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There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that it really amounts to this, that because you are saved by grace alone it does not matter at all what you do; you can go on sinning as much as you like because it will redound all the more to the glory of grace. If my preaching and presentation of the gospel of salvation does not expose it to that misunderstanding, then it is not the gospel.
JollyBlogger quotes Martyn Lloyd-Jones on Preaching the Gospel in a longer passage. I'll confess that the first place I heard this was from Jerry Bridges. It bowled me over: I had always been taught Pauline idea of not leading your brother into sin being the greatest commandment. For me this week, it's a good reminder that unless I can misunderstand the Gospel I preach to myself as licensing sin, I'm probably not preaching myself the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but some other.
So, I met with the Kid yesterday. Right after talking to a guy for a story in Business 2.0. Nothing I say will make it in, I'd reckon. Too late in the day. But it was an interesting experience, one that got me pumped. And thinking. I suppose that after reading his book, I'll talk with him again.
It's odd how the two experiences interrelate. Like most things. A snake swallowing itself.
I play in two different types of organizational theory. One is dominated by people who are even older than I am. By about fifteen or twenty-five years. The other is still "controlled" by gray hairs (I'm getting them) but dominated by The Kids, folks about ten years younger than me. Certainly the press for social networks is geared to Youthful Business People. Gen X or Y or Z.
So why not show the younger kids the stuff that the older folks go for, while at the same time combining it with the Cool Theory? It's not like it's hard: it seems like it's a pretty easy argument. I'll put it together on my organizational readings site, try it out on The Kids and see where it goes. The writer I spoke with is actually older than I am, except that he had a longer "youth". Other than not having kids and having to play with someone else's, I can't say that I really have ever been very "youthful". Adolescent, perhaps, but not youthful. You should see how I dress.
As The Stanley Brothers sing a woeful tune about being a man of sorrow, I'll segue into talking about meeting with The Kid. Well, actually, that was it. I'm too tired to write anything ineteresting — too many returns over at Radio Shack today and almost no sales. I did sell a couple of batteries. I probably miscounted change. I certainly looked like a doofus, but as L points out, that's hardly an oddity.
I met The Kid at 4:30 and convinced him to go out for coffee with me. I got him back at 9:30. Yeah, I bought him dinner. I also blew his mind.
A few days ago, keeping_on posted the following comment here:
Well, if its any consolation, I can identify with much of what you've expressed -- including more than a few years with little or no taxes.
Then David started many Psalms down and ended with such things as "I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Ps 27:13.
Then again there were the greats of faith (Hebrews 11:13) these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assures of them, embracing them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth...
Seems to make "stranger in a strange land" more relevant.
I guess Paul had a workable idea "I have learned to be content in every situation...
It's a good reminder. Because a lot of the time, I do despair of seeing the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And since I half the time think the Hallucinatory Hypothesis is right, I can't say that I hold out hope for some "pie in the sky" wonderful experience in some sort of afterlife. I have always had a problem with the idea of "heaven" and the afterlife. Ever since college, when my life first caved in on me and I floated off unmoored and bereft, I have always thought that if God weren't much use here and now, then he would probably be even less use should there be some form of eternal thing that is a part of me.
I cut a deal back then with myself that if I concluded that God did not exist, it would be better to score a large bag of cocaine, throw the contents into a water soluble bag, swallow it out in the south Texas hill country and wait for that moment of bliss as the coke hit my system right before everything that was me would shut down and close out. I have never had the courage of a Sartre or Camus, boldly living in the face of meaningless. Hardly able to carve out a meaning for myself, I suppose that I am simply a chicken. I've never claimed courage as a virtue I had much of anyway. As an evolutionist, I've been quite incapable of living with the conclusions that a Godless beginning inevitably must lead to.
So I would frustrate my betters with my endless questioning, "Does God exist? and I don't want a intellectual answer!" I just didn't want the usual apologetics for I had read them and found them wanting. I suppose, from this vantage point, I searched for The Real Deal.
My despairs haven't gotten any less dark. It's easy to say that the six weeks have been the darkest of my life. Even worse than those few months where from stress I dropped 45 lbs (20.5 kg). And for no good reason other than I had come to the end of my ends, the collapse of my Plan B's. Heck, I was on Plan 9, and even that pooped out. No great failures. Just a series of disappointments and disappointing of those who held expectations. I had lost hope of hope.
I can't say that I believed much in seeing the goodness of the Lord, whatever or whomever that may or may not be.
And then things happen.
I have been asked to comment about something that I wrote on here at manasclerk's The Power Struggle. It's something for Business 2.0. That's the second time that this has happened. I'm not sure what happened the first time. I've gotten interviewed a few times. Just when I'm about to have a tear in my beer as I'm sittin' here cryin' over me, the blog actually does something.
Not that I'll end up being quoted. I'm not that interesting. But it will be fun to be interviewed for five minutes.
My fifteen minutes begins! Maybe I can save the other 10 for later when I need to leverage fame.
Once again, Valpo Public has come through with an excellent book purchase for me to waste time with. Charles C. Mann's very readable 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus describes some current controversy over what the Americas looked like prior to Columbus's arrival in the Caribbean.
Charles Mann wrote a very interesting article for The Atlantic in 2002 based on the book. The article, also entitled "1491", covers some of the major points of his book. An interview of the same period ("The Pristine Myth") is only available online and not available in the print version.
(Like all Atlantic articles, you must be a subscriber to see it all online. But why are you not a subscriber to The Atlantic Monthly? It's hands-down the best magazine out there. But the article is also available at The UWMilwaukee Idea.)
The traditional way to view the American Indians prior to Columbus is that there were a couple of largish civilizations in Central and South America (Mayans, Aztec and Inkan) but they were superstitious, evil societies that by and large had little impact on the environment. Certainly the land of North America was little populated, a wild sanctuary with almost no one in it, a pristine environment destroyed by the settlers.
It's a great story except, as Mann points out, it's almost entirely untrue.
I started this weblog in April 2003 in an attempt to understand why I was losing my job. And then some notes from what I was reading so that I wouldn't lose them. After these 2.5 years, I have a much better understanding.
This will summarize what I have learned in my long, wildly successfully unsuccessful job hunt. Like everything else I've ever written, this will meander down whatever paths seem to strike me in the moment with no rewrites, like a Bradbury novel if he had a lot less talent and skill. I am writing this as I disconnect so that perhaps it will make sense to someone else.
I'm taking a break from my hiatus to annouce that the good Drs. Herb Koplowitz (of Terra Firma Management Consulting) and Glenn Mehltretter (of PeopleFit) announced that they will be putting on a short course in Toronto on assessing individual's level of capability (Capability of Information Processing or CIP in RO parlance). Great for talent gearing during mergers or for evaluating an applicant whom you think has the knowledge and skills but can he do the work?
It's an excellent class. And these RO methods have some good results. Inglis increased sales by 50% in a flat, recessionary market in one year. RH got double-digit growth in one year from an organization that had averaged 0.2% for the previous seven years. AH went from depressed and surly to bright and active, just from getting work that fit. Pastor J. uses it to effectively manage both his church staff and the parishioners who work with them. The incredible Canadian success stories of Canadian Tire Acceptance, Bank of Montreal, Inglis and others are, of course, well documented and known.
I'm going off grid indeterminately. So I'm taking down comments and pings. I may have to take down the site but don't think so.
So long.