Burn Us Up

I have a confession: I love the Old Testament.



Of course I love the New Testament as well. In fact, I love the whole Bible. I love the whole-ness of the Bible, and the fact that the Old Testament and the New Testament are so closely interwoven if you only take the time to look for it.

But I love the Old Testament.


Without any quotable facts for you, I'm going to make an exaggerated guess and say that the majority of people who attend church weekly don't know the Old Testament well, let alone even like the Old Testament. And I understand where they're coming from. I mean, lets face it: there are entire books dedicated to documenting laws and listing names and numbers of the Israelite tribes. I don't know anyone who can sit down and read a book of poetry straight through (Psalms) and judging by the prophets, the people God calls to do his work are downright weird! The Old Testament is an interesting collection. And I love it.

I love the stories. You can find absolutely any kind of story in the Old Testament. Romance? Check. War? Check. Drama? Check. Action? Check. Weird obscure non-classifiable genre? Check. (Ever heard the story about Elijah calling out bears to attack the kids who made fun of his baldness?) To give the briefest summary of the Old Testament, it is the story of God's chosen people and their journey with him. It is the classic "rollercoaster" of belief and unbelief, faithfulness and idolatry. In short, the Old Testament is my story. And your story. And the story of every person who has ever followed the difficult call of God.

That is not a full enough description of why exactly I love the Old Testament. But for now, I think it's been established that I do indeed love it. And along with loving it, I get extremely excited when I find other people who enjoy it as much as I do. For instance... Shane & Shane. I attended a concert Sunday evening, which of course was wonderful. But one of the new songs on their "Pages" CD is called "Burn Us Up," basically a retelling of the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. Without using any of their ridiculous names, they communicate the real meaning behind that story, and the meaning for us today. Go listen to the song. Go read the book of Daniel. And while you're at it, why not the rest of the Old Testament?

"Burn Us Up" Shane & Shane

There were three
Before the king
There were three who wouldn’t bow to him
For when you heard
The music play
And you were standing you would burn.
They looked at him and said…

Burn us up! Burn us up! Burn us up!
Oh king won’t you burn us in the furnace of your desire
We give up! We give up! We give up!
Oh king won’t you burn us in the furnace of your desire!
Won’t you throw us in the fire!

The king enraged
At what they said
Sent the three away to find their death
The palace stopped in unbelief
When the guilty raised their hands to sing
They looked at him and said…

Burn us up! Burn us up! Burn us up!
Oh king won’t You burn us in the furnace of Your desire
We give up! We give up! We give up!
Oh king won’t You burn us in the furnace of Your desire!
Won’t You throw us in the fire!

You are able to deliver from the fire of affliction
It’s the declaration of my Lord
You’re not an image of gold
You’re the God of old
You have made us
Come and save us
We are Yours
But even if You don’t, we will burn!

Burn us up! Burn us up! Burn us up!
Oh king won’t You burn us in the furnace of Your desire
We give up! We give up! We give up!
Oh king won’t You burn us in the furnace of Your desire!
Won’t You throw us in the fire!

Recent Events

To celebrate La Roche College's fall break, our ministry group hosted an all-nighter this past Wednesday. We had pizza, saw Transformers on IMAX, played Sardines (hide and seek in the dark), played Nintendo Wii and Donkey Konga, saw the sunrise over the city, and finished up with breakfast at Eat'n'Park! I hadn't really thought about whether I could stay up all night... When I was in high school and college it wasn't an issue! I almost made it through this time, but ended up crashing for two hours right before we left to see the sunrise.

For youth group this Sunday, we're heading up to Grove City College to see Bebo Norman and Shane & Shane play in concert. I'm actually not sure how many youth we will have since it will be a late night! I had thought that we would be home by 10pm, but it turns out there are three bands total, which means that the concert won't finish until 10:30 or 10:45, plus we have an hour to drive back from Grove City. I really want to go, but if it turns out to just be my roommate and I, I'll feel a little bit guilty for labeling it as a "youth" event with no youth!

Tomorrow is the CCO's annual Walk for Racial Harmony. It's taking place at the Pittsburgh Zoo, which means that we get to hang out at the zoo for the rest of the day after the walk! I'm pretty excited; I really like animals and zoos, and I haven't been to the Pittsburgh Zoo yet. Supporting a good cause AND all-day admission to the zoo? I'm there!! I just hope it doesn't rain.

Speaking of the weather, I am SO happy that fall has finally arrived. 90 degree weather in October? That's just wrong. Sweaters and hoodies and scarves and boots... oh joy!!! I'm going to pull my winter clothes out of storage this afternoon, and I am SO excited. Also, I can stop dreading driving anywhere in my car and look forward to my fully-functional heater... (The air conditioner has been broken for two summers now, which makes driving anywhere completely miserable.)

I believe that wraps it up for me now... I'll be sending out my newsletter early next week (once I finish stuffing envelopes!), so look forward to some mail from me (if you're on the list!!).

Ciao...