Terry Pruitt's Blog

Synthetic Study on Colossians General Impact on Me Paul starts out his letter by drawing attention to the connection of the Colossian believers and other believers, to include himself. (Col. 13-8) This emphasis on commonality and union paves the way to begin dialog and explain why he should care anything about things happening in a river valley in Asia minor. He explains that they have a common friend, Epaphras, who may be the cause of the letter. (Col. 18) It may be that Epaphras explained to Paul the difficulties that he was having as a pastor in Colossia. Paul addresses the issue of the supremacy of Christ in contrast to the dominion of darkness. (Col. 113) Christ is not to be mistaken as another spiritual being among many others. He is above all authorities, whether earthly or heavenly. (Col. 115-20) He emphasizes the ColossianÕs union with Christ, and the mystery associated with the wonder of Christ, the hope of glory, being in the believer. (Col. 124-27) PaulÕs co...

My friend from many years ago is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Southwest Metro . You might want to take the test to check your knowledge of the book of Ruth in the section called Fun Stuff. (I got them all but one. Those two sickly and weak boys messed me up.) No, there is no character that you get to say you are correlated to, but you do get a cool test. Also check out Ken's sermon. Firefox users, pull up your 96% of the market type browser for this one.

Genesis 2:6 And a mist came up from the earth and this is how all the surface of the ground was watered. The word for WATERED is hiphil so it has something a sense of causative. The face of the ground is the ancient turn of phrase—probably means surface of the ground. Genesis 2:7 The LORD God formed man out of the dust from the earth and breathed in his nose the breath of life and man became a living soul. Certainly there is word play in that man and earth have a similar sound. Earth is what man is made of. The connection is a continual reminder of the man’s but made of the dirt, soil, earth, or land. The three verbal actions is a three phases of the creation of God; forming, breathing and then the end state of those two processes, a living soul. The becoming a living soul is an equational clause and so does not have a normal verb. Genesis 2:8 The LORD God planted a garden in Eden, which is in the east, and there he placed the man that he had made. ...

opraisepno.jpg (JPEG Image, 557x800 pixels) I have this song's music video. Some days I wish I could really sing and play guitar.

A few months ago a Joy Of Tech comic showed cats blogging about their favorit subjects. It was hilarious. Then I noticed that the blogging book from O'Rilly had cats on the cover. (Camel for PERL; Cats for blogging) I posted a blog a while back on how blogging is a content publishing tool. Blogging is not really a new medium, its just easier to put out content onto the web. But cats on the other hand are content creators. It's what many people blog about! Well, now I've found it, the Carnival Of Cats .

Genesis 2:1 The earth and the heavens were finished with their populations. This is a summary formula, opening formula. While the word for hosts is here, often referring to the angels of heaven, the LXX uses the words “world of them”. Given the pattern from Chapter 1, the environment made and the population of that environment there may be a connection there between the earth and heavens and those who populate them. Genesis 2:2 God finished on the seventh day his works and he rested on the seventh day from his works. This is poetic in form. The verb is changed from the first phrase to the second phrase but there is a repetition of the ending phrase, thus giving emphasis on the actions, finishing and resting. Genesis 2:3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy and thus began to rest from all of his works he had begun. Genesis 2:4 This is the generations of the heavens and earth when created in the day that that God made earth and heaven. ...

I guess I have to say, what is up with ABC not showing the next installment of Lost! By the way, the Indy Star reporter said that IF they use me in the article on Lost it would show up in a couple more weeks. GO INDY STAR!

Lord, Thank you for .... The grace of salvation, The brokeness that brings us to you. The Word of God, The comfort of prayer. The joy of my wife's friendship, Our children laughing together. The meal times together, Our enjoyment of life. Thank you Lord.

Higher criticism is a school of thought which attributed the simularity of many stories in the Old Testament, especially in the Books Of Moses, to a redactor combining several traditions into book. In other words, according to higher criticism the repetition is a result of an editor having the same material twice and he did not want to through either out so he used both. There is a lot made over which name of God is used, Elohim or Yahweh, as a way of deviding up the texts. When I first heard the theory I was disturbed that there was an attitude that the scripture was not the Word Of God. There seems to have developed a consensous among conservative scholars that results of the higher criticism are so varied that shows the theory as bankrupt. While this is true, David Dorsey in his book The Literary Structure of the Old Testament: A Commentary on Genesis-Malachi shows how the repetition is not a mistake, but a feature. This understanding of the Old Testament text is probably the...

As I mentioned in my other posting, I grew up in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. There the "freewill" was an important doctrine. As I mentioned before, every sermon had a choose and decide for God appeal. But something that I also noticed is how men came to be called to the ministry was not a freewill issue. Ministers in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church often talked about a struggle with God calling them to ministry. As a youth a few people told me that I should go into the ministry. I told them that God had not called me. Then one day while reading Isaiah, I noticed Isaiah saying, "Here am I Lord, send me." I felt like I could also sense that I had the choice to serve the Lord in ministry. The burden to preach came from the Lord, but it also came from a need of those who need to hear the message. I accepted that call, and have been preparing for ministry for over 20 years. (I don't know when I will finish.) But along the road, at one time I fe...

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." -- John 3:16 (ESV) I grew up in the Cumberland Presbyterian church. My friend Laird says it is Arminian in theology. I believe that is an over simplification, however, the congregation that I belonged to in Lebanon, Missouri definately believed in the "who-so-ever-will" doctrine. In most sermons I heard growing up there was a section near the end where the preacher would explain that you had a choice to make, that Jesus was standing there at door of your heart knocking, waiting for you to open the door to your heart. I developed a theology of the will. I believe without reservation that we were free to choose or not choose God and this would determine our eternal state. When I got to High School my geometry teach had a us do an exercise which he called "writing your own math, language or game". In essense, what you wou...

I'm still reading David A. Dorsey, The Literary Structure Of The Old Testament. I have to say that had I not read the book I would think the section which shows the correspondence between the primevial history (the time before Abraham) and the wilderness journey to be somewhat of a stretch. Basically Dorsey shows how in Hebrew literary structures he uses repetition, especially in patterns of seven and thirteen. In patterns of thirteen, the seventh position is often the highlight. On page 68 he shows the correlations: 1. Both the Red Sea and the creation/flood stories show God's power over the sea. 2. Both the Red Sea and the creation stories show God's powerful use of the wind. 3. Both the Red Sea and the flood stories show God drying the land with the wind. 4. Both the Red Sea and the flood stories show God's power by destroying his enemies and saving his people through the water. Dorsey has some other subtile differences which I think are aspects of...

If your interested in a little video on the set of Lost , check out this clip which features Evangeline Lilly, Jorge Garcia and Matthew Fox. It seems that food is a big thing on the set. I suppose that is why they are listed at the end of movies. I'm looking the location of the set, besides being in Hawaii. Is it Oahu, Maui, or another?

Since I started using RSS on Firefox, I can run through all my favorite blogs faster, I mean really faster. I am going to have to search for new blogs to follow since I get done in record time. Something I did not expect to find out was, I notice that people tend to blog more during the weekdays, and less on the weekend. That is sort of what happens in a lot of news websites too. (The Sunday paper is the big exception to this. ) I have also noticed that Thursday is my biggest traffic day for people reading my blog. My question is, how does blogging fit into your schedule? And I mean that for both reading and writing blogs. Comments welcome.

I was looking forward to some comments on the literary references in Episode 9, I has someone mention last night something I totally missed. Rousseau! Daniell Rousseau was a reference to the philosopher Rousseau . To quote a website dedicated to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Rousseau's profound insight can be found in almost every trace of modern philosophy today. Somewhat complicated and ambiguous, Rousseau's general philosophy tried to grasp an emotional and passionate side of man which he felt was left out of most previous philosophical thinking. In his early writing, Rousseau contended that man is essentially good, a "noble savage" when in the "state of nature" (the state of all the other animals, and the condition man was in before the creation of civilization and society), and that good people are made unhappy and corrupted by their experiences in society. He viewed society as "articficial" and "corrupt" and that the furtherin...

Yesterday's featured website at Ken Radio was about a different Ken, Krazy Ken . Krazy Ken goes around the country getting his picture taken as he immitates Oscar the Grouch, not in voice or color, just habitate. One of the towns he features in his Maryland visit is Glen Burnie .

There is a LOST quiz out there. I found it a little too simple and a just four questions long so I did not like it. Okay, I did not like the results! Perhaps you will like it better. The Sayid episode. I was looking for some sort of literary reference but none was standing out. I did not know the music box tune. Did someone else recognize it? The golf as a tool of civilization seemed to work as means of removing social barriers. As I've written before, I think sports are a good way to build relationships though I'm not athletically inclined. Locke and the Walte seem to build bridges, just not the gentlemen's sport, they like that more outdoorsy stuff. Huntin', knife thrown' and stuff... I think that was supposed to be for contrast. The golf also contrasted with the French woman Daneill's hunting for men. What was the trap for? To catch one of those bears? What did the cable do? Did it have a function going into the ocean? By the way, havi...

10. A great Greek salad at The Honey Bee Diner. 9. 20 minutes from the Baltimore Harbor, (a two story Barnes and Nobel, Walters near by, National Aquarium, Maryland Science Center, and Little Italy!) 8. Everyone knows someone, who knows someone, who works for you know who....shshshs...the "government". (I've probably said too much, sorry.) 7. All those gov'ies and vets are really patriotic! 6. Glen Burnie Evangelical Presbyterian Church 5. Crabs 4. The Chesapeake Bay 3. Playing "Bay Games" on the way to Rehobeth Beach 2. The BWI Trail 1. The Baltimore-Annapolis Trail

I grew up in a rural community in Missouri. Our pastor was not particularly dynamic but he visited the congregation, especially the sick. When I had a chance to do some student pastoring I found initially this something that was intimidating. My first church I found it difficult. My second church, things clicked for me. I visited the shut ins on Saturday and preached expositorially on Sunday. It was a good experince. As I have tried to come to grips with ministry and what it is, I do think the visitation feature is an important one. There is a good article in the PCA Zine called " Visit and Prosper ". Good encouragement for those who are faint of heart in visitation ministry.

I write my blog for a couple of reasons. One is that I have kept a journal for years. A journal is a part of my spiritual disciple to think through problems, express my frustrations, and record what is going on with me. Blogging lets me to that in a new form. Since I have been journaling for over ten years, at times it gets stale. Blogger helps to keep my journaling from getting stale by putting a little discipline in my writing. A second reason I blog is to participate in community. As I see what others are writing about and share thoughts and feelings, I get to know other bloggers. The Christian Carnival has helped me to find new blogs that I return to again and again. By posting my own article on the Christian Carnival it gives others an oppritunity to sample my blogging. I encourage my fellow bloggers to submit your own entry. christweb (at) gmail.com The cutoff date is Cut off date is Tuesday at midnight EST Please put Christian Carnival in the Subject Provid...

I was surprized to find that Reuven Lerner in Linux Journal assesses Atom to be the better technology between the different feeds. The article is not available on line anymore but if can get a issue of Novembers Linux Journal it is an interesting article. At the Forge - Aggregating with Atom By Reuven Lerner on Mon, 2004-11-01 00:00. For all you who are in the Maryland area, I'll loan you my copy!

You are Fozzie Bear. You are caring and love your friends as if they were family. For only they will put up with your stupid jokes. FAVORITE EXPRESSION: "Wocka! Wocka!" FAVORITE AUTHOR: Gags Beasley, comedy writer HOBBIES: Telling jokes, dodging tomatoes QUOTE: "Why did the chicken cross the road?" NEVER LEAVES HOME WITHOUT: His joybuzzer, his whoopee cushion and Clyde, the rubber chicken. What Muppet are you? brought to you by Quizilla Hat Tip: Rebecca Writes

In keeping with my blog postings which I propose that the next big thing (NBT) not being video on the Internet, but short video on the desktop. NBT Video of choice today is on Amazon. They have a video, featuring Minnie Driver, called Portrait . Like the Superman-Seinfeild video, its a commercial,..but,...but who cares. It is entertaining! Amazon Write Up: Original Short Film: "Portrait" Directed by Jordan Scott In this comic Hollywood fable, an ugly duckling turns out to be as pretty as a picture. Minnie Driver stars as a narcissistic corporate honcho who learns a lesson--the hard way, of course--about the importance of what lies beneath.

My good friend the Jollyblogger has been writing on Bridging the Chasm , meaning the church communicating with the secular world. In the early 80's YWAM put out a pamphlet on missions prayer. One of the things they encouraged Christians to pray for was different areas of influence: * Government * Business * Media/Journalism * The Arts * Education * Entertainment (I'm not sure that is the complete list.) As I prayed for these areas of influence, I found that Christians really wrote about a couple of these in the early 80's; Government and Business. For government you had movements like the Moral Majority and Focus on the Family writing actually about a very narrow aspect of government; moral issues. Yes, I'm grouping all Focus on the Family's issues in the area of moral issues. The government is so much more than moral issues. The business issues were mostly addressed by Bill Gothard, Larry Burkett and later Ron Blue. I'm not sure how ade...

If you ever wondered what would happen if someone who was into practical jokes took steroids while dreaming up their devious plans, you might want to check out this website. The Foil Project is a dorm room covered in tin foil. Warning! The video of the reactions have explicatives. You might imagine what was said by those who actually owned the room. Disclaimer: I don't know that steriods were or were not involved. Hat Tip: Ken Radio

My good friend the Jollyblogger beat me to the punch on my first question...What is Sawyer's real name? Is there any other allusions to Watership Down other than two communities forming? Why did Sun not just go gather the herbs herself? It would have been less strain on her relationship with Jin. It would seem to me that Locke has much to benifit from being on the island. Was he talking about himself when he said that the person who hit Sayid had something to benifit by staying on the island? What is the deal with that lip lock? (Avert your eyes....!)

Mission Frontiers this month has an article by Dan Scribner called A Model for Determining the Most Needy Unreached or Least-Reached Peoples. He covers four criteria they used for their model: 1. Progress of, or Response to the Gospel 2. Population Size 3. Country Location - persecution, economics, education and spiritual environments 4. Ministry Tool Availability - Bible translation, broadcasts, etc... Joshua Project has been around for years but I have not seen the results and numbers until now. I was encouraged by seeing the number so that I know how to pray for missions. I was also encourage to see the availability of the information on the Joshua Project website. Paul had a strategy for his ministry. He said that he was praying to go to Rome. He had a burden to go to Rome and share in the church life there. God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; a...

Recently I was wondering about some Old Testament Chronology questions. I asked an older gentleman in our church his opinion. I went to him with the question because is has been a Bible teacher for years and I wanted to hear what he had to say. He brought me a packet of a chart he had put together, some pages out of a commentary, a book on OT Chronology and talked with me patiently on the topic. God is good. He puts a variety of gifts in the church. Thank you Lord.

I listen often to Ken Radio . He is a fan of couch media; TiVo, video games, etc... He is has been talking down the bloggers for quite some time but now he says he is podcasting. In reality, I beleive that Ken has been blogger for some time. He just was not calling it that. Podcasting is a form of blogging, so welcome Ken and Ken you've been here quite some time. Andy his co-host has a blog. Andy and I are desktop media and mobile media.

Last night my daughter Elaine, my wife and I went to see "The Incredibles". We loved it. Lots of action, lots of cool graphics, and lots of humor. Oh by the way, cool "Bond" music is also a part of the coolness too. By the way, the trailer you have seen where Mr. Incredible is trying to fasten his belt but it is too tight, its NOT in the movie. In essense, it is a short and tells you what the movie is about without showing you any of the movie itself. Movies trailers have become so full of the plot and best shots of the movie that the trailer often shows the whole thing. The Mr. Incredible belt fastening segment also feeds my theory of short video clips as a solid medium.

I ran the Hogsneck 5 Mile Race today. My time was not too good, 44 minutes and 55 seconds. That figures out to be about 9 minute miles. I was disappointed with my time. I have had knee problems and been on rehabilitation for about a year. Gaining a little weight in the process I'm sure did not help. So I'm feeling blue about my run times but this Fall my wife and daughters have started running. I can see a big change in their fitness levels. They came and participated too. My brother-in-law came and ran we ran together. There was a lot of good things that happened but all I feel is my own disappointing time. Sports was a big trial as a child. I did not understand all my problems. I'm right handed, but left eye dominate. It has to do with an injury at birth to my right eye. I could not catch, throw or do in regards to hand-eye coordination. I also was pretty out of shape. Read, too much TV. I had very little sports ability. Joining the Army, I ran/j...

The hot thing I'm reading in tech news these days is podcasting . Basically it is a mix of the words iPod and broadcast. Wikipedia has an artical on it already.... The term podcasting was coined by Dannie J. Gregoire [1] (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ipodder-dev/message/41) and made popular by former MTV VJ and Dutch weblogger Adam Curry and RSS pioneer Dave Winer to describe succinctly the technology used to push audio content from websites down to consumers of that content, who typically listen to it on their iPod (hence the "pod"), or another audio player that supports the MP3 format, at their convenience. For the rest of of Wikipedia article click here. I was talking to someone about this. They asked me if I was listening to this yet. In a sense no and in a sense yes. I listen to KenRadio and other audio content when I'm on my computer. But I don't have an iPod or MP3 player. That would make listening to Internet audio content practical for ...

Radio Direction Finding (DF) is not something that is impossible to do. In fact is it is a big hobby for some people. Check out the page of of Amateur Radio Direction Finding enthusist, Joe Moell . I was amused by the strange efforts of Sayid on this week's LOST. If the transmitter is not moving, take a line of bearing (LOB), move and get another LOB. Better record these some how, maybe on a map. Pretty soon you can see where all the LOBs intersect and you have a FIX. The FIX is an area where the transmitter probably is. (Sometimes you get it wrong.) Its the same principle of resection with a compass. Equipment that automatically figures the FIX is three or more recievers taking reading togethers. The LOB from one radio is transmitted to a station that calculates where the FIX was on a computer. 1. Where was the map, electronic or paper, that was going to be used for the DF? 2. How were these walkie-talkie radios going to transmit their data? If you could trans...

Thank God we can have an election! 1. Our form of government is a blessing. We can keep or toss a leader without resorting to violence. 2. Thank God everyone was civil when the election was close and hours of counting were ticking away. 3. Thank God we have a president who is a faithful Christian. I trust he will ask God to give him wisdom and act morally. He did not run as a Christian candidate but is a Christian who ran to be the president of all Americans regardless of how they exercise their freedom of religion. I think faithful Christians serving in public office and Christian thinkers articulating sound policies based on wisdom and morality is much better than trying to mobilize a grass roots mob of bullies to carry out a "Christian agenda". 4. The election has meaning to the policies of the US, both domestic and foreign. I know President Bush would rather have his legacy be an administration which pushed the American education system to the next ...

You Are a Pundit Blogger! Your blog is smart, insightful, and always a quality read. Truly appreciated by many, surpassed by only a few. What kind of blogger are you? Hat Tip: Rebecca Writes

I'm comparing maps from NY Time, World Magazine, CNN, and The Washington Post. They are not agreeing with one another. I'm amazed at the trust in predictive analysis that some of these organizations are willing to put out there. The NY Times has a cool map that shows the states in terms of electoral college. Therefore Montana is small, New Jersey is large. Check it out.

I went to the polls today with my wife. We had a great walk/jog on a Fall day. I had a good time out and about. The voting machines I think need commenting upon. On the following webpage from the county there is a page to familarize people with the software. http://www.aacounty.org/BdofElections/ElectionDayInfo.cfm Some of my observations on the software and hardware. 1. I could see what other people voted. There were no privacy curtains or anything else to keep people from seeing for whom people were casting their votes. Turn the machines away from the lines! 2. Red was the color used to highlight the box for the candidate for whom you voted. Red is usually a color used to say mistake or stop. Pick another color. By the way, red was later used to say their may be a problem in casting your ballot if you did not mark anything. 3. The instructions were way too verbose. 4. The final casting of the ballot was without cerimony. A person stood a sl...

My most recent reading is for my Old Testament class. The book is all about the literary structures of the Old Testament. Some of the initial insights from the book include the following: 1. The Hebrew Bible was meant to be listened to, not read silently. The patterns are aural markers, no titles or other print oriented clues. 2. The Hebrew Bible has patterns of seven. Seven does not hit me as an easy number of things to remember. However, in one of my telecommunications class, Doug Kerr mentioned that a lot of research was done by the Ma Bell to determine how many numbers a person could remember. Guess what, 555-1212 is structured the way it is because seven is an optimal number for memory. 3. Repetition was considered a good thing. The author I'm reading compares the repetition in stories like "the Three Little Pigs", and the old TV show "Dragnet" as examples in our own culture of lots of repetition. I plan on writing a review on the ...

I finally showed up on the League Of Extraordinary Reformed Bloggers. I got an email asking my secret. In reality, I don't have one. Since I'm not sure of all the variables, its difficult to tell what worked and what did not. The Thing I Was Dissatisfied With I want my blog name, not feedburner to show up on the aggregator title. I tried to change a couple of things to fix that. 1. Turn off the Feedburner advertisements so that perhaps my blog title shows up instead. (The Jollyblogger may be more jolly if that works.) 2. Turn off the fancy style sheet. Simple is better I think. It's a xml feed! XML is for machines not people. The Thing I Liked The feature that I think is desirable is a part of the posting showing up. This is a feature known "summary burner". (I may see a naming convention.) That needs to be turned on , I think.

Nagid Ben Chesed entry on how slavery was regulated but not approved in the scriptures. He articulates this concept much better than I have heard others discuss it. By the way, check out his biography. Its sort of interesting too!