, Rahim Quasi, and Trey Johnson (of Sorta). There is not one of these artists whose solo show I wouldn't pay to see, oh but that's the best part--there's no cover for the Round, just a suggested donation of $5. In April they had $2 drafts and burgers and hotdogs in the back, (I'm hoping this will carry into the summer). And if you see me there, that's just iced tea in a pint glass.
Lori vs. Don?
if you can call them a christian band, waterdeep is the best christian band ever. (unless perhaps you can call vigilantes of love a christian band, in which case there's some mild to heated competition). until recent years there has been no room for elevating one front-person above the other, but with the advent of what you don't know (don's first solo work since the conception of waterdeep, cf. you were at the time for love) came the question, "could don be better on his own than in the company of his wife?" further, lori's solo album, 1beginning, with its similarities in tone and genre to sink or swim (which is arguably the best waterdeep album, and therefore the best christian album ever made), provides a significant rebuttal to any argument for the supremacy of don. but when we ask this question are we not comparing apples to oranges? Should we not rather say they each have different styles and personalities which excel on their own but harmonize equally beautifully in the work of the band? no. don's better.
All Apologies (What else should i be?)
Being that I'm fairly new to the blogging world I am still figuring out how I want my site set up. I've switched to haloscan commenting, so i can support avatar's. As a result, I've once again lost everybody's comments.