bierkergaard

I reviewed a J.I. Packer essay on C.S. Lewis from Christianity Today (1998) and cut and pasted the most profound thoughts. Everything below is J.I. Packer...nothing is Eric Bierker. The secret lies in the blend of logic and imagination in Lewis's make-up, each power as strong as the other, and each enormously strong in its own right. The best teachers are always those in whom imagination and logical control combine, so that you receive wisdom from their flights of fancy as well as a human heartbeat from their logical analyses and arguments. This in fact is human communication at its profoundest, for in the sending-receiving process of both lobes of the brain (left for logic, right for imagination) are fully involved, and that gives great depth and strength to what is heard. The teaching of Jesus presents itself as the supreme example here. Because Lewis's mind was so highly developed in both directions, it can truly be said of him that all of his arguments (including his liter...

John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. Last night I was awake in bed. It was around 12:30. My heart hurt. When I get worried about things, my left knee aches and my heart hurts. These are two physical signs of stress. Sometimes, I am not aware that I am worried about things until my knee and heart hurt. They are like the lights on a car's dashboard. The doctoral study has been on my mind a lot recently. From what I can tell, and from what I have heard from people who have seen what I have done, all signs are pointing to the fact that I have conducted the study excellently thus far. We are all prone to give ourselves higher grades than we deserve. But, when people I trust tell me that they think I have progressed well, then I have to think that I have. The problem thus far has been engagement from the students and parents from my school district. I see the great need to help our students and parents understand college planning better. I have...

Last night I was watching a portion of the top 100 songs of the 90's on VH1. It was pretty interesting how many of the songs I had never heard of before. Being that I didn't have cable or listen to "secular" songs for most of the 90's, it is clear that I had some Michael Strahan-like gaps in my musical teeth from that era. One song that I was familiar with was Joan Osborne's "One of Us" which was written by Eric Bazilian from the Philly-based band The Hooters (not the restaurant!). By the year 2000, I had escape from my cultural isolation and went to see Joan Osborne play at the Chameleon among other artists from 2000 on. It was a good show. There is much in the song that moves me musically and lyrically. While I will never agree that Jesus is a "slob like one us," the Scriptures clearly teach that Jesus became "Sin for us." (2 Cor 5:21) . This is not to say that Jesus became a sinner, though (crucial clarification). I fi...

1 Kings 11:1 But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites Solomon was around the age of 18 when he became King of Israel. Most 18 year old you wouldn't want running a Chuck E. Cheese, let alone a country surrounded by enemies. Yet, Solomon prayed for wisdom and God gave it to him, to rule the people. The interesting and ironic thing is that Solomon was a much better king as teenager than when he was older. The wisdom God had given to him, a gift greater than gold, created in Solomon pride. And, pride comes before the fall. Matthew Henry says of this verse and of Solomon: "This chapter begins with as melancholy a "but" as almost any we find in all the Bible. Hitherto we have read nothing of Solomon but what was great and good; but the lustre both of his goodness and of his greatness is here sullied and eclipsed, and his sun sets under a cloud." Praise be to ...

Revelation 7:3 "Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. " Kermit the Frog sang the song "It's Not That Easy Being Green" decrying the ordinariness of being green. An alternate title for the song could be "I am Blue About Being Green." Being green does help a frog to not be spotted and eaten by a hawk...so it is a question truly of perspective. Yesterday I received an email that I assumed since I have "Green" ecological tendencies on food issues and the environment and affiliate myself to Green organizations and get their emails, that somehow that made me automatically anti-Conservative. The email was a pitch for me to join the cell phone service CREDO Mobile because, unlike ATT and Verizon, CREDO Mobile does not contribute to Conservative candidates or causes. Instead, CREDO Mobile is the leading corporate sponsor of Planned Parenthood. I emailed the Gree...