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...