Pigeons

My brother sent me this article about scientists who implanted electrodes into pigeon brains, allowing the scientist to control the direction in which the pigeon flies. I liked the end of the article, stating "the scientists hoped the technology could be put to practical use in the future, but did not specify what practical uses the scientists saw for remote-controlled pigeons."

Hmm... what would I do with a remote-controlled pigeon? Well, I'm sure I could have a lot of fun with it, fun that PETA folks wouldn't appreciate.
1) Get 2 pigeons and play "chicken" with each other. See if their natural instincts kick in, or if they succumb to the electrodes and fly into each other.
2) Implant an electrode in the pigeon's digestive system. Fly the pigeon over your least favorite person. Hit the trigger. 'Nuf said.
3) Drive a cat crazy by keeping the pigeon *just* out of its reach.

Are any of these ideas "practical"? Nope. Anyone out there got a practical use for a remote-controlled pigeon???

Whenever I talk about pigeons, I can't help but think about the Pigeonhole Principle . Ahh, the good ole' days of discrete math... If you have fewer scientists than pigeons, and every pigeon has to be given to a scientist, then at least one scientist will end up with more than one pigeon. But unfortunately, all pigeons will end up with an electrode in their brain. :)

Holiday

How did you celebrate President's Day? As for me, I went snowboarding! The proof:



"How'd it go?" Well, I'm definitely MUCH better at skiing. I spent most of the day on the ground. Although, observations seem to indicate that a lot of snowboarders spend most of the time on the ground, so maybe I'm not too far behind. And I'll probably spend most of tomorrow on a cushion, due to a sore behind! ;) But, no injuries, other than perhaps some slightly wounded pride. So, I'd say it was a success and a good bit of fun!

Life Together

We experienced some real winter weather this week, which shut things down for about a day and a half. The proof? Check out the icicles on my 'stang:


The slow pace gave me an opportunity to take a stab at the pile of "To Be Read" books on my shelf. Finally got a chance to read "Life Together" by Bonhoeffer. If I had read this book while at A&M, I think I would have completely missed some of the points in the book. But reading it now, while starting anew and facing new challenges in life, I could really let Bonhoeffer's point sink in. I particularly liked Chapter 1 about community. It reminded me that Christian Community is a blessing from God. Through the ebb and flows of life, we may find ourselves surrounded by Christian community, or we may find ourselves looking for such community. But in either situation, God is our source of strength and Christ should be the focus of our lives. God can use community to teach us, but he can also use lack of community to teach us. And until Christ comes again, God's people remain scattered, held together only in Christ. "Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participiate. The more clearly we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise of all our fellowship is in Jesus Christ alone, the more serenely shall we think of our fellowship and pray and hope for it."

Since love is essential in the Christian's life and community, Bonhoeffer also talked about the difference between human love and spiritual love, a fitting topic for February. As he says, human love is directed to the other person for his own sake and focuses on desire; spiritual love loves him for Christ's sake and focuses on service. "The existence of any Christian life together depends on whether it succeeds at the right time in bringing out the ability to distinguish between a human ideal and God's reality, between spiritual and human community."

Bonhoeffer than continues for 4 more chapters, discussing "The Day with Others", "The Day Alone", "Ministry", and "Confession and Communion." It's a pretty quick read, and the content makes you think. Two characteristics of a worthwhile read.

LCMS wiki

Have you ever visited the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod page on wikipedia?

Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod is part of the WikiProject Christianity, an attempt to build a comprehensive guide to Christianity on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit articles, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. If you are new to editing Wikipedia, visit the welcome page to become familiar with the guidelines.

InstaVerse

"Do you visit Christian web sites or receive daily devotional emails? Ever want to look up a scripture fast? InstaVerse™ by WORDsearch will let you instantly see the actual Bible text for scripture references like John 3:16 — install InstaVerse, point your mouse at the reference, and the text pops up in your preferred translation! The best part is that InstaVerse with the KJV Bible is FREE!"

I installed InstaVerse, and I think it's pretty cool. Jump on the bandwagon, download today!

Justification

A recent email caused me to think about justification, so I started looking stuff up and dusted the cobwebs off some good theological terms. By faith in Christ, we are declared just before God. What does this mean? Christ's death fully atoned for all sin, God has forgiven all sin, and the Gospel reveals this forgiveness to all men. (1 John 2:1-2) We are sinners and we are worthy of death. But when we believe in Christ's atoning sacrifice, we are declared righteous before God. (Romans 3:21-26) We are still sinners, but that sin does not count against us. Instead, it is credited with the merits of Christ. (Rom 4:5-8)

So where does faith come in? The book I'm reading says it better than I could: "Christ paid for the sins of all men, and God, accepting this payment, has in His heart forgiven all sins of all men. This is called objective or universal justification. The moment our faith trusts in the promise of God...God confirms the gift upon us personally. This is called personal or subjective justification." Thus by faith we receive personal possession of that justification, which the Gospel offers to all men in general. As Derek pointed out, faith itself is also a gift from God (Eph 2:8-9). That's amazing and reassuring, for us sinners who fall short in every way without Christ's sacrifice, God's love, and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Illustration: On 01 JAN 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and declared slaves to be free. This was a general statement that applied to all men. But an individual slave was not personally freed until he heard about Lincoln's proclamation and it was applied to his life. In the same way, when Christ died on the cross 2000 years ago, the reconciliation of the world and forgiveness of sins through Christ became an accomplished fact. The attitude of men, whether he belives or not, cannot change that fact. Yet when a man believes this fact, he has the forgiveness of sins and is personally justified before God.

"Thus it appears that universal justification does not benefit anyone unless it is followed by personal justifcation, and that personal justification is possible only because of the preceding universal justification." Don't get lost in the terminology, it's actually quite simple. Illustration: "Bread will not nourish us, unless we eat it; but we cannot eat it unless it is there."

Justification is not an internal transformation that makes the sinner less sinful. It is an act performed by God, taking place outside the sinner, in which God absolves the sin of sinful men who believe in Christ. He absolves them not on their own merit or worth, but solely on the merit and righteousness of Christ and their faith in Christ's righteousness. "Faith is absolutely necessary as a means of salvation, but faith is not the Savior. Not the act of eating, but the food we eat nourishes us. Thus, not the act of believing, but what we believe saves us."

Justification is complete and perfect. All sins are forgiven, completely. I liked this part: "For this reason, faith does not look forward to forgiveness of sins, as a thing to be hoped for, but forgiveness and justification are a present possession, which we have and hold in their completeness as long as we continue in the faith. There are degrees of faith, weak and strong, but there are no degrees of justification."

That's all for now. But this review of justification made me read up on sanctification as well, so I may blog on that soon, if I have the luxury of time to do so.

PS: I have a new first cousin, once removed. Congrats Julie and Brian!!

Snow

I went snow skiing for the first time ever this weekend. And I had a BLAST! I'm definitely going again, except next time I'm going to learn to snowboard. :) Thanks to everyone who gave me advice beforehand, like "Just remember pizza /\ and french fries ||", "lean forward, even though it's scary", "you will be sore the next day", and "you will love it". Y'all were all right, especially about the being sore part!

It doesn't snow much up here, so the resort was mostly man-made snow. Did you know that you can make your own snow at home by building your own snow machine?

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A man and his wife were having an argument as to who should make the coffee in the morning. The wife thought it was her husband's job, since he was always the first to wake up in the morning. The husband thought it was his wife's job, since she was, after all, the wife and keeper of the kitchen. After some harmless and not so harmless bickering, the wife finally said in desperation "Let's see what the Scriptures have to say about this!" She opened up her Bible and say "Aha! See that! It clearly says it's the man's job: He-brews."

And for something more worthwhile to think about than a punchline groan or chuckle, Hebrews 10:

"Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds."