The Value of Human Life

What strange times we live in.

I noticed the cover story of the August 6, 2007 issue of BusinessWeek: "The Pet Economy." Under the title it reads, "Americans now spend $41 BILLION on their pets." That is "more than the gross domestic product of all but 64 countries in the world" it continues at the beginning of the article (page 45, 2nd paragraph). I haven't read the entire story- maybe I will later... but...

Holy Cow! Literally.

Ironically, also in the news and media this week is Michael Vick, the starting quarterback of the NFL Atlanta Falcons, who got mixed up in a dogfighting ring which was on his own property. Listening to AM680 today, Razor was ranting about how Vick would not play in the NFL next year and probably for a long while. He was saying how Americans have a soft spot for pets and they will not be able to look past (forgive) this, hence no NFL team would sign him; assuming the Falcons are rid of him. If you follow sports, you know that if the athlete can perform some team is going to sign him; no matter what he did.

Laurence Phillips, who beat up a girl in college, was drafted by the Rams and even played for the 49ers! What about Kobe Bryant, a confessed adulterer? It appears the media's forgotten all about it, though maybe his endorsement deals aren't what they once were.

Trust me Razor, if Michael Vick can perform he'll be back in some capacity.


Seeing these two stories in the media really got me thinking about the value of human life and man's place in the world. It seems our society affords more value and dignity to an animal than to a human being.

A pastor visiting our church noted the one thing that really struck him about The City after moving here was the sheer amount of people begging on the streets. His wife came up w/ the novel idea of always keeping McDonald's gift certificates in her purse to give out rather than giving cash which could go to cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs.

$41,000,000,000 each year, and growing, would go a long way in helping the homeless. Heck, I wonder if that could provide housing, food, rehab and job training to every single homeless person in the nation each year?


So what is man? Naturally, the answer comes from God, the Creator.

Genesis 1:26-28

26Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

27God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

28God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

Psalm 8

1O LORD, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!
2From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength
Because of Your adversaries,
To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.
3When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
4What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
5Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!
6You make him to rule over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
7All sheep and oxen,
And also the beasts of the field,
8The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea,
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
9O LORD, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth!

FYI: I've never been a "pet person." I'm fine around them but I've never wanted pets- dogs, cats, birds, hamsters, fish, you name it- just wasn't not for me. I have enough things to take care of as it is. Nothing wrong with having pets though.

What Vick did was wrong, but what's worse, the abuse of animals or the abuse of a fellow human being?

Simply Streamin' myTunes

SimplifyMedia is really cool. It allows you to stream your music in iTunes between your computers and between 30 friends as well!

Now I have access to my entire iTunes library anywhere my laptop can get an Internet connection! I got Lkwan to sign-up and we messed around streaming tunes.

Needed fixes and enhancements-

• 1. Sometimes it freezes iTunes completely and I had to kill the process.
• 2. It drops the connection for no apparent reason. Sometimes even killing my connection to the network.
• 3. It can't browse your music from other computers via CoverFlow.
• 4. Can't listen to friend's songs purchased in iTunes that has DRM unless my computer is authorized.
• 5. Would be neat to be able to see what my friends are listening to from my library.
  

Anyways, let me know if you want to be my friend on SimplifyMedia.

Update:
SimplifyMedia has some awesome customer service. Paul Joyce, the co-founder, answered some of the items above in the comments. Click below.

Also, in a prior post I mentioned my favorite Christian artists. Well, if you're my SM friend, you can sample them from my iTunes!

Update2:
Appears that it doesn't work through VPN. Bummer.

Why did God Make the Israelites His Chosen People?

Deuteronomy 7:6-11

6"For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

7"The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples,

8but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

9"Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments;

10but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.

11"Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.

Cross-reference Genesis 12.

My "Contemporary" Christian Music Greatest Hits

Steve Green's song "Guard Your Heart" came to mind today. The lyrics are so beautiful. He sang such powerful songs- listening to them now send chills up my arms and down my back. The melody, the arrangement, and the lyrics really uplift my spirit.

Contemporary Christian music is so different now compared to twenty years ago. (duh!) My all time favorite singer is Twila Paris- her ethereal voice is angelic plus she writes all her music and lyrics. Steven Curtis Chapman's pretty awesome. So you know their duet "Faithful Friend" is doubly good.

Amy Grant's early stuff was really good before she crossed over. Basically anything pre-"Lead Me On", pre-Vince Gill. The stuff she wrote herself is very good.

So for you youngsters out there, check 'em out.

"That is what I came for" (Mark 1)

Mark gets the story off and running- the word "immediately" shows up 39 times, while the word shows up 79 times in all four accounts together. Mark's got the most, and John has the least by far. (Why shouldn't you be surprised? Something to think about.) Anyways, discipleship is the major focus of Mark and in his account within 16 verses we arrive at Jesus' selection of the first disciples.

Immediately, Jesus chooses Simon and Andrew, who were casting their fishing nets by the sea of Galilee (1:16). Then James and John are chosen, who were mending their nets. In DF's sermon on Mark, he noted that Simon Peter is one of the major evangelists of the early church and John is the consummate pastor of the early church. DF, "Jesus used these metaphors as a means of introducing these men to their life's work..." That's pretty cool.

As we read through Mark, a lot of the action is around the Sea of Galilee. Also, wherever Jesus travels, He almost always visits the Synagogue first. Perhaps this was a rabbinic custom. Paul did the same thing in his missionary journeys.

Jesus goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath to teach (1:22). This was the first order of "business" for Jesus and his new disciples, and not just any disciples, but these were part of the eventual 12. Further, within the 12, was the inner circle of Peter, James and John. Immediately, the disciples are learning how to teach by observing Jesus teach, and they are learning how to heal by watching Jesus.

Next Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law's fever and He and the disciples stay over night there after performing many more healings (1:29-34). The next morning, "Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there." (1:35) This is a beautiful lesson for us modern disciples living in the Bay Area. If Jesus did this after an intense day of ministry, shouldn't we? He started morning by praying to His Father.

But the n00b disciples don't quite get Jesus' program yet. After their 1st day, perhaps they think they know the M.O. now- Jesus will do some teaching, then let's get on w/ the healings. Heck, let's skip the teaching all together as the sick people are coming to us. Yet, Jesus does the unexpected. He tells them, "Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for." (1:38) Interesting, Jesus didn't say, "Let's go to other towns so I can heal the people there too; for that is what I came for." Mark 1:39 reminds us Jesus' priority, "And He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out demons." Notice that preaching is mentioned first.

How often we are so busy w/ "ministry" while we neglect the things which Jesus made a priority- teaching the word and training the disciples- as we saw in just this 1st chapter of Mark? In engineering, there's the "build or buy" paradigm- Is it cheaper to build it ourselves or to buy it off the shelf? A corollary to that is that you must build if it is one of your core competencies. In the church, teaching the word and training disciples are core competencies and it's something we must build on and is hard, if not impossible, to buy.


A neat little aside- Mark 1:40-45 describes the healing of a leperous man. There was probably an infinite number of ways that Jesus could have healed the man, yet He chose to touch him! Lepers were outcasts even among their own families, living outside the walls of the cities. No one would dare touch a leper. Jesus, moved with compassion (1:41), touched him. What a wonderful Savior.

By the way, I'll spend some time on the healings in a future post and why Jesus tells most of the healed not to tell anyone about it.

Grillin'

In case you're in the market for a BBQ Grill, a few words of advice-

• 1. Get it at least a week before your event so you can use it at least once and season the cast iron grill grates.
• 2. If you get it less than one week before the party, like, oh, I don't know, the night before (like I did), buy it pre-assembled. Trust me.
• 3. Crank all the burners to high to heat it up, then you can pretty much turn it all the way to low. The internal temp hovered closed to 400F.

I nearly got one that was advertised in last Sundays's Home Depot circular, but good ol' dad said to check Consumer Reports. Behold, they recommended one that is similar to the HD one, and the same brand but available from Lowes- heat was more evenly distributed and it was cheaper too! (woohoo!) So dad and I picked one up after dinner.

I thought it'd take me say 1.5hr to put it together. Nope. Took me a loooong time. I finally successfully tested the grill at 2:30AM Independance Day. Cleaned up the packing materials, then got on-line to check for some recipes to use later at my party.

I saw this e-mail from boltnut55, sent July 3 11:41AM:

So... did you get your grill?

(She was bringing vegetables to grill, so was seeing if I'd actually got one.)

My response, sent July 4 2:39AM:

um ... yeah. I _just_ finished putting it together. haha.
see you in 10 hours!

Her response, sent July 4 12:05PM:

How funny! We went to bed at 3:30, so we woke up about 30 minutes ago. D was marinating mushrooms about a minute ago and asked, "are you sure you're supposed to bring raw veggies?" I told him that you were planning to buy a grill and that I emailed you last night about it but "surprisingly" you didn't answer. D deadpanned, "He was probably busy putting the grill together!" Now I'll have to tell him he was right!
In case you are checking emails now, we're leaving now... 12:05.

"East Coast Wilson"

A new friend, who started out as a friend of a friend, is the "East Coast Me." He's been out here from the Right Coast for the majority of this year on assignment for his job.

As I've gotten to know him more there are a lot of funny little co-incidences:

1. We like to both shop at Old Navy.
• We both have a bunch of the same style O.N. t-shirts in different colors.
• Today, we were wearing the same style O.N. shorts, in different colors. In fact he was the O.N. poster child today as his t-shirt/shorts/socks were O.N. I wasn't wearing socks, but he woulda beat me anyways, I don't have any socks from them.
2. We also both like to shop the Banana Republic sale section, but feel that their stuff is overpriced now, even when on sale.
3. He took East Coast Swing lessons with his gf/now-fiancee when they were in grad school. I took Lindy Hop lessons w/ my then-fiancee/now-wife.
4. He was at the house today and noticed something oddly familiar sitting on my couches. Turns out back home he's got the exact same couch, in the exact same color from the exact same retailer- Macy's. It was at this point I said, "Dude, you're East Coast Wilson."
• O.K. - I could be West Coast Him.

Then I got to thinking... what other weird similarities are there?

• His fiancee's first name is the same as my sister's.
• His initials are the same as my wife's, if she changed her surname to mine.
• We were both into Transformers as a kids. (O.K. - what boy wasn't that was plus/minus 7-8yrs my age back then.)
• .... I'm sure there's more.
  

Thy Kingdom Come (Luke 1)

The Gospel According to Luke opens w/ the purpose of the book, addressing its intended audience. I've previously written about it here on my personal blog:

http://wilsonleungsworld.blogspot.com/2007/04/according-to-luke.html

Reading Luke 1, I was struck by the incredible parallelism between Zechariah and Mary's separate encounters with the Archangel Gabriel.

Compare Zechariah and Mary’s Encounter w/ Gabriel

What	Zechariah	Mary	Comment Z. = Zechariah M. = Mary
Angel Appears	10And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense.	28"Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you."	Gabriel doesn’t say anything to Z., but does to M. when he 1st appears.
Reaction	12Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him.	29But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.	Likewise, Z. is troubled by the angel’s appearance, whereas M. is perplexed at what he said.
Angel says	13Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John. "You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. 15"For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb. 16"And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. 17"It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah,TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."	30"Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. 31"And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32"He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end."	Z. and M. both get “Do not be afraid.” God hears and answers Z’s petition, whereas M. did not petition anything, yet God found favor in her. Gabriel proceeds to foretell the lives of John and Jesus.
Response	18"How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years."	34"How can this be, since I am a virgin?"	In v18, “for certain,” is not in the Greek, but added for clarity. Z. asks how he will know it will be true, whereas M. asks how it will happen. Fine distinction, but it is supported in Gabriel’s response…
Angel says	19"I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20"And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time."	The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. 36"And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. 37"For nothing will be impossible with God."	Let me try to paraphrase the Gabriel’s response to Z. and to M.: To Z.: You will know this for certain b/c I am archangel of God and have been sent by God. (He appeals to the authority of the master.) To M.: Gabriel answers by explaining how it will come to be since that is what Mary asked! Pretty simple!
Response	Elizabeth 25"This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace among men."	38"Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word."	Interestingly, Z. doesn’t get to reflect on what has occurred; at least it is not recorded by Luke. So, as Z. was muted due to doubt, he’s also muted in the Scriptural record. Rather, Elizabeth reflects on God’s blessing, not Z. M.’s response is of such beautiful total submission to God. And, the final clause, “may it be done to me according to your word” – really shows that she never doubted Gabriel’s word!

In the Old Testament, Abraham/Sarah, Isaac/Rebekah, and Jacob/Rachel were not able to have children until the Lord allowed it. As Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were the beginning of the original covenant to form the Israelite nation - a physical kingdom, so John (the forerunner) and Jesus (the King) is the beginning of the new covenant to begin the spiritual kingdom of God. This "new beginning," so to speak, starts are off in similar yet different fashion. Zechariah and Elizabeth, who are advanced in age, are not able to have children until God allows it per the Holy Spirit; echoing the travails of the patriarchs.

Then the pattern changes! Before, God gave child(ren) to couples who were previously unable to have children. Now, He gives a child to a couple that is not even yet married, though betrothed, and the woman has not even "known" a man. Yet again, it is achieved by the Holy Spirit. Whereas the former O.T. couples and Zech./Elizabeth petitioned God to have children, Mary and Joseph in no way asked for a child before marriage. In fact much has been made of the fact that Joseph, and Mary too, were likely to be seen in disgrace by common folk in that she was pregnant before marriage! (Boy, what an age and society we live now. How far we strayed!)

And so, God ushers in His kingdom on Earth by breaking the pattern w/ the birth of His son.

Putting myself in that time, in that place, in their shoes... reflecting on what I knew about the patriarchs, I hope I would have surmised that the birth of this baby Jesus was something the Israelites, and the world, has never seen and will never seen again- The virgin birth- of the Messiah no less.

I'm amazed by Mary's attitude. Romans, Galatians, Philippians, Titus, Jude, James, 2 Peter, and Revelation open w/ the writer referring to himself as a bond-servant of Jesus Christ. But it was Mary, the mother of the Jesus, who is the 1st in the N.T. to choose to be eternally bonded as servant to her own son, the Son of God. Luke 1:38 is the key application verse: "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word."