Archives for October 2006

Nolan Kamitiki, age 14, has been named the Top Young Scientist of the Year and is recipient of a $20,0000 scholarship.

The Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge is for student grades 5 through 8. The winners were announced Wednesday.

Kamitaki is now a freshman at Waiakea High School. To get to the national competition in Washington, D.C., he first had to win his school science fair, district science fair and then state science fair.

He entered with a project analyzing the affect arsenic in local soils has had on Big Island school children. He also competed against 40 finalists in a series of challenges at the National Institutes of Health.

“I tested for arsenic levels first in the soils of the Keaau and Hilo area, and I tested hair samples of students who attend nearby schools,” Kamitaki said. “After reading newspaper articles, I realized there is a big problem with arsenic in the Keaau area where a hotel is about to be built. I decided if it is a problem for tourists, it is definitely a problem for kids who go to the schools there.” Read more HERE.

“May I take your order?”

“I would like
a Coke please.”

“Would you like that Coke fried or over ice?”

“Huh?”

That’s right – – fried Coke. It is a new trend and spreading rapidly. Read more HERE.

http://kevinstilley.com/1137/

I’m not a Pollyanna, but I did like hearing some good news for a change. (HT: Reformed Chicks Blabbing)

I received the following email and thought it might be helpful for those thinking about attending Catalyst in 2007:

Good Morning Kevin

Have you seen the NEW Catalyst website? It’s up and running and there are some cool things that are worth checking out. Here are just a couple that I wanted to mention – Photos from Catalyst ’06, the latest Catalyst Podcast featuring an interview with Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, the Catalyst Blog, and the next edition of the Catalyst Monthly Newsletter. All of this can be found by going to www.catalystspace.com. And it’s all FREE!

Also, it may seem early, but have you thought about plans for Catalyst 2007? We have had an incredible response already. Here’s why I am asking… I am only able to extend the $149 Alumni Rate through the end of October- that’s next Tuesday, October 31st. This deadline is coming up soon!

This will be the last chance to get that discount rate for your team. Here’s what I need you to do if you can…please try and set aside tickets before October 31st. That will give me the ability to extend the $149 rate to you through January 5th, 2007 and will give you some additional time to round up the team for Catalyst Oh Seven. I know this might stretch you a bit, but because of the sell-out crowd at Catalyst ’06, we anticipate having to turn people away for 2007’s event. As Catalyst Alum, we want you to take advantage of these discounted rates before they go up.

Does that make sense? If you have questions about it, please let me know – the dates for 2007 are October 3rd-5th – October 3rd is Catalyst Labs ($89 rate available until January 5th, 2007).

Thanks for being patient with me on getting in touch with you about what lies ahead. You are a blessing and I look forward to staying in touch.

Melissa Kruse
Catalyst Concierge
678-225-3181 (Direct)
800-333-6506 Ext. 3181
melissa.kruse@injoy.com

A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.

When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.

About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands.

He said, “Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly.
He often talked about you, and your love for art.” The young man held out this package. “I know this isn’t much. I’m not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.”

The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. “Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It’s a gift.”

The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.

The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection..

On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. “We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?”

There was silence.

Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, “We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one.”

But the auctioneer persisted. “Will somebody bid for this painting. Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?”

Another voice angrily. “We didn’t come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Goghs, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!”

But still the auctioneer continued. “The son! The son! Who’ll take the son?”

Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. “I’ll give $10 for the painting.” Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.

“We have $10, who will bid $20?”

“Give it to him for $10. Let’s see the masters.”

“$10 is the bid, won’t someone bid $20?”

The crowd was becoming angry. They didn’t want the picture of the son.

They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.

The auctioneer pounded the gavel. “Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!”

A man sitting on the second row shouted, “Now let’s get on with the collection!”

The auctioneer laid down his gavel. “I’m sorry, the auction is over.”

“What about the paintings?”

“I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings.

The man who took the son gets everything!”

God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is: “The son, the son,

who’ll take the son?” Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, WHO SO EVER BELIEVETH, SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE…THAT’S LOVE

God Bless.

Several months ago I had to be at an event in which I knew that I would be left waiting for about an hour, so I grabbed the nearest book as I headed out the door. The book happened to be Dana & Mantey’s A Manual Grammar of the New Testament .

I have about a dozen different Greek grammars on my shelf (Ray Summers, J.Gresham Machen, A.T. Roberts, Blass & DeBrunner, etc.) so why did I grab Dana & Mantey which has for the most part just sat on the shelf since I purchased it from Rick Harbst fifteen years ago? I am convinced that it was God acting to convey to me a simple truth that I should have learned before going through half a dozen mid-life crises in which I moaned in remorse over all the failures and lost opportunities in my life.

The authors discuss the six sources that enlighten and clarify our understanding of Koine Greek:

1. Biblical Greek – The New Testament and Septuagint

2. Literary Greek – Plutarch, Polybius, Josephus, Strabo, Philo, etc.

3. Papyri – “They represent every kind of general literature, from the casual corresondence of friends to the technicalities of a legal contract.”

4. Inscriptions – “They are usually epigraphs or notices, carved upon slabs of stone for official, civic, and memorial purposes.”

5. Modern Greek – Modern Greek is an outgrowth of Koine.

And the item that I believe God used to help me grow and seek a deeper level of discipleship is number six on this list.

6. Ostraca – “The ostraca were potsherds–fragments of broken jugs or other earthen vessels–used by the poorer classes for memoranda, receipts, and the like. ‘As linguistic memorials of the lower classes these humble potsherd texts shed light on many a detail of the linguistic character of our sacred book–that book which was written, not by learned men but by simple folk, by men who themselves confessed that they had their treasure in earthen vessels (2 Cor. 4:7). And thus the modest ostraca rank as of equal value with the papyri and inscriptions.’

Somewhere in the Middle East, many centuries ago, perhaps an old woman broke her only water jug, and shed tears over the great loss. But, many centuries later, linguists use the writing on a piece of that broken jug to help them better understand the language of the New Testament.

Somewhere in the Palestine, many centuries ago, a young man bought a small item for his family and received a receipt on a piece of pottery for the purchase price. He tucked the receipt away and perhaps never thought of it again. But, today, linguists use that receipt to better understand the most minute details of the biblical text.

Well, I have many regrets in my life. However, if God can wait thousands of years to use a broken pot, then He can use the potsherds of my life as well, in some manner that fits perfectly into his eternal plan.

Many a sermon I have preached on living in right relationship to God right NOW. However, all too often I have spent my time agonizing over the past or anxious for the future. When we make this mistake, we fail to live that life that Paul told Timothy was “Real” life — real life in which every moment and detail of our lives are meaningful. May God forgive me for whining when I should have been winning people to the Lord. May God forgive me for feeling sorry for myself instead of feeling passionate about Him and his service. May God forgive me for living in the past or future, rather than taking joy in his Presence.

If I aspire to be a potsherd, I just might meet that goal in life.

I am a bit of a geek. I’m not a purebred geek, I am not a universal geek, but I definitely lean toward geekishness.

I love the arcane, esoteric, obscure and trivial.

When Susan and I were first married I would point out some tidbit of knowledge and she would ask, “How do you know that?”

I loved to answer, “Because I know a little bit about everything.”

She began to call me her “Compendium of useless information.” I have been called worse.

Well, I am finding that as the kids get older, they are asking very unpredictable questions. And, if there is anything in the world that I hate to say it is, “I don’t know.” ARGGHHH!

One of the blogrolls that you will find on my Kevin’s Annotated Bookmarks is my “Smarty Pants” blogroll. So far I have only included Ken Jennings (and a fine start that is). But as of today he is joined by the Avia Trivia Blog.

I think that I am probably too late to convince my eight year old that “I know a little bit about everything.” But, if I dedicate myself to the task, I might just be able to stay ahead of the questions of my other three kids and successfully sprinkle my conversation with enlightening facts culled from the Avia archives such as that alligators cough as part of the courtship ritual, television light makes cats shed hair, and Mercury is the second densest planet in our solar system.

What is the most dense planet? Planet Hollywood, of course. Actually, it is Earth, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to exhibit my geekiness by telling such a lame joke.

Sometimes I miss living in Arkansas. Sometimes I don’t.

LITTLE ROCK (AP) — A Little Rock man whose SUV was cut off in traffic was arrested after he allegedly shot at a motorist with a crossbow following a brief chase. MORE

Prime Time Theologian

posted by Susan Stilley

There are currently four television shows which I record to watch with my husband in our very few hours of spare time. They are Monk, House, Numbers and Psych.

Notice a pattern? All four shows center on a main character with a genius ability to solve a mystery. Adrian Monk is an obsessive compulsive but brilliant detective who picks up the clues that no one else notices. Dr. House analyzes symptoms of patients with curious conditions and arrives at the correct diagnosis and treatment when all the other doctors are left shaking their heads. Charlie Epps is a twenty something math prodigy/tenured professor who uses mathematical formulas to help his brother solve crimes for the FBI. Shawn Spencer has a photographic memory and uses his skill of observation to solve crimes for the local police.

The television hero has come a long way. Back in the eighties and nineties we had the ‘action star’ such as Magnum P.I., T.J. Hooker, Walker Texas Ranger, and even Hercules. To catch the bad guy, one just needed a fast convertible for pursuit, a quick draw, a vicious roundhouse, or a muscled punch to the evil cyclops.

These days our hero is more cerebral, less brawn and more brain. This is an improvement I think (though I must admit a nostalgic yearning for Tom Selleck in his Hawaiian shirt).

What I would really like to see, however, is a theological hero. A champion for Christ with the genius ability to solve all mysteries biblical, philosophical, scientific. Even if such a hero could be found, it is doubtful he would receive much airtime on secular television.

But what about in our churches, our colleges and seminaries? Are there any twenty first century Jonathan Edwards out there, ready to lead us down corridors of thought largely unexplored? Who are the biblical sleuths in evangelicalism, the brilliant philosophers able to mine Scripture for truths which remain buried and ignored in most of our churches? Several names might come to mind, either rising stars or those established who have been shining brightly for quite a while. I believe one name that stands out is William Dembski.

Dr. Dembski is a graduate of the University of Chicago where he earned a B.A. in psychology, an M.S. in statistics, a Ph.D in philosophy, and a doctorate in mathematics. He also holds a doctorate in divinity from Princeton. He has done postdoctoral work in mathematics at MIT, in Physics at University of Chicago, and computer science at Princeton. He is a senior fellow with the Discovery Institute’s Center For Science and Culture in Seattle as well as the executive director of the International Society for Complexity, Information and Design.

I recently heard him speak in the chapel service at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (where he is now the Research Professor in Philosophy). As SWBTS President Dr. Paige Patterson made his introduction he commented that whenever he felt tempted to feel any sort of pride, he need only consider Dr. Dembski, a true scholar. On the two big screens in the auditorium appeared a list of his published works. The screen scrolled down further and further and further to display a seemingly endless list of books and journal articles as the impressed audience chuckled in amusement.

No one chuckled during Dembski’s address, however, which was entitled “The Reach of the Cross.” Most in the audience were probably more familiar with his work as a leader in the Intelligent Design movement and so it was a bit of a surprise, and an enlightening one at that, to hear his exposition on Christ’s suffering. He appealed to his listeners to see the Cross as a window into a much deeper reality of divine suffering:

The Scriptures teach that, “with God a day is as a thousand years”, but if a day is as a thousand years then each day in that thousand years is itself a thousand years, thus if you run the numbers, a day with God is also as 365 million years. Follow the math to its logical conclusion and with God an instant is an eternity. For this reason the mere six hours that Jesus hung on the Cross is no obstacle to God taking into himself the full suffering of humanity.

After hearing his message I was reminded again of how the gospel message is simple without being simplistic. I can explain to my five year old that Jesus died for our sins and she can grasp it, yet to fully appreciate the magnitude of that suffering and the Great Love that willingly embraced it, the atonement with all its intricacies of horror and sacrifice, it is good that we turn to those of brilliant intellect whom God has given us.

Should any of the major networks decide to produce the next ‘genius hero’ themed primetime television show, I would like to see them turn their attention to theology and solving the mysteries that really matter. If they need any ideas for a good character, I suggest they start looking in the Philosophy department at Southwestern.

* * * * *

Link to Southwestern’s video of the chapel sermon.

Link to William Dembski’s blog.

Link to some of William Dembski’s publications.

When I jotted the previous note I did not realize that my wife Susan had taken time to pen a few thoughts regarding the same subject. She listened to the chapel message (3 times) via SWBTS streaming video and was evidently moved by it even more than myself.

Anyway, Susan does not have a blog, and does not want one (even though I have been trying to talk her into it). So, with pleasure I host her thoughts here in the post that will follow this one.

Here is a picture of Susan from when she appeared on a certain daytime television program.