This is an except from my Gospels' notes. I came across it studying for the exam I have to take tomorrow. It refers to the currently-chic academic position that the Gospels are unreliable sources of information because of the obvious bias of their authors. Thought it was interesting.

Oh, and the part in brackets is definitely still notes from the lecture.

Because there’s a theological agenda there can’t
be real history [Says who? This is a false dichotomy!! You cannot make claims like that without interposing your own suppositions about reality into the very argument. The idea that you can witness this kind of stuff and not have an opinion is ridiculous. To say that you can’t trust a person with an agenda is to say that you can’t trust anyone, ever, including yourself. Compare this to the way we do history now – like the Holocaust, for example. The assumption that if you are intimately involved in the events themselves and therefore have an emotional opinion about it necessarily means that you must be untrustworthy is quite absurd and unhelpful.]

Boo

no, that was not a reference to halloween. it was, rather, a reference to the fact that i haven't been around much.

this is due to a number of things, not the least of which is my utter exhaustion due to near constant activity and extremely large quantities of homework. but the fact of the matter is that today is the sabbath, and on the sabbath i relax, rest, and soak up time with God's people, and today i'm not so exhausted that my relax and rest time must be absorbed by a nap. so here i am, finally able to blog again.

i spent pretty much all day yesterday (well, i slept in late, but i stayed up late too, and i worked out when i first got up) writing 2 papers that are due early in the week this week. one of them was on the book degenerate moderns, which i've just discovered you can read online here for free. now i feel stupid for ordering it. anyway, despite the author's highly catholic tendencies, i recommend the read. it's not perfect, but it is worth your time. particularly helpful is the chapter entitled "liberal guilt cookies."

i have discovered that i am kid-deprived. this will probably lead to further insanity, such as babysitting jobs. seriously, my life is ridiculous, and i have no idea where i would fit said babysitting jobs into it, but i'm going into withdrawal here. not good.

i joined the church today, and when lindsey williams (the pastor who does all that new member business - don't worry, he's a he) introdcuced me he read out that my hobbies are "reading, volleyball, and blogging." for the record, i am confident that i put a much longer list, including watching movies, cooking, singing, napping, and especially hanging out with people. but those are the three that got read. and i was like "crap, i haven't blogged in forever." well, it turns out "forever" is a mere 9 days, but still...

i'm going to visit my not-so-little sister next weekend, which should be wonderful. i'm really excited to hang out and lay low. and get my eyebrows waxed again - her place she goes hardly hurts at all!!

has anyone ever heard of massage envy?

So the biggest reason i haven't posted yet...

...is that i know y'all were excited about hearing about the frame class. and i dropped it. because i got way overwhelmed. please don't be mad.

the one class i sat in before i freaked and dropped was really good. actually, you can listen to his whole lecture series on the topic for free - iTunesU, baby.

the rest of the news is random. here are the basics:

1) i'm joining my beloved church next sunday.
2) i'm loving clinique's 15-minute-facial.
3) i'm going to winston for the weekend to hang out with my best college buds. :)
4) i'm wracked with guilt because i don't know how to contact my beloved cousin leslie, who commented here a few weeks ago and called me. i'm hoping she comes back and emails me or something. {webs - my email is, sans spaces, l k p johnson @ g mail . com}
5) i miss my sister. i miss the rest of my family too, but i've seen them recently.
6) i hate food poisoning. be glad there isn't something like a picture for me to show.
7) seminary is hard.

This Week

is australian. i hope to post this coming weekend sometime, but at the moment i'm barely keeping my head above water.

countdown to frame class: t-6 days.

I love milk.

and House. and Heroes. and Law and Order.




and i am learning to love the office.




and my knees hurt. especially the left one.

I Will Glory in My Redeemer

i will glory in my Redeemer
Whose precious blood has ransomed me
mine was the sin that drove the bitter nails
and hung Him on that judgment tree
i will glory in my Redeemer
Who crushed the power of sin and death
my only Savior before the holy Judge
the Lamb Who is my Righteousness
the Lamb Who is my Righteousness

i will glory in my Redeemer
my life He bought, my love He owns
i have no longing for another
i'm satisfied in Him alone
i will glory in my Redeemer
His faithfulness my standing place
though foes are mighty and rush upon me
my feet are firm held by His grace
my feet are firm held by His grace

i will glory in my Redeemer
Who carries me on eagles' wings
He crowns my life with lovingkindness
His triumph song i'll ever sing
i will glory in my Redeemer
who waits for me at gates of gold
and when He calls me, it will be paradise
His face forever to behold
His face forever to behold.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

this song is particularly beautiful when a large group of women sing it.

Sorry About the Long Silence...

a lot of stuff has happened, but mostly it hasn't changed things. i went to dallas to hang with the fam. i came back. i've done a lot of homework. i went to portland, or for a friend's wedding. i came back. i got jetlagged. i got sick. i missed class. i did a lot more homework. i'm swamped. seminary is insane.

but i love it.

more later - the soon kind of later. scout's honor.

I Bake

for you to moo...

they're here, ladies and gentlemen. eat your hearts out. or go get your own. or download them on itunes. or something.

Rethinking the Role of the Church

"So I would lay down as a basic proposition that the primary task of the Church is not to educate man, is not to heal him physically or psychologically, it is not to make him happy. I will go further; it is not even to make him good. These are things that accompany salvation; and when the Church performs her true task she does incidentally educate men and give them knowledge and information, she does bring them happiness, she does make them good and better than they were. But my point is that those are not her primary objectives. Her primary purpose is not any of these; it is rather to put man into the right relationship with God, to reconcile man to God....It has come into the Church and it is influencing the thinking of many in the Church - this notion that the business of the Church is to make people happy, or to integrate their lives, or to relieve their circumstances and improve their conditions. My whole case is that to do that is just to palliate the symptoms, to give temporary ease, and that it does not get beyond that." D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preachers and Preaching, p. 30

Church Update

I turned in my application today to join the church I fell in love with.

Saddle up your horses. The adventure begins with commitment.