I cannot get away from the ridiculousness of the Gospel. It’s something I cannot shake. It haunts me. I feel like any true believer with a new regenerated heart should be ever baffled by the absurdity of the sacifice of a spotless high priest for those who were enemies to him. For a good man someone might die but would you die for him that caused your pain?  Would you seek to save him that called for your blood?

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

The second installment of Andrew Peterson’s meditations on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, entitled “Resurrection Letters”.

You steer the donkey through the gates of Jerusalem. Centuries before, in this same city, King David wrote his songs and sang your praises. You think of the timbre of his voice, the earnest heart, the long nights on the roof of the palace when the great king remembered how to be a shepherd boy again, alone in the dark pasture but for the sheep in his keeping and the quiet stars.

In your mind you can see him:

King David, barefoot on the airy roof, sitting on the edge of a kingly chair, his harp like a woman in his arms, his mind bending heavenward as he prays with that boyish frankness you delighted in.

Would even David have known what you came to do? If David had been alive on the day of your coming, would he have known the kingdom you were bringing would be of a holy matter, stronger than stone and sharper than steel?

Even David would have been wrong. No man can fathom your ways. No mind could’ve alone foreseen the Kingdom as you would make it.

Andrew peterson just released his meditations for passion week and I wanted to share them with you all. I’ll be posting one each day this week except for today. I’ll post two today since I forgot to post yesterday’s. I hope you enjoy them!

Lord, forgive us.

We welcome you in because we think you’ll give us what we want. We act as if our true motives are hidden from you—you who made the world with a word. We spread our coats and wave our hands and cry “Save us!” and you ride with your back straight and your face drawn, accepting our hosannas because you know that even if the heart is false the words are true, and for now, that is enough.

You come in the name of the Lord. Son of David, you come to save us. You come to save a fickle people, who one minute cry for help and the next cry for blood, and it is both help and blood that you give us.

The sun shines hot on the city gate, and you feel the air move with the palm branches. You hear the hearts pumping in their chests. Their mouths cry “save us” while their hearts cry “give us what we want.” But because you are God you hear even deeper in the spirits of men and women and even children the silence of our profound loneliness. You hear the trickle of need we scarcely know ourselves.

You come to us though you know we’re praying to you for the wrong reasons, singing to you without the faintest notion of how powerful and just and holy you really are.

We don’t even realize the danger we’re in, crying for salvation from Caesar when the Devil himself is battering the door—crying like a baby for its bottle when a wolf is loose in the nursery.

And yet, you come. You set your iron gaze on Jerusalem, and because the Father wants you to, you come. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord

-Andrew Peterson

“It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know.  Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time.  But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned,she would have read there a different incantation.  She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward”

- C.S. Lewis TLTWATW (163)

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What joy it is, believer, to think that thou has such a perfect atonement to rest upon! If there were one sin Christ did not suffer for on the cross, or one evil thought of one of His people that He did not bear, we could not be saved. But He has “finished” the whole of His people’s transgression, He has made an end of all their sins, He has obeyed all the jots and the tittles, as well as the great and weighty things, of the law of God, He has magnified it, and made it honourable. He has gone to “the end of the law for righteousness” — not half-way, but all the way; not near to its boundary, but even to its very end. He has not merely sipped from the cup of wrath, not merely tasted a portion of its bitter draught, but He has drained it to the very dregs. Ere He died, He turned the cup of wrath bottom upwards, for He had taken all it contained; and when He saw that there was not a single black drop trembling on its brim, He exclaimed, with the loud voice of triumph, “It is finished!” He had drunk the whole. Glory in this, ye living people of the living Christ! He hath offered for you a complete sacrifice, acceptable unto His Father. Glory in this, ye chosen people of the living God, that “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.”

- Charles Spurgeon

• Singability. I’ll concede this point to Mr. Hubbs. Ours is indeed “vocal torture”
• Inspiring Language. I love the prose of the whole text of Key’s poem. The lyrics come from “Defence of Fort McHenry”, a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old amateur poetFrancis Scott Key (A Lawyer… which might explain the lofty prose) after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. While the first verse may lack inspiration. The same, I believe, cannot be said of the entire poem. I also submit the final verse of the poem as my example of inspiring language.
• Using words that people actually are familiar with. Personally, I think that words like Spangled. Perilous. Ramparts. Gallantly….etc. lift the prose of our anthem to a lofty state. Anthem should inspire beautiful and inspiring language.
• Actually mentioning the name of the country. Again, I concede this point to Mr. Hubbs.
• Not beginning and ending with a question. The song “ends” with a question because, again, we only sing the first verse of  a poem who’s last verse emphatically answers the question. As Mr. Key sat on the ship on the Chesapeake bay with “bombs bursting in air” the only way he knew about the outcome of the fight was by seeing our flag still waving. So in the night he asked the question, “… does that star-spangled banner yet wave…?

Oh say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Could we have picked a better anthem? Absolutely. Our anthem suffers from being a large poem that got chopped up. I guess this defense has been more a defense of the poem then the anthem but I just wanted to share my thoughts on the subject with you.

So excited to start using it!

I got:
- Nikon D90 (body)
- Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens
- Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR
- Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX VR
- Battery Grip and extra battery
- Nikon ML-L3 Wireless Remote
- Kata KT DR-466 DPS Digital Rucksack
- Aperture 3

I have had so much fun already as I’ve been testing it out.
I can’t wait to see the images this baby will help me create!

I mainly got it for pics of our son so I can show him off! ;0)

Over the last few days since Apple announced

Some folks have been warming to the idea and like some folks I know, I have been finding more and more uses for the iPad. This growing list of uses has cemented in my mind my desire to get this device. What follows are some of the uses I have come up with for the iPad as well as some general reasons why I think it is a worthwhile purchase. I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. This device is not for everyone. I do hope, however, to show that there is a place for the device.

The iPad is a great “coffee house” device. Sure it doesn’t multitask (more on this later) but it does what it does very well. As an e-book reader, this thing is amazing. No, it doesn’t have the “e-ink” technology but I, personally, don’t struggle with the eye strain from reading on an LCD. I think Amazon made this issue up to sell Kindles like scientists made up Global Warming. I’m joking of course…. well, sort of. (LOL) Jobs has said that it will have up to ten hours of battery life (which probably means more like eight) when reading..etc. Someone will say, “Well, the Kindle has a much longer battery life.” While this is true, when Walt Mossberg asked Jobs about this Jobs responded by saying that most people don’t read for more than ten hours in a stretch and they can just charge it at night. It can also be read in poor lighting unlike the Kindle. Laptops are nice but they require a certain position of sitting and placement when at a coffee shop or bookstore. Depending on your computer you may need to be close to a wall outlet. It’s also hard to recline or sit back in one of those comfy cushiony chairs/sofas with a laptop, in my opinion. One of the beauties of the iPad is that it is held just like a book, magazine, or newspaper. And as, inevitably, the plethora of accessory companies come out with products there will be some nice ways to carry it. imagine walking into your local coffee shop, not with a laptop bag but with a nice and slim case containing an iPad, settling down in a comfortable chair and reading the New York Times or a chapter of The Lord Of The Rings.

The iPad is a great Living Room Device. The uses I’m about to talk about are really what sold me on this device. I believe that the living room is where the iPad will shine! The iPad will make a great public internet machine that sits on your coffee table. Not being connected to your file network, it is a nice device for those times when friends you have over want to show you a site they like, or for checking a fact on Wikipedia or just casually scanning the internet. With the vast amount of already existing iPhone/iPod Touch apps like board games…etc. it would make a nice pass-and-play game device for entertaining. In the living room, the e-book capabilities also come back into play as you are sprawled out on your couch. I also think that developers will come up with some cool living room uses for the iPad too. It could make a sweet universal remote..etc. Apps will make or break this device (more on this in a bit).

Another niche use for the iPad is that it is a neat tool for Photographers. Imagine you were meeting a potential client at Starbucks to discuss a gig you could potentially be hired for. You could load up the iPad with an album of some of your best work and either let the potential client flip through the pictures or just play them a slide show. If they are interested, open up your website and show them your pricing. If they like what they see, open the calendar app and put the gig in your calendar.

Like the iPhone, applications are going to be what make this device amazing. The iPhone wouldn’t be such a powerhouse without some of the amazing apps and games that have been developed for it and the iPad will be no different. Apps have shaped what the iPhone is and apps will do the same for this device. As I mentioned above, anything from a universal remote type application to a pass an play board game type app to …well, just about anything. The uses for this device are only limited by the developers’ imaginations

The price of the iPad is another fantastic selling feature. Apple teased by floating a “less than $1000” price tag which is usually business speak for $999. But the $499 price point makes it very competitive. I, personally, don’t want a 3G model. I have my iPhone for times when I need to look up something when I’m out and about. When I’m at home i don’t need the 3G because I have WiFi. Also, what coffee house or bookstore, doesn’t have WiFi these days? As for the storage capacity, 16GB is plenty for storing apps and e-books. I have music on my iPhone so there is no need for it to be on the iPad. And Movies can be added on a “need” basis and taken off when not needed. Take the Kindle DX for example. It has the same size display (9.7”) but it is only a monochrome e-ink display and is simply an e-book reader with a few extras like PDF viewing. At $489, the Kindle DX is ten dollars cheaper but doesn’t come close to doing half of the things the iPad can do.

I also want to add that most of the issues I’ve seen people gripe about are software issues. Multitasking, Flash and a lot of other issues are software issues that can be added with updates and won’t render this device obsolete. I know people wanted a camera on the iPad but I don’t see a need for one. What cellphone doesn’t come with a camera? If you want to video chat use your computer.

The iPad is very compelling. It has a very open future that could lead it just about anywhere that developers want to take it. It is priced aggressively and is styled beautifully. (I would like to point out the lack of Apple Fanboy design worshiping in this post) Many people thought the iPod was silly and useless when it came out and here we are nine years after the iPod was introduced and Apple has sold over two hundred and fifty million iPods. It is very funny to look back and read some of the comments made about the iPod and it could be equally funny looking back at comments about the iPad in a few years.

This device isn’t for everyone but I believe it is for me and I will be getting one. What say ye? Am I wrong, stupid, naive, or all of the above? Feel free to comment.