Reformissionary

Music-o-Poetry

I've been out-of-pocket for a couple of days, so here's a post with just a little bit of Music Monday, Lots-o-Links, and National Poetry Month.

MUSIC MONDAY

A new video from Hot Chip.  Pretty cool...

One Pure Thought

In case you didn't know, here's the reason wearing red jock straps over your pants is SO popular now...

LOTS-o-LINKS

Driscoll loves the ESV Study Bible. 

John Piper: Preaching as Concept Creation, Not Just Contextualization

Founders gets a facelift.

I love this clip.  If you ever need to work on your business card envy, here's how.  (WARNING: A little colorful language.  This clip is for Mommies and Daddies only.)

NPM '08

Love this stuff from Borders Open Door Poetry.

Check out The Poetry Center of Chicago.

Lots-o-Links 12.28.07

Trevin Wax has done some excellent work on N.T. Wright.  Here's an interview with Wright, and a list of links to Trevin's 18 part review of John Piper's critique of Wright.

There's a new book coming out called Why We're Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be).  It seems from the sample chapter I read and blurbs on the back of the book that this book is going into the pile of folks who miss the point and encourage others to do the same.  I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like I'm not.  Look for yourself.

Satan fears small churches more than megachurches.

Looking forward to some new Schreiner: New Testament Theology.

M'Cheyne Bible reading plan with resources.  Don't forget the ESV online Bible reading plans with Scripture, including M'Cheyne.  The Crossway folks have also provided a way to read the Bible/devotions/reading plan on your mobile phone.  Great resource.

Lots-o-Links 12.7.07

Al Mohler is writing about how more and more hotels are not putting Gideon's Bibles in their drawers (BP picked it up).  While I like the idea of knowing that it's there for those who need it, I think Mohler overstates his case...

...there will be no Bibles available in those hotel rooms when travelers need them, and that is a tragedy by any measure.

A "tragedy?"  9/11 was a tragedy.  Pearl Harbor was a tragedy (the awful event we remember today AND the movie).  Abortion is a tragedy.  The Bears are a tragedy.  Some hotels not carrying Bibles?  Not so much.  Sure it means culture is changing.  Sure it means that some travelers who may have picked it up won't have it readily available.  But where was that ever the main ministry to people staying in hotels anyway?  It was a bonus that a few people are now eliminating.  People are the front line of ministry, not books.

Ben Arment is encouraging us to strip.  He's also continuing to reveal a killer conference line-up for the Whiteboard Sessions.

Dever and Ferguson lectures on preaching.

CNN interview with Gabe Lyons...

Ariel Vanderhorst interviews church planter Hunter Beaumont (dude I met at Reform & Resurge Conference in Seattle).

Publishers Weekly reviews Tim Keller's The Reason for God.

Joe Thorn on Leadership Development, Suburban Evangelism, and his new laptop.

Job as Living Metaphor

James 5:7-11, my passage for tomorrow morning's sermon, mentions Job in verse 11.

Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. (ESV)

Now, I haven't studied the commentaries on Job recently, and I don't mean to speak authoritatively on the issues I raise, but I just want to make an interesting observation and ask of possibilities. 

As an historical figure Job is curious.  His life circumstances seem odd, not just because of The Satan and God and their strange and revealed cooperation, but also because of how the things that happen seem so artificial.  For instance Job loses so much, but after it all he ends up exactly twice as much as before. 

Because of this perceived artificiality (does God ever really double the pleasure like this in real life?), some have determined Job wasn't a real guy after all.  His life is fiction in order to make a point, or something like that.  Others put on their armor and defend Job as no less historical than their grand-mother.  To say otherwise makes you a liberal.

The question that popped into my head tonight is, Why can't we see Job as a God-intended living metaphor?  In other words, maybe we aren't supposed to see Job as "this life" literal (It could happen to you!), but metaphorical literal, like how God used Ezekiel.  God cast Ezekiel in many different "living metaphor" roles in his ministry where he acted out in his life the realities of God's people and exile.  He would rip a hole in his wall, or lay on his side for so many days, or eat a scrumptious feces loaf.  In Ezekiel the living metaphor is obvious.  In Job, could it be the same thing, but not so explicit?

As far as I know, I may be the only person to think this, or the last person to think of this.  Whatever.  But I think makes sense of Job because we don't have to wonder why God only did these things to one guy.  Also, we can still believe that Job is a real guy which is important, I think.  And in Job's life we see on display what God wants us to know about suffering and the riches of God, which we know are ultimately found in Christ.

A little thinking outloud, pre-sermon.  Thanks for listening.  I need sleep.