Nomadic Thoughts

I discussed a few days ago some of my thoughts on the preservation of language. When I look at classical Greek and Hebrew I see a clear reason to keep alive certain aspects of a given language. Even though such a language might be in the process of ‘dying’ or simply just used by a smaller people group I wonder if many languages have ties to religious communication. When I studied Biblical Greek in college we clearly studied the language for religious purposes. Obviously the religious purpose is Christianity related in this situation. While looking at classical Greek one could easily tie the language to incredible epic poetry and ancient history (very important things!) it serves the decided purpose, as well, of communicating about Jesus. Hebrew and Greek live on in their classical forms in part because they live on in Biblical manuscripts. Could other languages be preserved for the purposes of communicating the truths of God?

As an aside I want to mention that I am aware that a number of classical languages “live on” in for a number of reasons including history, culture, religion, and more. I am simply stating that I wonder if one huge reason for preserving languages is for communicating about Jesus as well as communicating with Jesus.

Which brings me to my second aspect of this discussion. I moved in a number of different denominational circles over the course of life and found myself often exposed to the issue of “speaking in tongues”. I smile when I think of the hours of debate that exists around this topic. One argument that exists presses the point that the Greek term “glossalia” refers only to clearly understandable human languages. While I am not weighing in on the issue of tongues I am setting the stage for my point.

In church a few weeks ago I found myself praying aloud in a foreign language during our singing time. Yes, aloud. I began to wonder suddenly if people around me worried about the crazy guy speaking in tongues during worship! I knew exactly what I was saying. That is my issue. At times I prefer using words from other languages to communicate with Jesus as I feel that those words fit my mindset better in that moment. I also tend to focus more while worshiping in a foreign language. I love these fruits that come from hours of language study. Could languages be preserved and cultivated for communication with Jesus?

I keep working through this concept as it fascinates me and is very practical to me. Might be worth taking a shot praying a bit in your favorite foreign language tonight…

A few weeks ago my father-in-law spent the night while passing through town. As my wife and I sat talking with him that evening he excitedly mentioned that he saw the movie “Avatar” a couple days prior. Sure, I heard plenty of good things about this movie already, but I became more encouraged to watch the film after his positive review. I trust the man.

Laura and I found some good time yesterday to enjoy a nice dinner then view “Avatar” in IMAX 3D. Honestly, I expected an incredible visual treat and some action without much substance. Without a doubt the film lived up to those first two expectations, yet offered much more in food for thought.

First of all, I was blown away by the 3D! During several moments of the film I found myself feeling almost like I was on this alien planet. I forgot about the other folks in the theater throughout most of the movie. The 3D effects carried even more value due to the stunning visuals of the film itself. The world created by James Cameron and his associates is fascinating to say the least. A glimmering natural playground of sorts. I am a sucker for lights. Therefore, the vision of glowing plants drew me in over and over again.

The surprise came in other facets of the film. As the movie progressed multiple deep thoughts came to mind. I don’t want to presume anything on the film’s creator’s, but it appears they at least touched a huge number of themes in the scope of the movie. I want to watch “Avatar” again before I delve into any of my thoughts specifically. However, when Laura and I got in our car to leave we couldn’t stop talking about all the thoughts which struck us. Ranging from cross-cultural interaction to issues regarding creation and nature to abuse of goods consumption I was drawn in. I am eager to see this film again and glean more from it.

If anyone happens to know of a place where I can read more of the creators’ thoughts on the film I would love the suggestions. Enjoy your weekend.

In an effort to ease back in to the world of blogging I am doing my best to avoid my deeper topics.  No real reason for this I suppose.  However, I imagine those subjects come soon enough.  An aside: I am hoping that when I begin to delve into these other thoughts that I take more than one post to dissect my considerations.  In the past I just took one big swing at a topic then generally moved on.  I tend towards the big picture rather than details.  Some details don’t hurt I guess.

I decided this afternoon to share in brief about two tools shared with me for studying the Bible.  While I use both of these tools extensively I probably still miss out on the full scope of usefulness they have to offer.  I am not intending to write a technical review, rather to simply share my reactions and excitement for these offerings.  I used to get frustrated wanting more options for Bible study on my computer and in general.  The few books I have (concordance, commentary, etc.) are limited in scope and heavy to carry.  Both of these options offer great alternatives to me.

I asked a friend several months ago about this matter and he pointed me to NET Bible as one resource he found.  NET Bible (to my understanding) is a recent translation accomplished by a group of individuals seeking to create a modern, well researched text.  This translation is available freely on the web with a number of interesting associated tools.  One helpful inclusion is an information box related to each Biblical book providing links to background and contextual documents for that particular book.  I find this a great starting point to gather deeper insight.  Furthermore, in agreement with my friend, I find the translation notes included with the text incredibly helpful.  As I seek greater clarity in understanding a particular passage I enjoy referring to these notes to learn more about original language, historical context, and a given translator’s understanding.  Although I do not use this tool as much currently I still turn to NET Bible on occasion and intend to employ this reference in the days to come.

The tool I use daily now is Xiphos.  This application is available for off line installation and provides a number of useful study aids.  Xiphos is a software developed in relation to the Sword Project.  Xiphos is available for all major operating systems and a large number of modules are available for use with the application.  These modules include Bible translations, dictionaries, commentaries, ability to create personal prayer lists, and more.  (This information and more can be found on the above linked Xiphos home page.) Honestly, I love it!  I attempted to use different front ends for the Sword project in the past, but did not really connect with them.  However, Xiphos is the daily study tool I’ve used for a couple months now.

A bit about a couple features I like the most:

The ability to view a single verse parallel with up to five translations at a time.  I use this more for language study than anything at the moment and find it extremely helpful as I study one verse in a foreign language.  I can compare to English and even reference the Greek and Strong’s Dictionary as needed.  I also like this aspect just for digging more into a verse as I’m reading.  I do not understand the original languages, so I find it fruitful to compare the translations of much smarter men who do have a grasp on Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic.

One other feature I like is the ability to highlight a particular verse and annotate the text with my own thoughts.  I get a chance to write down what I am processing as I read and know that I can return to that passage with the ability to review my reactions.  This is as valuable to me as the many marked up Bibles carried around.

I encourage anybody looking for more resources in their Biblical study to check these tools out.  Enjoy the afternoon.

I procrastinated for well over a year and change in regards to starting blogging again.  I previously developed my own blog using Ruby on Rails and posted for a while using that site.  However, I just do not have a great deal of training or experience in any sort of coding, and I found myself wanting features that I could not develop.  Well, perhaps I was too lazy to figure out at times.  Furthermore, I hosted my blog on my brother’s server and it was eating precious memory.  So…  I shut it down and decided to start from scratch.

I did a lot of work on it for about two days.

As I mentioned that was quite some time ago.

That is a brief synopsis of what brings me here.  My beautiful wife began a blog of her own a few weeks ago which caused me to begin thinking about writing again.  I wrestled with resuming development on my new Rails version, but realized that I am more interested in writing than in coding at the moment.

Let the journey begin.