random thoughts on creativity

For those who follow my creative pursuits and would like some inspiration, I've updated my small section of the sidebar to the right (scroll down a bit). There's quite a variety there.

There's been a flurry of crafting-related discussions in our congregation lately. This has generated some random thoughts in my head, feel free to comment to help develop them further. Here's what my radar has picked up:

-the need to create: I've heard so many ladies express a desire to make things, even if they don't know how or ever get around to it. Baking, sewing, knitting, crocheting, quilting, decorating... I believe it is the fact that we are made in the image of a Creator which compels us to follow suit and create objects ourselves. Beautiful objects, tasty objects. Nobody is satisfied with a half-baked loaf of bread that didn't rise all the way, or playing a music piece that doesn't keep time. People desire excellence in what is created.

-Creating brings folks together: this transcends age. When one of my kids starts drawing or making something, the others naturally join in with ideas or their own contributions. Adults do the same thing. Blogs, online communities, real-life knitting groups, etc. have sprung up all over the place. The sharing of ideas edifies each other, a created object is only complete when given/shared with someone else.

This makes me think about the creation of the world. 5 days of making trees, water, sky, & critters, but it wasn't complete until man was formed. God shares his creation with Adam, gives it to him even, then makes woman so he can continue sharing with his own kind on earth. They encourage and spur each other onto more creativity.

Whatever you create today, make sure to share it with someone else. Look for the mutual edification, then praise the Creator for being made in His image.

Covenant families

“All of you stand today before the LORD your God: your leaders and your tribes and your elders and your officers, all the men of Israel, 11 your little ones and your wives—also the stranger who is in your camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water— 12 that you may enter into covenant with the LORD your God, and into His oath, which the LORD your God makes with you today."

Deuteronomy 29:10-12



Clear evidence that God establishes His covenant with His people (Israel, here; the Church, in Christ) and the families among His people, not just individuals.

What Grace Does

"Grace is the mother of holiness, not the apologist for sin."

CH Spurgeon - Morning and Evening, January 25

Our New President, and Abortion

This one takes a while to load, with a slow connection, but it's worth the wait.
Or try going here.

Why not contemporary Christian music?

Here's why not. Gene Helsel explains:

Modern Worship and Madison Avenue

Almost a year ago I attended a pastors's conference where it was asserted that the problem with modern worship music was neither it's newness nor the instruments used to accompany the singing of God's people. Rather, it was asserted, the primary problem with modern worship music was it's striking similarity to the jingles produced by the advertisement gurus on Madison Avenue. After watching the video below, I realized that Tim Hawkins most likely reached the same conclusion, not theologically or philosophically, but rather, just musically. Enjoy/Weep.

He just went on looking at Aslan

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Chapter 13 - Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time

Edmund is miserable, and the witch thinks killing him will foil Aslan's plans. Of course, death is precisely what Aslan will UNDO, according to plan. She has no idea.

She considers killing him "a little thing," and calls him an it. When he is rescued he hears and receives kindness. In these subtle ways Lewis describes the antithesis between good and evil, as between kindness and cruelty.

The witch escapes with her life - she would rather lose Edmund and save her skin.

Edmund in the morning is "with Aslan," and "it was a conversation which Edmund never forgot." We learn about forgiveness and love covering past wrongs: "there is no need to talk to him about what is past."

The witch claims her title as Queen and an audience with Aslan, neither of which she deserves, as Beaver points out: "Of all the cheek." Yet Aslan condescends to her, in order to defeat her, as God does in granting Satan an audience with Him. As He limited Satan's power over Job, Aslan knows the witch's power in her wand and forbids it. The leopards go off to escort her. This council of good with evil looks suspect, without faith. What does light have to do with darkness, after all? It is strange to see such different faces so close together. But Peter shows faith in spades: "It'll be all right. He wouldn't send them if it weren't."

The witch cannot look Aslan in the eyes, yet, having lost Edmund by force, claims him by law. She is the accuser (Zech 3:1-5). Next comes some of the best few phrases in all these chronicles of Narnia, describing how we ought to respond to accusations, having been forgiven: "Edmund had got past thinking about himself... He just went on looking at Aslan. It didn't seem to matter what the Witch said." Aslan points out that "his offense was not against [her]." So she then questions His justice. "Have you forgotten the deep Magic?" Magic here is synonymous with Law, or order of things. She is quoting Rom 6:23 to Him, calling for blood and death, for Edmund's sin. She knows Aslan won't work against this law, by force or trickery. She has Him checkmated, she thinks. But her one claim to power - death - is just what Aslan will undo.

Aslan privately proposes a plan, the witch accepts even more triumphantly with "fierce joy," "renounc[ing] the claim on your brother's blood." She doubts His word, which is blasphemy, just as Edmund did early on: "how do I know?" There are limit's to God's condescension, like when we start questioning God's integrity as if He were "a man, that He should lie" (Num 23:19). The witch, rightly fearful of Aslan's roar, runs for her life.

Yarnbombing

I seem to be on a roll for stumbling across crazy knitting objects. Apparently a new trend is emerging on the streets around the world: Yarnbombing. Guerilla knitters secretly stitch their wool creations to all kinds of public fixtures, often under the cover of night - streetlights, garden sheds, busses. Yup, even busses have cozes now.

photo: BNPS

Read more about this trend here. The gal interviewed shares my name and age... I assure you it is NOT me undercover!

His Great Unchanging Eyes

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Chapter 12 - Peter's First Battle

The beavers and children are also walking through the thaw, but delighting in it instead of angry, like the witch. They figure out what the witch knew for sure: Spring means Aslan is at work (giving life), undoing "the witch's schemes" (1 John 3:8). They are tired, but the healthy, tingly tired of having done a good day's work, as they ought to have done.

They come to the Stone Table, something ancient, obviously from another age. It represents the Law of God, written in stone (Ex 34:1; 2 Cor 3:7). Aslan is "good and terrible at the same time." They can't look him straight in the face (2 Cor 3:7 again!). Peter is the spokesman for the disciples, and takes responsibility before Aslan for anything he has done wrong.

Lucy comes closest to Aslan's heart, seeing His sadness at what is to come, and asking first about saving Edmund. Can anything be done? "All shall be done. But it may be harder than you think."

Aslan shows Peter the castle where he will be king, and then he has to earn that crown: "let the Prince win his spurs!" He kills the wolf that threatens the sheep. He does it regardless of his feeling sick. Then we learn that "kissing and crying" are all right in Narnia, especially after brushes with death like that. Aslan knights Peter. "Never forget to wipe your sword."

I am NOT a Puritan? Huh.

JI Packer says in his first lecture on the Puritans (find the whole course free at Itunes U.!), that their initial protests against the established Church of England were against the use of:

1. the wedding ring  (too sacramental)

2. kneeling to receive the Lord's Supper (too much like worshiping the elements)

3. the white robe for the minister (too priestly)

4. marking a cross on the forehead of one baptized (too ritual)

I endorse the first; would allow, though not prefer, the second; would allow and do the third; and am ambivalent on the fourth.

The rationale was that the church shouldn't insist its congregations do what the Scripture doesn't require. Well, right, the church shouldn't require it, binding the conscience, but what if church teaching and practice actually does conform to Scriptural principles even if such things are not required explicitly in Scripture?

Of course, many other distinctives of Puritans I hold, so I don't give up the title completely... more on those another time, perhaps.

Kitchen Cotton Keeps Time

The knitting world is getting more and more creative - we have long gone past toilet paper covers and cardigans. I've seen knitted food, knitted body parts, even a knitted dissected frog complete with removeable organs. Now this.

A knitted clock cover! I love the cables as numbers! This was designed by gnr8 and can be found for sale here for over $400.

I know the price of cotton yarn, and I think I could cook this up for nearly 1/100th the cost. Reverse engineering this would be a priceless fun time - something to do while hubby reads the "Institutes" aloud at night. I'm sure Idelette did the same thing while Jean was writing.

Fun Shakespeare

Pretty fun spoof of "Who's on first?"

Have to wait until about 1:20 for it to get started...

Illustrating Dad's Sermons

The daughter captures each of the 3 temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness. The focus is not on the participants, but on the setting of each scene. This shows the weight of each temptation.

The son has a much more, ahem, well-armed version of Jesus facing Satan. Note the many-spiked swords and shields. Jesus is on the left, marked by the cross in the upper left, and Satan and his minions on the right as marked by the lightning in the upper right corner and many sharp pointy teeth.. I was going to try to get rid of the sermon text from the background, but decided it belonged with the artwork, kind of an altered-medium sort of work. Note also how Jesus is advancing while Satan just stands and (hopelessly) defends. It doesn't show in the above scan, but the paper itself shows many signs of struggle and battle with its many wrinkles and abuse from the artist.

We do our best artwork during Dad's sermons, it seems.

Your Winter Has Been Destroyed

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Chapter 11 - Aslan is Nearer

Serving sin, Satan, and evil is always "disappointing," as Edmund now finds out. The witch has used him, and now he is excess baggage, except as a hostage. Only to keep him from fainting does she give him any sustenance. With Edmund right next to her, she tells her wolves to seek and kill the beavers and children, whether at the beavers' house or on their way to the Stone Table. Wonder what Edmund thought in that moment. The weather providentially prevents their tracking the children down. Lewis does this in Esther style, pointing it out by not mentioning any divine intervention.

We see more of the witch's true nature when she comes across a party, provisioned by Father Christmas. Why "all this gluttony, this waste, this self-indulgence?" She has it all backwards. The party is a right enjoyment of the good things God gives. But she will misuse such things to serve her interests.

When she turns them to stone, Edmund "for the first time in this story, felt sorry for someone besides himself." It is so much easier to see the effects of sin and evil in others, than to see it in ourselves.

Aslan's thaw begins, resulting in the witch's cruelty, even to her animals. Lewis' love for nature is obvious as he describes the thaw: celandines, crocuses, black prickly branches, patches of green, birds' music, laburnums. The dwarf realizes what it means: "your winter has been destroyed... this is Aslan's doing." The witch will not hear His name. She, like Satan, is in denial; she wants nothing to do with the One with whom we all must deal.

Just Like Men

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Chapter 10 - the Spell begins to break

Mrs Beaver shows her quality and sense in preparing the group before rushing out the door. No craven fear before an evil power stronger than her, she still knows the power of the unexpected. There is an echo of the Lord of the Rings there.

Lewis details the long walk, not overlooking the need for hard physical work in fighting evil.

Mr Beaver continues his politically incorrect ways, giving the children some kind of scotch in the hiding place to help them sleep.

Father Christmas returns to Narnia. Lewis seems to enjoy importing mythological characters from our world into reality in Narnia. He always makes them subordinate to Aslan, and shows their goodness in parallel with the enemy. Both the witch and Father Christmas have sleighs, reindeer, and bells.) He also gives them depth, where in our stories they can be shallow. Santa is fat and jolly for us, but here "He was so big, and so glad, and so real, that they all became quite still. They felt very glad, but also solemn." Solemn gladness is a theme throughout Lewis' thought. The Church today has LOST it, and badly needs it back.

He gives presents, which turns him into a sort of parallel with the Holy Spirit, who gives us gifts (1 Cor 12:7ff). The beavers get gifts related to their home; the children for battle, though only Peter for close combat, for "battles are ugly when women fight."

Father Christmas is also like the angel that gives Elijah rest and food in his flight from Jezebel (1 Kings 19). He gives a small feast. But the men examine Peter's sword. Lewis puts the wonder of Christmas right next to the down-to-earth sense of the beavers. "Don't stand talking there till the tea's got cold. Just like men." "Time to be moving on now."

NT Wright and John Piper on Justification

This is an interview with Wright about his new book, where he responds to Piper's critique of Wright's view on justification. Very interesting interview. I think there are points to be gleaned from both sides of this debate.

Some excerpts, Wright speaking:

"the version of the ‘new perspective’ which I embrace and expound (there are as many quite different versions of the so-called NP as there are expositors of it) is not at all inimical to the real concerns, including personal salvation, substitutionary atonement, and so forth, of the ‘traditionalists’. I hope, too, it will send the next generation of thoughtful Christians back to Scripture itself, not to this or that tradition."

"I understand Paul’s doctrine of justification to be of those who are ‘in Christ’, whereas Piper and others don’t make that a central element in justification itself. Conversely, for Piper the center of justification is the ‘imputation’ of ‘the righteousness of Christ’, seen in terms of ‘righteousness’ as a kind of moral achievement earned by Jesus and then reckoned to those who believe. I believe that this is an attempt to say something close to what Paul actually says in Romans 6, namely that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is ‘reckoned’ to those who are ‘in him’. Putting it the way Piper (and one part of the Reformation tradition) puts it is a pointer to something which is truly there in Paul, but one which gives off misleading signals as well."