JOHN PIPER-TO THE JEW FIRST AND ALSO TO THE GREEK

The major problem with this sermon is you can't properly interpret this phrase in Romans 1 16 if you don't know who the Jews and Greeks (Gentiles) were.

The word Jew here means "of the tribe of Judah." The word Greek denotes the Gentiles. Gentiles means "nations", or the ten lost tribes of Israel to whom Paul wrote this epistle.

The verse quoted by Piper referring to being grafted into the olive tree can thus be explained in the following way. In Isaiah 5 God refers to the children of Israel who had gone astray as "wild grapes." Thus, letting the Bible interpret itself, we can infer that the wild olives spoken of later on in Romans refers to the members of the ten lost tribes of Israel. These people were cut off many centuries before Christ, but were then grafted into the olive tree of the tribe of Judah and were once again fed by the root of the Abrahamic covenant.

"Any Jew-haters in this room, you are in big trouble."

Except for the fact the people we call Jews today aren't the Jews spoken of in the passage we're studying.

"Whenever we go into a new area we should have our flags up seeking "Are there any Jews here?"

See my above point.

Question 2, Point 3: The verse that talks about the Gentiles being separated from the Messiah refers to the ten tribes of Israel. They were cut off and taken away from the land of Israel, thus missing out on the coming of the Messiah to that land. The rest of the passage should be interpreted with this in mind.

Of course, to a certain extent these verses also speak of Jesus making all the peoples of the world one in His salvation.

REPLY AWL

The Winter 2012 Travel issue of Canadian Geographic is an all-round good example of fascinating travel writing, from birdwatching in Texas to alligator watching in Florida.

I enjoyed the profiles of many of the female entrepreneurs featured in the November issue of Chatalaine. It's cool Canadian women are heading up companies to clean up toxic sites and offer environmentally-friendly cleaners and the like.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 5-CHAPTER 12

Isaiah 5 18-19: This passage isn't talking about cynicism. Rather, it is talking about people who have a fascination for and a love of sin. They can't wait to hear about the latest sinful thing the council of Israel has done. Too often, we as Christians, and I would include myself in this, are guilty of the same thing.

Read Isaiah Chapters 5-12, all the way through. It is a microcism of the story of God's people. God created this people to flourish, but they sinned. God judged them, but was also merciful, sending His son. When Jesus returns the second time, He will finish the judgment.

SONG OF SOLOMON 6 4-8 14

7 7-9: These verses show God is no prude, and also that there's nothing wrong with a little dirty talk.

8 1: Speaking of dirty talk. This verse would seem to endorse adult nursing.

8 2: Earlier, the lover compares the beloved's cheeks to pieces of pomegranite. However, I don't think this is the body part being referred to here. This verse would seem to endorse licking a woman's genetals.

ORAL ROBERTS, RICHARD ROBERTS AND KENNETH COPELAND-WAKE UP!

I assume this video was made before Richard and Lindsey's embezzlement scandal.

They speak highly of "The Passion of the Christ", despite the numerous ways it is inaccurate to Scripture.

The three men of course speak about the pretribulation rapture, even though there's no Biblical proof for it.

Noah's arc wasn't a boat; it was more like a huge floating building.

There were the three classifications of people spoken of in 1 Corinthians 11 in Paul's day because the Gospel first had to go to those who were under the law. However, these days there is only the saved and the unsaved.

2004 was the year of the fullness of callings? This despite the fact God is still calling people to different positions in the church eight years on.

Eight years on as well, we're still waiting for that sign that was promised.

Acts 2 17 and following are misapplied to today when they are talking about events related to the day of Pentecost.

The Bible never says to receive Jesus as your Saviour. For the true Biblical plan of salvation, see Acts 2 38. At least they had people repent; I'll have to give Messrs Roberts and Copeland that.

The 2004 election was a spiritual battle? Bush, the supposed Christian was re-elected and nothing was done about same sex marriage, abortion or anything else.

America is the peacemaker?; as they're going into all these countries around the world, participating in all these wars.

"... this will open Iraq for the Gospel."

Eight years on and Iraq hasn't been opened to the Gospel to my knowledge. Also, it is worth noting that "that serial killer Saddam Husain" allowed Christianity in his country.

REPLY AWL

The November 5 issue of Maclean's has an article about elementary schools in Ontario and their increased focus on teaching social justice. Social justice themes are woven into classes, even extending to the subjects of math and science.

This has been happening for years. I can remember novel studies that focused on slavery or the holocaust. Additionally, schools in North America have had social themes extended to all subjects for years as well. I can remember a column in an American newspaper about fifteen years ago written by a woman who mentioned her daughter's math textbook focused on social themes.

When these kids get to the stage where they start questioning authority and go through that time in their lives where they don't like their teachers or parents, aren't there going to be children who rebel against all this social justice teaching and become the most selfish uncaring people you've ever seen?

Incidentally, regarding the guy who works for the Toronto District Schoolboard and his plans to raise his child Storm gender neutral: it should be easy to do this, right up till the kid hits puberty.

Actually, this man's plans may backfire even sooner. I remember an article in Maclean's several years ago where a husband and wife tried to raise their sons gender neutral but by age two the twins were exhibiting the typical male traits.

There is an article in the same issue about how restaurants in Italy are accepting barter as payment for meals. That can work to a point. You can trade meals for things your restaurant needs, but if you need something really big that none of your customers has and you aren't taking in enough cash to pay that large expense, you're screwed. You can't really barter where things like utilities are concerned, for instance.

REPLY AWL

The October 29 issue of Maclean's contains an article about all the federal government advertising that's on TV. The only way the television and radio industry are keeping going in the face of technology and people not tuning into them because of their crummy programming has to be all the government PSAs. There isn't any other explanation.

There is an article in this week's edition of the online Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind where a woman talks about sneaking up to touch a harpsichord at a Christmas Eve church service. This article was cool. I admire intestinal fortitude like this.

I also found a letter in the Readers Forum section of the same issue touching. It was written by a woman talking about how she still had some of the baby dolls she used to play with as a child. Like I say, it was a heartwarming letter.

By the way, I also think it's neat when teenage girls still play with dolls. Some preservation of innocence in these horrific times.

AIRCHECK REVIEWS

Al Benson WGES August 5 1955: Grocerer! Ha.

Robert W. Morgan Magic 106: Seems pretty down on the industry.

Don Imus WNBC 1987: Isn't shy about saying things.

The sketch about George Bush is still funny.

End of WNBC, Beginning of WFAN: A whole bunch of radio legends all gathered together.

The call from Jerry is one of the calls any announcer wants to get on his last day.

I didn't really appreciate the WFAN intro.

WEAF June 6 1944: A historic recording indeed.

There were probably tight controls on which clergymen would be allowed on the air. I bet no pacifist clergy or any of the ministers who realized the whole war was staged were allowed on.

D-day Radio May 9-June 6 1944: A quite interesting retrospective of this commemorative format.

Bob Sivers WOWO Fort Wayne Emergency Broadcast System: Talk about embarrassing for the Air Force.

Bob Sivers handles this situation with pure professionalism. I don't think a deejay today would react as he did.

CBS-2 Chicago Report About Emergency Broadcast: Gary Mayer sounds so much younger.
Bruce Bradley WHN August 9 1973: Hearing about that contest makes you listen for Bradley to forget to say "1050" even forty years later.

$6.50 for a year's magazine subscription!

Fred Gale Interviews Abbie Hoffman WMCA 1971: A real snapshot of the times.

Gale and Hoffman are talking about all this alternative culture stuff, then Gale reads a commercial about how a store has to get rid of all it's stock, even the knew stuff, just because it's name changed.

"I'm sorry,, we had to cut that off the air."

"Hello, I'd like to speak to Abbie, please." Obviously people didn't get that Abbie could hear them in the studio.

That final caller on this recording is just ... something.

As much as I like this recording, I feel I should point out something. The hippies whole thing was, "Don't trust anyone over 30", yet at the time of this broadcast Hoffman was around 35.

AIRCHECK REVIEWS

Mark Elliot's Old Toronto Radio Commercials: All these are good in their own way, but the calypso song for Honest Ed's is really a trip.

Allen Freed KDAY November 1960: The jocks were on seven days a week! Did they actually work seven days a week or did they tape one day of programming?

Freed was wrong about Chris Montez.

Joe O'Brien WMCA December 21 1960 (part 2): Real world news coverage on a music station.

A minimum of Christmas songs. Good thing.

Bob Hale WLS June 8 1960: Neat easy listening format.

You can just picture three conservative nurses at the hospital listening to Hale's shift every night.

Kevin Nelson CKSL London January 8 1980: An announcement about the Progressive Conservative party on a top 40 radio station. Neat!

Six hours of commercial free music on Saturday nights in the days before cd changers or portable music players.

John Majhor with Brother Christopher (Chris Sutton) June 22 1984: The Major was great. You can hear Brother Christopher's potential.

Plays a song he played in the last hour.

One girl requested a song called "Fake Friends" and dedicated it to another girl. I sense there was a cat fight soon after.

All these girls crushing on Duran Duran.

A Catholic boy's school and a Catholic girl's school got to watch "The Video History of Rock" together. Oddly intriguing.

Caribbana sure came early that year.

RADIO-RELATED STUFF: HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT SANDY HOOK?

Tom Mischke on WCCO seems like he could be a real jerk.

Is K.D. Lange the only artist "Canada Live" features anymore?

Was listening to a station from Italy when I heard about the Connecticut school shooting. The format was rock. They even had interviews in Italian. Good to see that somewhere in the world music stations still care about world news.

REPLY AWL

There is an article in this week's edition of the online Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind where the author talks about toys and games she enjoyed as a child. I have to admit I am not good at remembering the rules for games. The only card games I can remember the rules to are go fish and black jack. I have played dominos a couple times but have to relearn the rules each time.

CBM's talking Christmas card for this year sucked. Let me count the ways:

- staff not bothering to say who they were when they gave their Christmas greeting;
- one staff member who, in his greeting, couldn't even get the name of the organization right;
- a woman reading an essay by an author wherein he makes a remark to the effect he's not even sure he believes the birth of Christ actually took place; narrator didn't pronounce the writer's name right;
- a dramatization of a play by Dorothy L Sayers that adds a whole bunch of details that aren't in the account of the visit of the wise men to Jesus; persists with the myth that they were kings who arrived twelve days after Jesus birth (yeah, they're gonna travel all that way on foot or animal in twelve days); didn't appreciate the line about "he shall have temples in Rome and Byzantium"

THINGS IN THE NEWS

A couple items of concern regarding privacy. First, a company that has developed a DVR that can monitor what is going on in the room around it, they say for advertising purposes. Also, a movement afoot in Massachusits to have black boxes, similar to those found on airplanes installed in light trucks.

There was a story on "As It Happens" tonight about gender neutral theatre. A woman has put on Shakespearean plays where roles are played by men or women, regardless of the character's gender. This kind of reminds me of when a company put on "Macbeth" in the park of our little town and featured Banquo as a woman. It doesn't work.

A man in California has managed to plant "new" old growth forest by taking samples from living plants in the root systems of redwood tree stumps and cloaning them into new redwoods. I am not for human or animal cloaning, except maybe for specific body parts used in transplants. Is it right to clone a plant?

REPLY AWL

The Fourth Quarter 2012 issue of Children's Friend contains a poem about the story Jesus told about the man with two sons, one who said he would do something but didn't, and one who said he wouldn't do something, but did. The poem contains a whole bunch of made up details that are just not in the parable. I would remind the author of Jesus' warning in Revelation for people who add to the word of God.

The same issue contains a big article composed of a series of smaller articles about using our gifts and talents for Jesus. Though I somewhat agree with what the article was trying to say, the Seventh-day Adventists misinterpret the parable of the talents. The talents don't represent "talents" in our sense of the word. Rather, they represent faith. The first two servants symbolize two men who went out, shared the Gospel and increased their faith. The third servant represents a man who couldn't be bothered sharing his faith.

Also, Charles Mills, we know you are a grown man. Even as a child I knew authors were grownups. Stop writing in the person of a little child. And you have a favourite doll? OK, that just makes me wonder about you.

RADIO-RELATED STUFF

The weather band on my shortwave was working yesterday.

CKOL was broadcasting a church service last night. I disagreed with some things contained in it, but from a radio programming standpoint it was good to hear such a thing.

Listened to BBC Radio 4 on the internet today. They broadcast the first episode of a serial called "China Girl", based on the author and his wife's adoption of a baby girl from China about fifteen years ago. It was well done, although I could have done with out the use of the song "China Girl" as a bridge, at least. On the whole, though, it was enjoyable. Good to see the Beebe can still make good stuff.