I just finished a yoga workout that I have on video. It’s only about the third time I’ve done it and the first time in about three months. I’m can’t believe how much yoga makes me sweat. I think it’s because I’m worried about falling over and breaking something (like my one year old) during the balance poses. I’ve got about as much flexibility as a steel rod. Downward-facing-dog, warrior one, two, and three, baby cobra, lotus–it all feels like rigor mortis to me.

The Missio Dei identifies God’s purpose in the world to rescue the world, save it, redeem it, restore it. To this end God sent Jesus Christ. By his sacrificial death and resurrection he has conquered the powers of evil. He has sent his Holy Spirit to apply his saving work to the entire created order, so that at the end of history God will reign over his restored cration and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. This is the gospel. It is the good news of God that we are to share with the the world, calling people to repent of their sin and by God’s grace through faith come under the present reign of God in their personal lives and in the church. We are to be individually and corporately the people of God’s present rule in the world. The ramifications of Missio Dei are manifold. We do not define God’s mission. It defines us. It tells us who we are, what our mission is, how we are to do ministry, worship, spirituality, evangelism. There is no aspect of the Christian life, thought, and ministry that is not connected with God’s mission to the world.

Does Science Matter?

Through its rituals of discovery, science has extended life, conquered disease and offered new sexual and commercial freedoms. It has pushed aside demigods and demons and revealed a cosmos more intricate and awesome than anything produced by pure imagination.

But there are new troubles in the peculiar form of paradise that science has created, as well as new questions about whether it has the popular support to meet the future challenges of disease, pollution, security, energy, education, food, water and urban sprawl.

I’ve had several people ask me recently about The Da Vinci Code. I listened to the audiobook this summer and wasn’t overly impressed. The stortelling was decent, but wasn’t as riveting as people were saying. Then again, I had from the beginning a ho hum attitude toward the supposed secret history of Christianity.

Here is an article from Christian History looking at the controversial theories behind the book.

Breaking The Da Vinci Code – Christian History

Though unoriginal in its allegations, The Da Vinci Code proves that some misguided theories never entirely fade away. They just reappear periodically in a different disguise. Brown’s claims resemble those of Arius and his numerous heirs throughout history, who have contradicted the united testimony of the apostles and the early church they built. Those witnesses have always attested that Jesus Christ was and remains God himself. It didn’t take an ancient council to make this true. And the pseudohistorical claims of a modern novel can’t make it false.

Heather and I are part of a multi-generational book club. Last night we discussed The Life of Pi. It was great. If you haven’t read this book yet, you must. It’s a great story that will challenge the way you look at zoos and a few other things. I know I’ve recommended it here before, but the resounding approval the club gave it last night made me think it was time to reiterate that which I have previously iterated.