Nerd Heaven

Posted By admin on January 31, 2010

I don’t much care for Phil Michelson. I never have. However, I don’t think he is a cheater like some have said.

Golf is a sport with tons of rules. Some of them can benefit you and some of them can hurt you.

For example, if you play a non-comforming ball in a tournament you can be disqualified. You can be assessed a penalty for grounding your club in a hazard.

At the same time you can also seek relief from certain situations if you know the rules well. For example, when I was helping with the golf team while I was student teaching one of our golfers got in a dispute with a golfer from another school. Our golfer argued that because an area was “staked” (marked) a certain way he was legally allowed relief without penalty. He was right. He knew the rules well and it benefited him that day.

Phil Michelson knows the rules of golf and knows them well. The other golfers can argue all they want about the “spirit of the rule” and whatever that means. What I do know is that Phil knows the rules and if they benefit him in this particular situation, fine by me.

Category: Sports, golf | No Comments »
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Posted By admin on January 25, 2010

Besides my posts today I haven’t put anything on my blog since October. Have I given up blogging? Have a joined the circus? The answer to both question is, “No.”

The fact is that I have been busy with the end of vicarage and school starting back up again. With that came a move from Wisconsin to Missouri, visiting with my family, Thanksgiving with Lisa’s family, and prepping for being a student again after a year of “work.” Then classes started up again after Thanksgiving. Christmas was with my family and then New Years was with Lisa’s family. We also made a trip up to Wisconsin to visit friends and my vicarage congregation. Now classes are going again (fast and furious) ending in a few weeks.

I make no guarantees about how much I will post in the coming months. Hopefully I will through up some stuff from my classes. If you want to see more of a real time stream of what is happening, check me out on Twitter.

In case you are curious, here is what I’m taking:

• Pastoral Theology
• Pastoral Leadership
• Service Planning
• World Religions
• Biblical Theology

Category: Concordia Seminary, Theology | No Comments »
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Posted By admin on January 25, 2010

Pastor Esget from Alexandria, VA posted recently on Luther’s Small Catechism and how it should be the structure for our lives as Christians.

He says:

The Ten Commandments preach repentance, i.e., they show us our sin (2nd use of the Law, as a mirror), revealing to us that we are idolaters, misusers of God’s name, Sabbath breakers, people who dishonor parents, murder, commit adultery, steal, lie, and covet.

The Apostles’ Creed is just the opposite of the Commandments; the Commandments show us what God demands, while the Creed shows us what God does, gives, promises. So the Creed preaches faith, trust in God and His salvation.

The Lord’s Prayer, then, is our response to the faith preached to us in the Creed. In the Lord’s Prayer, we ask, in essence, that God would keep us in the pure teaching of His Word and help us to lead holy lives according to it (see the explanations to the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer in the Small Catechism).

This brings up a major problem in catechesis today. Many choose to split the catechism in half and cover one half one year and the other half the next. To break up the catechism removes the flow that Dr. Luther designed. To simply cover the sacraments one year without the 1st half does a disservice to our catechumens by removing the emphasis on the Christian life. In the same way, covering the Christian life and not moving through the Sacraments is dangerous as well.

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Posted By admin on January 25, 2010

I’m not going to post something of my own, because others have put together superb responses to the earthquake in Haiti.

• Rev. Kevin Golden of Village Lutheran Church: A video entitled “Where was God?”
• Rev. Gary Dunker from CPH: a post titled, “Haiti. Focus of God’s Wrath?“
• Rev. Thomas Messer: a post titled, “Pat Robertson is…“
• Rev. Matt Harrison: an article from Kevin Leininger titled, “Pat Robertson and Theological Malpractice“

You can read on the scene reports from Haiti  Rev. Matt Harrison’s blog, Mercy Journey’s with Pastor Harrison.

Category: Theology | No Comments »
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Posted By admin on October 26, 2009

I grew up knowing only a few pastors. I knew my home pastor and I knew a few area pastors who my family knew through various church dealings. They were all called “Pastor” by my family. No confusion, no problems.

Going off to college at Concordia University, Nebraska opened up a whole can of worms. Suddenly there were lots of people with “Rev.” in front of their names. What to do? Some people just called them all “Pastor” and went with it. Some referred to them as “Dr.” or “Professor” if the situation warranted.

It all was put in perspective when during my sophomore year I was beginning my Christian Doctrine I course that was being taught by an area pastor. Someone asked what we should call him and he replied “Professor.” Someone asked why and he replied, “Because I’m not your pastor. You have pastors back home and you have a chaplain here at Concordia. I’m your professor.” Those few sentences by that professor really hit home for me. It bugs me to hear students call their professors “pastor” because they are not pastors. They are teachers and doctors of the church who have been called to teach the faith. While noble and necessary, they are not shepherds of God’s flock. This also goes for those who work in our synodical administration and organizations. They aren’t pastors. Period.

This has affected my personal practice. I do my best (and do often slip up) when referring to those faculty and staff members at the seminary by “Professor,” “Dr.” or Reverend. They have honorable callings and duties and I don’t want to detract from them, but they are not pastors and do not claim to be one, so why give them the title?

We have pastors and we should make use of them and honor them. Why detract from their noble callings by giving away their titles to those not serving a congregation?

Category: Theology | 2 Comments »
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Posted By admin on October 7, 2009

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Posted By admin on September 28, 2009

My wife has a wonderful recipe that she got from her wonderful mom. It is absolutely delicious… and incredibly unhealthy. The name comes from opening the cans of Pillsbury crescent roll dough. It always scared my wife as a child… thus… Exploding Dough Casserole. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 lb or more of ground beef
• 1/4 teaspoon chopped onion (optional)
• 1 envelope McCormick Spaghetti Sauce Mix
• 8 oz can of tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 8 oz can refrigerated Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp butter or margarine, melted

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375
2. In fry pan, brown ground beef and onion together and drain any excess fat
3. Stir in envelope of sauce mix and tomato sauce
4. Heat until hot and bubbly
5. In a separate bowl, combine mozzarella cheese and sour cream
6. Pour and spread hot meat mixture into 12×8 or 13×9 baking pan
7. Spoon cheese mixture over meat, cover evenly
8. Separate crescent doug into 2 rectangles
9. Place dough over cheese mixture
10. Bake 18 to 25 minutes, until dough is lightly browned
11. Combine parmeasan cheese and butter and spread evenly over dough with a few minutes remaining in the baking process

MMMMmmmmmm nom nom nom

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Posted By admin on September 23, 2009

The following quotes were sent out by my district president here in South Wisconsin, Rev. John Wille in his monthly e-newsletter.

“False doctrine is poison to the soul. An entire banqueting party drinking from cups containing an admixture of arsenic can drink physical death from its cups. So an entire audience can invite spiritual and eternal death by listening to a sermon that contains an admixture of the poison of false doctrine. A person can be deprived of his soul’s salvation by a single false comfort or a single false reproof administered to him. This is all the more easy because we are all naturally more accessible to the shining and dazzling light of human reason than to the divine truth. For ‘the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them’ (1 Cor. 2:14).

“From what has been said you can gather how foolish it is, yea, what an awful delusion has taken hold upon so many men’s minds who ridicule the pure doctrine and say to us: ‘Ah, do cease clamoring, Pure doctrine! Pure doctrine! That can only land you in dead orthodoxism. Pay more attention to pure life, and you will raise a growth of genuine Christianity.’ That is exactly like saying to a farmer: ‘Do not worry forever about good seed; worry about good fruits.’ Is not a farmer properly concerned about good fruit when he is solicitous about getting good seed? Just so a concern about pure doctrine is the proper concern about genuine Christianity and a sincere Christian life. False doctrine is noxious seed, sown by the enemy to produce a progeny of wickedness. The pure doctrine is wheat-seed; from it spring the children of the Kingdom, who even in the present life belong in the kingdom of Jesus Christ and in the life to come will be received into the Kingdom of Glory. May God even now implant in your hearts a great fear, yea, a real abhorrence, of false doctrine! May He graciously give you a holy desire for the pure, saving truth, revealed by God Himself! That is the chief end which these evening lectures are to serve” (Walther, Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm; Dau, William Herman Theodore; Eckhardt, Ernest: The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel: 39 Evening Lectures. electronic ed. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2000, c1929, c1986, S. 20).

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Posted By admin on September 15, 2009

Perhaps one of the worst feelings in the world (okay… not the worst feeling… but close) is losing a book. If you don’t have your name somewhere in the book, the book is as good as gone. What claim do you have to it?

To combat this you have to identify yourself in the book. Some people write their names on the inside cover along with the date of purchase. However, this can be a problem if you have handwriting that might be compared to chicken-scratch.

Solution: make your own book plates. Book plates are what libraries use to identify their books. They are normally placed on the inside cover of the book and are held on by some form of adhesive. They can be big or small, color or black and white, and made of many different kinds of material.

For me there were three options:

1. Buy some small labels and makes some small book plates. This is the cheapest option, but not necessarily the cleanest looking or the “classiest.” Cost: varies.
2. Buy larger labels and use a free template from Avery. This allows you to customize to your hearts content. Cost: $10.92 for 60 labels (plus the cost of printing).
3. Buy LSB Adhesive Bookplates from CPH. These work perfectly for me since the books that I’m putting these plates in are theology books. They are the right size and the cost is $12.95 for 150 labels (plus the cost of printing).

I was really surprised to find out that it would be cheaper to buy the nice labels from CPH. These are the perfect solution for the person who needs to mark their books. If you have any other solutions, go ahead and leave a comment.

Category: Books, CPH, Seminary, Theology | 4 Comments »
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Posted By admin on September 8, 2009

I love my books. I almost always have a book with me. Right now I have three books that I’m in the process of reading. I also love technology. Combine both technology and books and you’d think that I’d be a happy man right? Not entirely.

I have previous experience with e-books. In fact, I own a lot of them. I have used Logos Bible Software since 2004 and have gradually built of a rather large library of books. My digital library includes numerous Bible editions, all of Luther’s Works, about four editions of the Book of Concord, and the entire Concordia Commentary series. This solution is perfect for a student. It allows me to carry around an entire library of theological resources without breaking my back. However, it is not perfect especially since I do not enjoy reading long sections from my computer screen and printing documents kind of defeats the purpose of having an “e-book.” What’s my solution? I actually own the print copies of many of my e-books. Why? So I can read long sections. Why own the e-book? So I can carry it wherever my laptop goes and also because I can do incredibly powerful searches with the software.

That covers my view on “non-fiction” e-books. I think they are a valuable resource, but not necessarily a replacement for the print volume.

I was intrigued when the Amazon Kindle came out but didn’t really get worked up by the product, primarily because of the cost. However, about two months ago I saw that the Mead Public Library in Sheboygan, Wisconsin had Kindles available to be checked out. I signed up on the waiting list hoping to get one before we headed back to St. Louis. Last week I got the call to pick one up and on Friday I got mine for one week. It came loaded with over 100 books (no magazines or newspapers). I dove right in, especially when I found that it had Dave Ramsey’s, “The Total Money Makeover,” a book I had been wanting to read. I also began reading Mark Levin’s, “Liberty and Tyranny,” but won’t finish it before I have to return the Kindle.

Here are my reactions:

Pros:

• It is very easy to read items on the Kindle screen. Both my wife and I commented on how clear it was.
• The device itself feels very sturdy.
• The device is very easy to hold for reading even with the protective cover on it.
• The number of books that one can have on the device is awesome. I can see how this would be perfect for a frequent traveler or a person who is going to live somewhere with space restrictions (I instantly thought of a sailor on a submarine).
• The price of books is appealing. For example, most books seem to be priced at $9.99 when their companion printed copy might cost over $20.

Cons:

• The books don’t feel like they are “mine.” Even if I actually own this kindle I would have no access to the book files or any of the workings of the Kindle. That is not my experience with the Bible software mentioned above. With that software I have the ability to move the files around and back them up myself to whatever media I wish.
• Big Brother. Logos does not have the ability to go in and delete files on my computer. If they did… I probably wouldn’t be using their software. Amazon however, does have that ability and have already exercised that power. See this story: “Amazon’s 1984 Kindle Credit.”
• The interface stinks. I think I would feel differently if I didn’t have an iPhone. However, after having used the iPhone with its touch screen and the ability to “flick” from one screen to the next, the Kindle’s interface is clunky and hard to navigate. To move through pages you have to “just keep clicking” until you get to the one you want. Searching is not the most intuitive thing either.

There is a newer model available, the Kindle DX. It has a larger screen and a native PDF reader. However, it doesn’t appear that the interface has changed much.

Will I be buying a kindle? Nope. I have too many concerns over the interface and in regards to Amazon’s policies. If my life situation changes might I consider it? Maybe, but not without some major changes. Go ahead and try to amaze me Amazon… I’m waiting. Same goes for you Apple… show me what you’ve got.

Category: Apple, Books, Internet, Technology | No Comments »
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