Ladies and gentlemen, please direct your attention to the playing field for the ceremonial first post

Greetings, and welcome to my blog. To use the popular knife analogy, some people enjoy living on the cutting edge of technology. I prefer to locate on the flat, dull side with all the left over crusty food stuffs from the night before when the dishes were simply left unwashed in the sink. Only recently did I purchase an i-pod for my wife's birthday, we still haven't gotten on board with the whole DVR thing, and since when did mix tapes go out of style? But writing has always been a passion of mine and this blog will hopefully provide a good forum to hone those skills and also stimulate some much needed (in my opinion) theological conversation. So crusty food stuffs away!


The Purpose of this Blog

For those of you who don't recognize it, the title of this blog, "The Dude Abides," comes from the closing line of the movie The Big Lebowski. Nothing particularly edifying stands out in this movie and I definitely do not recommend it as family viewing, but nevertheless it remains one of my favorites from my earlier (i.e. pre-Christ) days. That last line had always stuck with me as just a cool saying but it soon transformed into a quasi life statement based on the words of Jesus in John 15. The evangelist uses the Greek word μενω (translated to remain, stay, or abide) eleven times in this chapter alone. Stated simply: abiding in Christ is the distinctive marker of a Christian.

This brings me to a brief explanation of the subtitle of this blog, "Distinctive Christianity." By in large in the church today as long as you talk about God it doesn't matter what you distinctively believe or conceive about Him, all that matters is that you know the right Christian code words and when to use them. The purpose of this blog is to bring into question some of the language and conceptions that we as Christians have of God so that during each moment of our daily lives we can stop and ask ourselves "Do my thoughts/words/actions/affections accurately reflect a distinctively Christian biblical theology?"


What You can Expect to see Here

On this blog you'll find excerpts from papers I have written (or hope to write someday), fascinating quotes from books I have read or movies that I have seen, worshipful lyrics from old hymns as well as contemporary music, and my overall thoughts and contemplations about life, theology, teaching, mathematics, and the Atlanta Braves. Perhaps I forgot to mention up until this point that I am huge (and by huge I mean HUGE) Atlanta Braves fan. Now that you know you can prepare for random references such as "By the beard of Smoltz!" (to be read in the manner of Will Ferrell as Ron Burgandy in Anchor Man: "By the beard of Zeus!"). I hope that you will find this material intellectually stimulating but also entertaining. I always welcome comments and interactions, and I look forward to some great conversations in the coming years.


My Prayer for You the Reader

"And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." (Philippians 1:9-11)