Podcast #2: Scripture As Art

Well friends, the podcast a friend and I started recording recently is up and can be accessed here. Don't forget to check out the first one as well.

In this episode, Josh and I discuss worship gatherings, the role of art (namely images) in worship gatherings, the nature of scripture, the Ten Commandments and more. Check it out and join the conversation by posting a comment.

The Dog Days of Summer Mean Few Posts

Blogging has been slow around Nicks Musings as of late. Will you allow me this opportunity to apologize for applying merely a thin coat of the topics that have become regular? Should I offer as a defense the business of the summer months, or a bit of a drop in inspiration as my reading decreases in the summer, or that it appears most blogs, at least the ones I frequent have all seemed to follow the same trend of sporadic posting recently? Of course this does not apply to Scot McKnight, who even in the summer posts 3X a day. But then again, Scot is the Michael Jordan of biblioblogging.

But, regardless of whether you accept my lame excuses, let me give you an update of some of the new things in my life.

1. Community: In June of this year, Angela and I had a friend move into our apartment with us. He is a friend we both went to college with and have remained close friends for years. We started talking about the idea of living in community a few years ago, and then kind of dropped it, but picked it up again earlier this year. So, you must be thinking "Why would a married couple want to have another person live with them?" Good question. We feel that hospitality is a blessing to all (both the guest and the host) and that life in community is a beautiful thing. We enjoy sharing experiences in community. If that does not make sense to you, it's okay. We have certainly gotten a collection of weird looks as we explain this to people. Some seem to treat us as if we are joining a cult or something. But, when we do something that is countercultural and even anti-American (contrary to the American pattern of independence and isolation), we should expect to get some weird looks, yes?

2. Podcast: Josh (the friend living with us) happens to be a student of theology like me, and since we have such great and challenging conversations, the idea came to me a few weeks ago to start doing a podcast. We are in the process of producing a regular podcast that will deal with similar issues as this blog, and are currently wrestling with hosting issues and how much it will cost us. so, if you know much about this or can point me to any good sites with affordable hosting, I'd appreciate it. More on the podcast to come.

3. House Hunt: With the real estate market being in the dumps as it is, it has meant hardship for millions of American families facing foreclosure. As sad as that is, if you wanted to see a silver lining, and there are probably several, one is that it is a great time to buy.. Angela and I started looking at houses seriously a few months ago. We put in an offer a few weeks ago that got shot down, and anther on a different property on which we are waiting to hear back. So, literally any day we could hear that we have had an offer accepted on a house. These are exciting-though sometimes frustrating-times. We will keep you posted.

4. Grad School: I am now only about 6 weeks away from the start of the Masters of Divinity program at Bethel Seminary. It seems it was so long ago that I applied and was accepted, and now it is getting close! It will mean all the joys (and pains) of reading textbooks, writing papers, discussing in class (my favey!), and better managing time. I can't wait!

5. Lost: Josh has gotten me into the show Lost. I had only seen one episode ever, so recently I started from the beginning and am now about a third of the way into season three. I have to say, it is an amazing show. The brilliance comes from the number and depth of the characters. Any other Lost fans out there? If so, feel free to comment, but don't post spoilers!!!

6. Ink: I got another tattoo a few weeks ago. You may remember my first about a year ago. If so, you may know that I am into tattoos having great meaning, rather than just being trendy. This latest one is Numbers 6:26 "May Yahweh lift his face towards you and give you peace" in Hebrew on my left arm. It turned out great!!!

That will do for now. Thanks for tuning in. I hope the posting will get more frequent soon enough.

Shalom.

-N

A Cultural Critique by Ray Bradbury

I just finished reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I had read it in high school, and for whatever reason, it had been on my mind. I bought it and read it last week. It is a great piece of literature and I highly recommend it. Allow me to give you the blurb.

It is the future. Advances in technology have produced a culture where speed and entertainment are everything. Houses are fireproof. Books are illegal. Fireman no longer put out fires, but they start fires, burning books that are owned illegally by citizens. Guy Montag is a fireman. One day while burning books, a book falls in his hand and opens. His eyes fall upon one sentence...it captures him. He becomes obsessed with finding out what he is missing in books. The book is about the rest of the story.

At the end of the book there is an interview with Ray Bradbury 50 years after the original printing of Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury makes some very interesting comments about the book and about our culture today, including this critique:

Interviewer: There seems to have been a decline in standards of journalistic objectivity, to put it mildly.

Bradbury: It's not just substance; it's style. the whole problem of TV and movies today is summed up for me by the film Moulin Rouge. It came out a few years ago and won a lot of awards. It has 4,560 half second clips in it. the camera never stops and holds still. So it clicks off your thinking; you can't think when you have things bombarding you like that. The average TV commercial of sixty seconds has one hundred and twenty half second clips in it, or one third of a second. We bombard people with sensation. That substitutes for our thinking.

I was struck by this. I think he is on to something. Thoughts?

Sand Art

So I wanted to share something amazing with you. There is an emerging form of art that involves the manipulation of sand on a lighted surface. You may have seen it in action in the new Quest commercials that are out. I first saw it last August at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit, and then I just saw it again this week at Willow's Student Ministries Conference (which was great, by the way), both times done by Willow's resident sand artist Mark Demel. This is one of the most amazing art forms I have ever seen. This link will take you to where you can watch the video. You won't be disappointed. You can also find this sort of thing on youtube, but without the Christian message in the art, it loses something. Anyway, let me know what you think.