Two Thoughts for the Price of One

Books
I am currently reading a work of historical fiction--about 750 pages in length. There is no dialogue, but the word pictures are colorful and vibrant in their descriptions of the author's make-believe world. And what is the title of said tome? Theology of the Old Testament by Walter Brueggemann. The author was highly recommended by one of my seminary professors, and this title came up fairly often in the bibliographies of academic works. At the beginning of the book, I was certain Brueggemann is a deist promulgating his ideas in light of Historical Criticism. Now that I am past the halfway point, he might be better described as a post-modern deconstructionst. Who knows? He might be both.

In the same vein, my sister, Karen Norton, sent an a-mail today containing the following:

There was a time when I could spend hours in a bookstore and also come out with a sack full of reading material. I can still spend hours in the store, but more often than not I come away empty handed. I guess I got tired of looking at so many of the books and while the title may have been intriguing I found the content lacked a scriptural basis.

While her thesis is the disappointment in evangelical authors that have no concern for the primacy of Scripture, the end result is the same. Philosophy is trumping truth.


On the flip side...
I was eating at Olive Garden with my wife today. On one of his return trips, the waiter asked, "Where do you fellowship?" A bit stunned, I told him, "Maranatha," and Sandi asked him, "What prompted that?" He replied, "Spiritual intuition." He had recognized the working of Christ in us and desired a small bit of Christian fellowship. The Lord works in and through us, even when we have no knowledge of it.

Philippians 1:9-11 (ESV):
And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.