A LOVE SUPREME

I am now blogging at a new blog: erdman31.com

If you post comments here at Theos Project, please know that I will respond and engage your thoughts in a timely manner.

Friday, March 24, 2006

Does God read your email?

This is an interesting question because according to a recent article I saw there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 35-60 billion emails sent everyday. That’s every day!

There has been controversy surrounding the Google company that they invade privacy because their advertising software “reads” emails and then tailors an advertisement that is relevant to the email that it “read.” But never mind the privacy issue, the question I have is this: Does God sift through all that to look for relevant information? I mean, that would take a lot of time to get through 35 to 60 billion emails. And think of all the spam and junk mail….to say nothing of the Forwards!

I suppose we could expand our thought here and include all telephone calls as well. Email is second only to telephone calls as the mass choice of communication each day. And let’s throw in snail mail as well. How does God have time to review all this stuff? And in every world language!?!? Does he have a whole bunch of people up there in heaven going through it for relevant information?

In all seriousness, though, it blows my mind to think that God has the capacity to know all things – even the details and contents of every single email sent out on every single day. God is big. And this is quite a lot to get my mental arms around. The bigness of God blows my mind. But even more so it is most meaningful when I consider that he actually cares about my email. I’m just one emailer amongst the 35 or 60 billion emails each day, but God cares about the messages in my inbox and the one, solitary life that it represents.

Isaiah 40
25 "To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one,
and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the LORD;
my cause is disregarded by my God"?
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Psalm 8
1 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens.
2 From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Blonde Guy Joke

An Irishman, a Mexican and a Blonde Guy were doing construction work on scaffolding on the 20th floor of a building.They were eating lunch and the Irishman said, "Corned beef and cabbage! If I get corned beef and cabbage one more time for lunch, I'm going to jump off this building." The Mexican opened his lunch box and exclaimed,  "Burritos again! If I get burritos one more time I'm going to jump off, too." The blonde opened his lunch and said, " Bologna again! If I get a bologna sandwich one more time, I'm jumping too." The next day, the Irishman opened his lunch box, saw corned beef and cabbage, and jumped to his death.The Mexican opened his lunch, saw a burrito, and jumped, too.The blonde guy opened his lunch, saw the bologna and jumped to his death as well.At the funeral, the Irishman's wife was weeping. She said, "If I'd known how really tired he was of corned beef and cabbage, I never would have given it to him again!" The Mexican's wife also wept and said, "I could have given him tacos or enchiladas! I didn't realize he hated burritos so much."Everyone turned and stared at the blonde's wife. The blonde's wife said,
"Don't look at me. He makes his own lunch."

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Open Theism research

One of the theological debates going on these days is Open Theism.  One of the official websites for Open Theism is found at http://www.opentheism.info/.  Recently they published a research paper of mine.  It is an introduction to Open Theism that tries to focus on some of the key issues and foundational themes.  In the paper I don’t take a position one way or the other on Open Theism – it is strictly an attempt to introduce Open Theism and get to the heart of the debate.

You can find it here:
http://www.opentheism.info/pages/opposition/