Prospective Posts

Our main point in starting this blog was to make it easier to disseminate pictures and stories of master Wesley's exploits. Several of you have noticed that I have not been able to resist editorializing about various things in this new-fangled venue. Rather than running our decent blog into the ground with things undesirable to you, our (we hope) loyal readers, I thought I would propose a few topics to see if any would be interesting to you:

1. I just finished Longing to Know: The Philosophy of Knowledge for Ordinary People by Esther L. Meek after several months of sporadic reading. The author is a seminary professor and a mom who understands the deep thoughts of Michael Polanyi (a philosopher of science) and brings the cookies down to the bottom shelf where we can reach them. The strengths of her book - short chapters, teaching by stories and examples, and avoiding technical jargon - actually frustrated me a bit! She gives great insight (and illustrations) of how faith and knowing God is like knowing her auto mechanic, how learning anything new is like staring at those Magic Eye illusions that give me headaches (with the "hidden" picture we are supposed to see), and many other helpful discussions. She even makes good sense of doubt, being wrong and knowing stuff that you just can't put into words yet. Would anyone like some posts discussing this?

2. Last night I preached "You shall not commit adultery" in my series through Deuteronomy. Sounds simple, right? I tried to make sense of the broad spectrum of laws addressing sexuality in the OT - why adultery was punishable by death but polygamy, many cases of premarital sex, and even some cases of prostitution were tolerated in varying degrees. Besides the Old Testament trivia, I tried to convince people that marriages are a public trust - relationships that the Church and society should go to great lengths to protect (with some suggestions of how). Finally, I gave a 3-part strategy I find in the Bible for preventing adultery in the community of faith (not just my own marriage). Does this sound interesting?

3. My buddy John Mark (see his blog linked to the right), who talked me into training for the KY Derby mini-marathon told me it would provide numerous sermon illustrations (is that a good selling point for paying money for the intentional four-month torturing of my feet, knees and pale skin?). So, I've been reflecting on the "little value" of training. My thoughts have tended to turn toward the brevity of life compared with eternity because my route takes me by the small cemetery where we buried my head deacon and another old member ten days ago. I'm assuming no one (among our four regular readers) will want to read these reflections, but if you do, post a comment.

Here's how you let me know what interests you: post a comment on this particular post about which of these things interests you. Don't feel bad (family members) if no one expresses interest in my offerings. Silence is telling; the blogosphere has plenty of opinions already!