My list:

1. I think that the Bible in translation has as much authority as “the Bible” in its original languages.
2. Although I went to grade school, junior high and some high school with Lincoln Brewster and Jewel, I don’t have any strong memories of them.
3. Verbal communication is not my strength – if you want me to do something, write it down. And even then…
4. As long as you’re not an escapist, your views on eschatology don’t bother me – unless you’re mixing up politics and theology.
5. It bothers me that the cross is not centered on our church’s main stage.
6. I grew up in a youth group with Sarah Palin’s foremost Alaskan critic (and I agree with her – not Ms. Palin – more often than not).
7. I haven’t played my trombone since Easter.
8. Tortilla chips and salsa are the new manna.
9. I primarily studied physics and astrophysics in college for two years before switching to be a music major. I vicariously live out the former focus through science fiction books and movies.
10. The thing I miss the most about Alaska is not the mountains or the water, but seeing the expanse of the Milky Way against the absolute blackness of a clear winter night.

As for seven bloggers to tag in return, I’m going to appeal to my stats and tag the last seven blogs that sent links my way (if they’ve already done the meme, I’ll provide the direct link):

1. New Epistles (Kevin)
2. Bible Design Blog (Mark)
3. New Leaven (TC)
4. Baker Book House Church Connection
5. Scripture Zealot (Jeff)
6. The Sundry Times (Gary)
7. Anwoth (Will)

With that in mind, here is a five-book list as best as I can cobble it together:

1. William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible commentary series on the NT. A self-professed “liberal evangelical”, Barclay denied the supernatural in Jesus’ miracles in favor of non-miraculous natural explanations grounded in rational thought. While I may not agree with him on all of those points, I certainly agree with Barclay’s writing style for the common man. His commentaries are a treasure trove of historical context and his writing is accessible to all but the densest readers.

2. Kenneth Gentry’s Before Jerusalem Fell remains the standard apologetic for early-date authorship of Revelation and the partial preterist viewpoint. I had been introduced to the preterist view earlier, but Gentry’s book forever changed the way I read Revelation.

3. Garry Friesen’s Decision Making & the Will of God sealed a Wisdom-first approach to God and the Bible. Friesen rejects the traditional view that God has an individual Will or plan for each person that should guide our decision making process; instead we are free to make choices that can (should) be informed by the Wisdom of the Word. In many ways, this anticipates some of the Greg Boyd perspectives.

4. Calvin Seerveld’s The Greatest Song opened doors to exploring a musico-dramatic interpretation of Biblical texts. With this setting of the Song of Songs, Seerveld finds new voices in the text and brings them to life in a format that resonated strongly with me. His book of Psalms is similar, though not as multimedia focused. New translations like The Voice pick up elements of this dramatic presentation.

5. Eugene Peterson’s Eat This Book is a convincing argument that reading the Bible is not an end to itself or a means of inviting God into our lives, but instead the means by which we join into God’s narrative and live in the Kingdom. Peterson aruges that our interest in reading the Bible is driven by our active participation in the reality of the Bible, in God’s Kingdom. When we cease to participate in God’s work, we cease to be interested in understanding God’s Word.

Yet despite the paucity of new content, the analytics of this blog have remained relatively stable in averaging ~150 unique visitors a day. Not great, but evidently good enough to land me on the “Top 50″ list last month…

In reviewing the site stats, the importance of archived content in maintaining the “blood pressure” of a blog is clearly underscored. From the beginning of April through mid May, these have been the most visited individual post pages (obviously, I cannot track posts read on the home page):

1. Dinner prayers
2. A new NLT Reference Bible?
3. What were you doing on December 17, 1994?
4. Wretched translations! ESV vs. HCSB: Romans 7:13-25
5. Maybe the question is not “what versions of the Bible do you use”…
6. Isaiah 40:31

Two posts from 2007, two from 2008 and two posted after my “return” last month – that’s a healthy mix. Incidently, the Romans 7 and Weinland (December 17, 1994) posts are the two top posts when I look at all blog activity, at least from the relaunch in April 2008. FWIW – stats are derived from Google Analytics as my WordPress Stats plugin has corrupted itself and is reporting spurious data with no sense of reality (seemingly assigning all the site visits to one random post from archives).

I’m encouraged that people are finding things to read, even when I don’t have the time to write. I’ve thought about going “off air” again, but the benefit of keeping archived content available to those looking is greater than any benefit to me in shuttering the site.

Just a quick note to confirm that I will be taking a break from blogging for a while. Don’t know if or when I’ll be back, but I’ll leave the lights on for now…

David Ker has been writing in minimalistic prose lately, with twitter tweet creeds and now 50-word mini sagas. In any event, he’s challenged me to write my life story in 50 words or less, evidently because I “love good language.” No pressure there…

Without further ado, here is my life’s “mini-saga”:

Born in the shadow of the mountain.
Northern Mowgli, blind to beauty.
Smart outside, inside fear of failure.
Good school, good job. Not excelling.
Mom. Cancer. Death becomes her.
Seeking comfort against God’s judgment.
Opposites attract and marry.
House, kids, debt. His plan?
Worshiping in the shadow of the mountain.

Technically I’m now supposed to nominate five more people to write their sagas, but given that blogging has been so slow, I’ll open it up to anyone who wants to give it a go.

Without further ado, I present two desktops:

I tend to have artwork that I like on my desktop; the first (left) is what is currently “on exhibit”. I found this painting on a greeting card years ago and was immediately struck by the treatment of light across the geese, country road and water, never mind the perfectly captured inquisitive gaze of the geese toward the artist. It helps that we raised geese and other fowl in my Alaskan youth. After fruitlessly searching several art books, I eventually discovered on the Web that this oil painting is “The Watersplash” (1899) by Henry Herbert La Thangue.

Continuing the theme of my Alaskan youth, the Maine paintings by Winslow Homer have a special attraction for his rough-hewn depictions of the sea and fishermen. The painting here is called “The Fog Warning” (1885) and combines the danger of an encroaching fogbank with the success of the fisherman and the arduous task that he faces, rowing back over choppy seas to his ship in the distance.

• Creeds and Freedom or The Jazz Rhythm Section and the Soloist
• When We Play Wrong Notes

Looking at various blogs’ sidebars recently, I was reminded of the Blog Readability Test that many of us took a year ago. Back then, I’d initially scored as a “Genius”, then later as “High School”…

Well, I’m pleased to say that He is Sufficient now scores on a Junior High School (that’s grades 6-8, ~12-14 years old) reading level — does that mean that I have to give up the REB as my full time Bible?

Ironically, my family blog is now scoring on a College (Undergrad) level… *shrug*

Ironically, the closest book is in a stack that I haven’t given any attention to since I put them down by my monitor. So the top book is the closest, that being “The Canon Debate” by Lee Martin McDonald and James A. Sanders. McDonald is the uncle of a friend of ours from church and he (our friend) lent it to me to take a look…

Anyway, on to page 123:

When he summarizes the laws in A.J.3.223-286; 4.196-302, he even apologizes for digressing from the historical narrative, making it clear that the laws constitute only a small part of what Moses wrote (3.223; 4.196). This agrees with his language in C.Ap.1.39.

Nor can his famous recognition of Daniel as “one of the greatest prophets” (A.J.10.266), in contrast to the rabbinic scheme that left Daniel among the “Writings,” serve as evidence of order within Josephus’s Bible.

Um. Yeah. I doubt that I’ll be hitting that stack real soon…