You know that you and I are brothers in that God kinda way

Now that's a rebuke.

Been spending a fair bit of time with the stories of David and reading Eugene H. Peterson's Leap Over a Wall, and I was stuck by the power of how Abigail rebukes David.

Let me set the sceen. David has been living in the wilderness, with a following of 600 men. In a break with tradition David and his band of outlaws have been protecting the local shepherds and their flocks. At shearing time the owner of a large herd, Nabal, throws a feast, David send some of his men to ask Nabal to share some of the festive food with David and his Men. Nabal blows them off treating them like common thugs.

David looses it, and swears to Kill Nabal and every man in his service. Mean while Abigail, Nabal's wife has heard what Nabal has done, and heads out with a ton of food to meet David.

As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them. David had just said, "It's been useless-all my watching over this fellow's property in the desert so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!"

When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground. She fell at his feet and said: "My lord, let the blame be on me alone. Please let your servant speak to you; hear what your servant has to say. May my lord pay no attention to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name-his name is Fool, and folly goes with him. But as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my master sent.

"Now since the LORD has kept you, my master, from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, as surely as the LORD lives and as you live, may your enemies and all who intend to harm my master be like Nabal. And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my master, be given to the men who follow you. Please forgive your servant's offense, for the LORD will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my master, because he fights the LORD's battles. Let no wrongdoing be found in you as long as you live. Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my master will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the LORD your God. But the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling. When the LORD has done for my master every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him leader over Israel, my master will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the LORD has brought my master success, remember your servant."

- 1 Samuel 25: 20-31

What got me excited was noticing how Abigail structure her rebuke of David. She starts by addressing David's grievance. She does this in three ways, one by taking the responsibility on herself, admitting that Nabal is a fool, and by brining the food Nabal had refused to give.

Next she addresses David in terms that draw from his life, she ties together his anointment by God, his victory over Goliath and being on the run from Saul. Abigail knows David well enough to put her rebuke in a powerful context. Peterson explains that Abigail helps David reconect with his Identity in God.

I deeply respect that while she pleads with David, she never compromises, she makes it quite clear if David proceeds he would have "the staggering burden of needless bloodshed" on his conscience.

My prayer is that I might have some of Abigail's wisdom and artfulness when I feel the need to rebuke someone in love. Cause most of the time I fall quite short.

-Peace

listening to and enjoying jazz.fm.

My post about Marissa Staddon is here.

-Peace

Discipleship begins in grace - AKMA.

-Peace

P.O.D. Split With Guitarist Marcos Curiel
- as seen on Urban Onramps

Christian Minister or Religious Fascist?
Self-proclaimed Islamic Expert Robert Morey Promotes a "Surgical Strike" Against Muslim Holy Places
by Jon Trott

hmmm can you say 'Love your enemies?' ... I guess Robert Morey has never tried.

-Peace

Respect, Righteousness and a Mirrorball Lemon
A response to Christianity Today's editorial on Bono

by By Beth Maynard

User Friendly linked to New coalition Launches national campaign against hidden levies on recordable media.

Today, a typical 100-pack of blank CDs includes a levy of $21 on a retail price that can be as low as $50. If the music industry collective’s proposal is approved, this levy could skyrocket by 181 percent to $59 per pack, leading to a retail price of at least $88 plus tax. The levy could even be extended in the future to substantially increase the price of personal computers, television set-top boxes, mobile phones, PDAs and other hand-held devices, and personal video recorders.

Well that's great, but what's the alternative to this 'pay for the music even if you don't use it' scheame? Why Digital Rights Management (DRM) of course...

“The Coalition believes that copyrighted works should be protected and copyright holders should be fairly compensated for their work. However, technologies are now available to help accomplish both these objectives,” said Doug Cooper, general manager of Intel of Canada. “By eliminating levies, the government can encourage record companies and artists to adopt new tools to protect content and ensure more direct methods of compensation.”

I could rant about DRM and often do, but here I'll just link to Digital rights management - we're all grilled and toasted. What I can see happening is we will get the tax, cause well the Librals are the ruling party for life, and we will get DRM cause sooner of latter some one at RIAA or MPAA will figure out how to link it to the war on terrorism and everyone will need to have it or else Bush will send in the troops, with or with out UN approval ... Of course the tax will stay in place cause the DRM tech isn't perfect so why not keep it just to be safe... Sigh. I guess it's time to starting sending Steven Harper some emails (He's my MP) and complain about both options, otherwise this coalition will use a bad tax to sell bad tech.

-Peace

Questions form reading Luke 4:14-44

Is Jesus trying to provoke the people in his home town? Or is he reacting to the look of shock on their faces? Is it just me or is it ironic that the miracle Jesus performs in Nazareth is escaping from a mob?

What's the deal with the evil spirits screaming out that Jesus is 'the Holy One of God!' and 'You are the Son of God!'? Don't we normally expect daemons to be the ones denying that Jesus is holy, the son of God? Could they be trying to descredit Jesus? Jesus the Son of God? that's what the deamon possed guy said, you're nuts just like him.

Why does Jesus shut them up? Is it because he's not ready to come out yet? Then why the big announcement in Nazareth? Or is he is casting out evil spirits no matter what they say?

-Peace

The Abused Do Not Always Abuse.

Thanks to Mark for pointing this out.

Over Lunch - a poem by Cody Clark

-Peace

Sixpense None the Richer's web site is fantastic

• It looks great, and I use Mozilla so no IE only stuff in their HTML
  
• you can listen to the entire Divine Discontent album, not just samples - full songs at about AM Radio Quality. I think they are using ShockWave.
  
• watch the Breath Your Name video, very stylish, though it is in Windows ASX format :(
  

The only big downer is they've clearly abandoned the Journal idea. Oh well.

- Peace

It Is Well With My Soul

One of my favorite songs of all time. The story of how it was written chokes me up every time I hear it.

-Peace

Advice for Poets:

Making Money Through Poetry and How to Kill a Poetry Performance

- Peace

Just watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding DVD with the commentary on. I gave it to Kim for Valentines, She watched twice on Friday, once with me and once without. So when she wanted to watch it again today I suggested, somewhat out of desperation, giving the commentary a try. I've never made it more than 15 minutes watching a DVD with the commentary.

It was thoroughly enjoyable. Nia Vardalos has so much personally invested in this movie, she wrote and stared in a movie about her life, that her commentary adds a richness and warmth to an already fantastic movie.

A sample of things that stood out from the commentary.

Yes she has 27 cousins - at least 6 of them are named Nick
Her father is smarter than Gus, he isn't as easily fooled by his wife's schemes
The idea that Ian loves Tula because she is different was a surprise to her. I thought that the first time I saw the movie
She's shocked that people have a hard time accepting Ian as a male character without a major flaw.

If you rent the DVD I recommend planing enough time to watch it with the commentary on.

-Peace

Mean Dean shares his testimony over at blogs4God. I love the true stories of how people come to faith.

-Peace

Homeland Insecurity: Duct Tape and Cover

POD leads list of artists for Amplitude

When they put POD first it must mean something :) I have the original game Frequency, Amplitude is the sequel. Frequency's four player mode as been a suprise hit at Game Night. [Game Night is when about ~12 guys I know get together to play PS2, Game Cube and Xbox games] hmmm going to have to give Amplitude serious consideration for it's POD content.

-Peace

Preston Manning on the Personal Faith of Marissa Staddon[real audio]. Marissa was one of the seven students killed in an avalanche near Revelstoke.

-Peace

Ever heard the phrase "damned if I do, damned if I don't"?

-Peace

Unlike the mute in the kitchen

In our small group we're reading Luke, last week we made it through Chapter 1. Durring the discusion there was an interesting compairson between Zechariah and Marry.

Zechariah told by the angel Gabriel that he and Elizabeth would have a child, asks "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years." Gabriel replied "now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words".

Marry on the other hand, told that she will bear a son by "power of the Most High", responds with "I am the Lord's servant, May it be to me as you have said."

when Marry goes to visit Elizabeth and Zechariah, Elibeth, filled with Holy Spirit, greets Marry.

Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!
But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"

As that last line was read, I pictured Elizabeth raising her voice so that Zechariah, in the next room, would be sure to hear. Could it be that Zechariah was being gently mocked by his wife and the Holy Spirt? No idea, but it was a fun picture.

- Peace

From Tattooed Love by Steve Beard

That was the first time in my life I've been hugged by a man in a leather vest and earrings

ya got to read the article.

-Peace

From the 'feel good pop', guilty pleasures dept:

Riley Armstrong has posted the video for What I've Found on the Whatever the Weather page.

-Peace

Columbia FAQ: Hard Questions, Simple Answers – space.com, as seen on /.


Looks like I wasn't the only one wondering about using the Canada Arm, or a space walk to look under the shuttle for damage. See: If NASA knew something might have been wrong, why did they try the re-entry? I didn't realize that docking with the international space satiation was out of the question, they didn't have the fuel to reach station orbit. Science fact is so much harsher than Science fiction.

- Peace

Why the rest of Canada hates people in Vancouver.

-Peace

NASA Discounted Damage to Tiles - Wired News

I’ve been wondering why they didn’t check the underside of the shuttle for damaged tiles in orbit. A quick a space walk to check if everything was ok. So I asked a friend who does work at the JPL. The doomed flight was carrying the science module to do experiments. In this configuration they don’t have access to an air lock, nor do they have the CanadaArm wich might have been used to look under the shuttle. So they had to rely on the judgment of the engineers on the ground.

-Peace

[N]obody ever said it would be risk-free. If it were, it wouldn’t be glorious.

- William Gibson.

-Peace

Dreamers may perish ... but our dreams will continue.

- joy of tech

-Peace