NoelHeikkinen.com

Which Theologian Am I?

Aug 30, 2007 Uncategorized Hodge Podge

.:mood:. Torn
.:itunes:. Everybody Knows by Leonard Cohen

Stolen from the blog of Brett Maxwell:

You scored as Martin Luther, The daddy of the Reformation. You are opposed to any Catholic ideas of works-salvation and see the scriptures as being primarily authoritative.

Which theologian are you?
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Final South Korean hostages freed!

Aug 30, 2007 Uncategorized Hodge Podge

.:mood:. Hmmmmm
.:itunes:. Rebecca by PJ Harvey

The final South Korean hostages were released today.

Interesting note in the news report…not the bolded section: (via Yahoo!)

JANDA, Afghanistan – Taliban militants on Thursday released the final seven South Korean captives they had been holding, bringing an end to a six-week hostage drama, witnesses said…

Under the terms of a deal reached Tuesday, South Korea reaffirmed a pledge it made before the hostage crisis began to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year. Seoul also said it would prevent South Korean Christian missionaries from working in the staunchly Muslim country, something it had already promised to do.

Interesting that both of the conditions were re-affirmations of previous commitments. It makes me wonder what else is going on…

Understanding Poetry

Aug 30, 2007 Uncategorized Hodge Podge

.:mood:. Goodish
.:itunes:. Best Sides by The Gold

Jimmy Kimmel explains that the key to understanding Miss Teen South Carolina’s answer in the pageant last week is understanding it was poetry. Here’s the video via Hot Air.

You’ll have to click here to see it because the embedding wasn’t working.

The Best of All Worlds

Aug 29, 2007 Uncategorized Hodge Podge

.:mood:. YYYEEEEAAAAHHHHH!
.:itunes:. This Love by G-Dragon

Finally, my love for K-Pop, Maroon 5, and cover songs come together in one amazing package.

Enjoy

Prayer for the Korean Hostages

Aug 29, 2007 Uncategorized Hodge Podge

.:mood:. Made
.:itunes:. Tried & True by Poor Old Lu

Just got a great note in the mail and thought I’d share it with you all (I got permission to share it):

Hi Noel,

I attend Riverview and read your blog. I just wanted to tell you how awesome it is that the Korean hostages are being released. It was a news story that I only heard about through your blog and I have been praying for their release every night for about a month now. I’ve never prayed for a news-type event before, and it’s been an awesome experience doing so. I know that God has answered so many prayers for this event.

Recently I found that I like to pray by using verses from the Bible. I feel that my prayer is more powerful that way (like what James Granger was discussing in the “Prayerful” message).

So what I did when I was praying for the Korean hostages was pray through all or some of Psalms 69, 70, and 71. Those three just made me think that was how the hostages might be feeling. Now I guess we should be praying for the Gospel to reach that part of the world. I can’t wait to see what God’s plan is.

Thanks for you blog!

-Kaci Gala

This note made my day.

Quote of the Day

Aug 29, 2007 Quotes

.:mood:. Good
.:itunes:. Take Off Your Cool (Feat. Norah Jones) by Andre 3000

“Following Jesus is more like driving a taxicab than being a librarian–you never know who you’ll meet or where you’ll go next.”

- Brian Jones

Unresolved

Aug 29, 2007 Uncategorized Hodge Podge

.:mood:. Slow
.:itunes:. Under The Milky Way Tonight by The Church

From Letters from Kamp Krusty comes this great bit…make sure you click the link and read the whole thing. The story he tells is way better than this illustration…Curious, aren’t you?

There’s a story about Bach — or maybe it was Mozart — and how, even as a little kid, he had to hear resolution. He was in bed, upstairs, and someone was playing the piano, and that someone got distracted and stopped, just before the last chord.

J.S. — or W.A.? — couldn’t stand it. He tromped downstairs, pounded out the resolving chord, and then went back up to bed again, without a word. He just had to hear it.

We’re all like that. I think about all the stories I’ve heard, and then all the ones I’ve lived, and there’s the big difference: We get resolution in the former, but the other just…lay…out there, somewhere, and, much as we pretend, there are no finish lines, no final chords, no official victories, no ends-of-story. Not yet, anyway.

The Price of Freedom

Aug 29, 2007 Uncategorized Hodge Podge

.:mood:. Bittersweet
.:itunes:. Love Song by 311

OK, we now know the price that was paid for the release of the hostages. According to FOXNews.com, here’s the price:

To secure the hostages’ release, South Korea reaffirmed a pledge to withdraw its 200 troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year and prevent South Korean Christian missionaries from working there. The Taliban apparently backed down on earlier demands for a prisoner exchange.

Let me put it in bullet form:

1) Withdrawal of South Korean troops this year
2) No more South Korean Christian Missionaries in Afghanistan

The second condition made my stomach ache. Seriously.

I am so happy for the hostages and their families, but I am sad for the Gospel. Luckily, I have the word’s of Joseph I am teaching on this weekend:

Genesis 50:20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

God is in control. He has a plan.

South Korean Hostages Being Released

Aug 29, 2007 Uncategorized Hodge Podge

.:mood:. Hopeful
.:itunes:. You Still Love Me by The Seventy Sevens

Just got this link from my friend Rick. He got it from Bloomberg.com

Taliban militants began freeing the 19 South Korean hostages from almost six weeks in captivity in eastern Afghanistan today after the rebels and government officials from Seoul agreed to the terms of their release.

Eight hostages, seven women and one man, were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the head of the ICRC delegation in Afghanistan, Reto Stocker, said by cell phone. He was en route with some of them to the town of Ghazni, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Kabul.

Five newly released captives were in the convoy to Ghazni and were to be transferred to South Korean officials there, Stocker said. Three hostages were released hours earlier. The Red Cross brokered face-to-face talks between the Taliban and the South Korean government.

I’m stoked that the hostages are being released, but secretly (or not so much since I am blogging it), I wonder “at what price?” We can only pray that God intervened in the Taliban’s hearts. I also wonder “what’s next?” We live in a fallen world and these things are just the price of sin.

Let’s keep praying for the hostages, their families, and their captors.

Christian Unity

Aug 28, 2007 Uncategorized Hodge Podge

.:mood:. Unified
.:itunes:. Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright

So on the heels of repenting of my attitude problem toward John Calvin this weekend at Riverview, I come across this great article by James White. Here’s a snippet, but it’s definitely worth reading the whole thing at Serious Times.

I was asked an important question this week in the context of a gathering of future evangelical leaders: What one thing would bring about renewal and revival in America?

Who could claim to know the answer? But I do know what first entered my mind.

If there is going to be real renewal, real revival –at least in America – there will have to be widespread repentance for how we have failed to answer Jesus’ plea for demonstrable unity and shared grace among those who follow Christ…

The irony is staggering: we spew venom in the name of defending our sense of orthodoxy and in so doing destroy the vibrancy of our faith and our witness to the world more than a thousand heresies.

This I know: until we do repent, and condemn that which truly needs condemning among our own, the world will not be listening.

And Jesus has given them permission.