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Wow. We only have two ice cube trays (also silicon, which I enthusiastically recommend), so I think I can claim these as a necessity. I can always use more ice. Especially right now, with temperatures in the 90s.

My wife received a gift certificate to a Christian bookstore, and this book by G.K. Chesterton jumped out at her since she’s been writing on orthodoxy and the trinity a lot in the spring.

The book then jumped out at me after it arrived yesterday because of its nicely designed cover.

So I went and checked out Relevant Books and their store. I discovered that there is a company called Relevant Media Group that publishes Relevant Magazine and Relevant Books. It seems to be very Emergent Church-y. Which makes me wonder about this G.K. Chesterton book a little bit, but we’ll have to wait until I read it to find out.

Orthodoxy is in the public domain and available here (which is where Relevant Books got the text, according to the inside flap).

Edit: Yes, this is the bathroom in our apartment.

My new phone has a panoramic shooting mode for its camera. I was dubious at first, but impressed after I figured it out. I pick my starting point, and take a picture. The software then takes the right edge of the picture and moves it to the left side of the screen and makes the photo transparent so that I can line up the next frame. I get three frames to compose my panoramic shot and when I’m done, the camera stitches them together automagically. The results are impressive, for a 2 megapixel camera phone.

It’s not all that great at getting a consistent exposure. The second frame of this panorama was rather overexposed. I attempted to even it out in Photoshop, but with limited success after even more limited effort.

I’ve been thinking about the language we use in the Church. The difference between the English we use daily and the English that we sometimes read or hear during worship is rather large. Why is this? Is this practice helpful to the Church or should it be reformed?

Language is fluid, changing and evolving constantly. In the Church, however, we continue to use some archaic English words (Thee, thou, art, shall, etc.). Are we hanging on to outdated language in corporate worship? Do our children understand what some of these words mean? Do new, uneducated, and foreign Christians benefit from our use of these words?

Many Christians recite the Nicene Creed during worship. The creed contains words like “Holy Ghost” and “catholic” which have changed in meaning rather significantly since the creed was written. “Ghost” doesn’t only mean “spirit” anymore (thanks, Casper) and “catholic” is more commonly understood to refer to the Roman Catholic church rather than as a synonym for “universal” (which is how it’s used in the creed). The word “quick” is used instead of “living” in the phrase “to judge the quick and the dead” (sounds like a western movie).

I’m all for maintaining the historic tradition of the Church, but I’m more for making the language of worship accessible to everyone.

So let’s update the creeds, try to use the New King James version rather than the original King James version, pray without using “thee” and “thy”, and modernize the Psalter (which the RPCNA has a committee doing at the Synod level). There’s plenty of time to enjoy the archaic forms of the English language outside of corporate worship.