Last night my small group/bible study started our summer series.  This year we chose to take a look at what it means to “live like a Christian”.  This idea can be taken in two different directions: what are the internal/spiritual things that I should be doing and what are the external things that I should be doing.  While the two are not unrelated, I chose to take a look at the internal, starting with what it means to live a “holy” life.  For this study I chose the book Living Like You Belong to God, a precepts book by Kay Arthur. That link will take you to the description of the book (and give you an opportunity to purchase it, if you so desire).

The first week’s study took a look at a few simple ideas, ones that will be foundational for our study.  We looked at the idea that God separates things: God separated the light from darkness and he separates believers from non-believers.  He does this so that He can set them (us) apart – He set apart the nation of Israel, gave them ceremonies, laws and guidelines for how they were supposed to live.  He “set them apart” because what God expected of them was so entirely radical from any other nation at the time that those on the “outside” (i.e. non-Israelites) could see a difference in their worship, their sacrifices, their dress and even that God’s presence was visibly with the Israelites.  These expectations of God were to provide the means by which an unholy people (us) could approach (and have a relationship with) a HOLY God.

Have you ever seen anything so exquisite that you were gobsmacked, dumbfounded, humbled?  I once saw an exhibit of 34 Faberge eggs back in 1989.  This exhibit was the first time since 1917 that so many of the eggs had been assembled in one place.  Knowing the history of these eggs, their creator, Karl Peter Faberge, and the purposes to which they were created for, left me entirely speechless.  These were the most exquisite things I had ever seen in my life.  They represented a piece of history that, until then, had seemed so far away, so removed from my experience as to almost seem unreal.  It was a moment in which I connected with history and I was humbled.

Imagine, then, at how MUCH MORE exquisite God is?  Isaiah knew his inadequacies.  In Isaiah 6, in a vision he meets God and is so keenly aware of his sinful nature that he thinks he is surely going to die.  “6:5 I said, “Too bad for me! I am destroyed, for my lips are contaminated by sin, and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. My eyes have seen the king, the Lord who commands armies.”"  But 2 angels come up to him and touch his lips with coal, purifying him so that he could approach God without fear of death.    Do you realize that for us, we don’t need coal to purify us, Christ has already done that work for us?  It is the death of Jesus that washes our sins away and provides us with the opportunity to approach God without fear of death.  How sweet is that? 

When was the last time you thought about God’s Holiness?  How does it affect you?  Have you ever realized that you have been set apart, have been made holy by the death of Jesus Christ?  How does that change you?

Aslan

When Tonja mentioned the Chronicles of Narnia in her last post I was suddenly a teenager again – about 15 I think – lying on my bed re-reading one of the Narnia books for the nth time. And I suddenly realized who Aslan was. It was, literally, a hair-raising moment – these have happened a few times in my reading life, and I’ve always remembered them.*

You have to understand, I was not raised in a Christian home and by that time had given up on all things church, so the Narnia books were, to me, just entertaining fantasy that I’d probably discovered at school, my source for most books. (My parents didn’t read much either – I used to feel a certain disdain towards them about that, until some research into wartime Britain made me realize just how disrupted their education – and childhood in general – must have been.) So I wasn’t expecting to find anything significant in there. Aslan was Jesus? WOAH!

A couple of years later I was told by my English teacher that every serious student of English literature should read the Bible, as pre-20th century literature (and, I would argue, anything written up to at least World War I, if not WWII) is full of biblical references. C.S. Lewis, of course, was a Christian by the time he wrote the Narnia books, and they are a conscious allegory of the Christian faith.  He had been an atheist until well into adulthood, but I don’t think he wrote much in those days – in fact it seems as if becoming a Christian is what really made him into a writer. Anyone care to correct me on this?

In the last ten years since I became a follower of Christ, I’ve become a lot more aware of the presence of biblical references in secular literature. This is perhaps because I now read the Bible, so I can spot those references faster. The Book is, in fact, woven into books from the Western cultural tradition in general, and the extra richness you get from understanding those references and what they mean in the context of the Bible as well as in the context of the book you’re reading is quite eye-opening.

It also amazes me how useful literature can be in reinforcing the Bible’s messages. A couple of days ago I found myself comparing becoming a Christian to expecting to be given a big comfy cushion and finding that what you are, in fact, carrying is a stick of dynamite. And the next thought that came into my mind wasn’t a Bible verse but a line from the Narnia Chronicles: “He’s not a tame lion, you know.”

Obviously, studying the Bible itself – on a daily basis if possible – should be an important part of a Christian’s life. But that doesn’t mean you should give up novels! You might find yourself reading with greater purpose and thoughtfulness, and – I’ve heard this so often that I don’t know where to attribute it – running what you read through the Christian filter in your mind. And you might, especially if you’re fond of older literature, find some treasures in your reading that you might not otherwise have noticed.

Today I’m going to challenge Tonja (and anyone else reading this is welcome to get their answer in first). Which of the Harry Potter books contains three direct quotes from the Bible? In what context are these quotes given? And a subsidiary question: why do you think they’re there?

* Other notable occasions were the “We are the dead” scene in 1984, and the climax of Jude the Obscure (I won’t say what it is, because it’s a real spoiler).

I have this perception that most people believe in God (i.e. aGod), but struggle with what to do with Jesus.  Jesus is certainly someone that deserves our attention, but is He really a stumbling block to faith?  I have a friend who thinks that “Christians” are too opinionated, too restrictive, too “goody-two-shoes”, and most certainly exclusivists.  And yet she is puzzled by the simple fact of my genuine friendship with a woman who is very openly lesbian.  Can you hear my friend?  “Aren’t Christians supposed to hate lesbians?”  In fact no, we aren’t.  “Why?”  Because of Jesus.  “But I thought the Bible says that lesbianism is wrong.”  Well, it does in fact say that, but it is the act that is wrong, not the person.  Jesus associated himself with sinners of all natures and loved them unconditionally.  How do I know this?  Because I’ve read the bible thoroughly.

There is an old argument that goes like this.  There are three, and only three, things that you can think about Jesus.  

1. He was a liar, plain and simple.  He was not God, He knew He was NOT God and therefore He openly lied about this fact to everyone.
2. He was a lunatic.  He thought He was God, but was only delusional, and therefore a lunatic.
3. He was who He said He was: God.

This is a line of arguments that CS Lewis presents most clearly in his book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Lucy, the youngest sibling, has discovered the wardrobe that takes her to the land of Narnia, but the other children can’t seem to bring themselves to believe her.  Then her next older brother, Edward, discovers Narnia but subsequently denies this fact.  What are the two oldest children to believe?  Who should they trust?  Edward, who is prone to lying and deceit, or Lucy, who has never lied?  They choose to believe Lucy because to do otherwise means that they have to treat her as a liar, which they can’t do, or as crazy, which doesn’t make sense to them either.  Once they choose to believe her, their eyes are opened and they too can see the magical land of Narnia.

They key to this line of reasoning, though, rests entirely on you knowing who Jesus is.  Peter and Susan, Lucy and Edward’s two oldest siblings, were able to believe Lucy because they knew her.  And in order to get to know Jesus you have to read the best book ever written about Him: the Bible.  In the last post, Gospel Truth, Jane brings up some interesting points.  Each of the gospel books (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) are written from different perspectives and were written to different audiences.  Collectively they give us the complete picture of who Jesus was.  They depict His humanity and His divinity.

But Jane’s question is, which one to read first?  Most pastors, and I believe my pastor would be in this camp, would say to read John first because John is about Jesus as God.  John focuses most of his attention on the fact of Jesus divinity and is writing to prove that one, single point.  However, John is a bit lofty, and if you are not familiar with the basics of Jesus as human, i.e. what He taught and did while on earth, John’s gospel may not make the most sense.

I am under the line of thought that says you should probably start with Mark.  Mark is short and factual and will give  you the best introduction to who Jesus is as a person and what He taught and did while living.  Then I would move to Luke who provides much more detail about the facts of Jesus’ life.  Then I would move to John and then I would read Matthew.  I’ve chosen to close with Matthew because Matthew makes the connection between the Jewish understanding of God and the foretelling of the Messiah (the Old Testament), which is an important connection to make when trying to understand Jesus as both human and divine. 

The key to all of this, though, is to get to know Jesus.  Learn what He taught (read Matthew chapters 5-7) and the miracles that He did (read Mark and Luke) and read how John makes the connections between these physical things as proof of Jesus’ divinity.  The decision that you will have to make is this: is the message that He taught, and the miracles that He did consistent with someone who is also divine?  Can someone be good and teach good, moral truths, and be lying about being God?  Can someone be coherent and sound of mind, teaching great and profound truths, and yet be completely crazy enough to believe that he is God?  Or just maybe, just maybe, He was who he really said He was.  Mark. Luke. John. Matthew.  Go read.

So here I am, parked in Mark, and I started wondering about the Gospels in general. Obviously they had different writers at different times, and were written with different emphases. A quick look at my handy-dandy Study Bible tells me that:

•  Matthew presents Jesus as King;
• Mark presents Jesus as Servant;
• Luke presents Jesus as the Son of Man;
• John presents Jesus as the Son of God.

Which probably seems a bit contradictory if you’re completely new to Bible study, but believe me it all starts to make sense after a while.

A couple of moments’ more research tells me that the Gospels were written in around AD 50, AD 68, AD 60, and AD 85-90 respectively, so they’re sorta kinda in chronological order (the church fathers who sorted the various books into the shape we know today probably weren’t quite sure about Mark and Luke, I suppose). And that the first three Gospels contain pretty much the same material, so they’re known as the Synoptic Gospels (synoptic = taking a common view).

Wowee. I now know about 50% more about the Gospels than I did five minutes ago. And this teaches me, dear Reader, that a study Bible is a good investment.

Parenthetically, my study Bible is a red-letter Bible, which means the words of Jesus are printed in red. The huge amount of red strewn across the pages of the Gospels tells me that what Jesus said was very important to the writers. And in fact, it was the words of Jesus that finally convinced me that the whole Christian thing was true – I’ve read an awful lot of fiction, and it’s clear to me that you couldn’t make this character up. Quite apart from the things He says, which are extremely impressive once you actually sit down and think about them, He’s obviously way, way smarter and more knowledgeable than the people who are actually writing the books. A genius writer will create genius characters; a writer of ordinary intelligence will create maybe slightly smarter characters, but only to a point; a very ordinary person could NOT come up with a fictional Jesus.

I also remember that in at least one place the writers make it clear that they are only really selecting a part of what Jesus said and did, and that there was much, much more. So what we’re actually getting here is a kind of Cliff Notes instead of the full version. I remember seeing somewhere that Bible experts believe there was another document (called Q, isn’t it?) that was used as a reference by some of the Gospel writers – do they think it was the full version?

So anyway Tonja, here’s this week’s question to confront you when you emerge from your finals: should we read the Gospels in the order they’re presented, or is there a better way to do it? Why are so many evangelicals all over the Gospel of John? Is it better than the others? Do tell.

I’ve already tackled the problems of genre and bible translations.  Now I would like to discuss a few final thoughts about how we are to read the bible.   These are some random thoughts, so for lack of better organization, I’ve just enumerated them here.

1. When reading a passage, be sure to know the passages before and after the one you are reading.  A word belongs to a sentence; a sentence belongs to a paragraph; a paragraph belongs to a chapter and a chapter belongs to a book.  With the Bible, all the books together form one larger, coherent piece of work.  If you read a sentence that seems out of context and doesn’t make sense, it is better to back up and read a broader section of text in order to determine what the meaning is. 
2. Authors tend to use words consistently within their writing.  Keep in mind that words can have multiple meanings – particulary in the Bible – and especially because there is never a perfect translation of a meaning of a word from one language to another.  If you are in doubt as to how a particular word is being used, consult the concordance at the back of your bible and do a quick word study within the book/author you are reading.
3. Always be aware of cultural biases that you may have.  This is a tough one to come to grips with.  What I mean is this: particularly with the Old Testament, there are cultural norms that are between 2000 -3500 years removed from the time and place in which we live.  While God’s word is timeless – meaning that God’s truth applies to all people of all ages – there are particular cultural understandings that we can never know or completely understand.  One question I’ve heard many times is: why did God order the Hebrew nation not to eat certain foods?  Or wear clothing of mixed fibers?  And the list could go on.  These are, in part, cultural issues that we are going to find extremely difficult to understand.  (If you want the good, theological explanation as to why God would order these wierd lifestyle things, please let me know and I’ll write a post on it.)

I think I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again now.  The bible is a single body of work, comprised of numerous types of literature, serving one, single purpose.  The message is consistent.  It is a work that is inerrant, which means that fundamentally the text is without errors – names, dates, times, places, and the literal content – are all without errors.  There may be some transcription problems, the they are extremely far and few between, scholars know what the issues are and the ones that pose any serious debate and extremely rare.  The bible is a book and a message that can be relied upon 100%.

By saying all of this you shoud also understand that when people or philosophies claim that their basis is “christian” based, then our task it to compare it to the bible.  If there are inconsistencies with other people’s writing, then the inconsistency is on their part and not the Bible’s part.  Let me give an example:  the Mormon religion claims to be based in Christianity.  But if you were to read the Book of Mormon, you will very quickly note that there are contradictions with the message of the Christian Bible.  Which one should you trust?  Short answer: the truth, that is to say, the Bible.  The one whose message has not changed for 3.500 years.

Next up: how to start studying the Bible

Knowing how the bible is organized can lead to a more productive study session.  Here are a few basics.

There are two main divisions:  the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT). 

There are a total of 66 books in the bible:  39 in the OT and 27 in the NT.

The Old Testament is further divided into sections by groups of writings:

1. Pentateuch or Torah: These are the first 5 books of the bible (Genesis-Deuteronomy) and are also referred to as “The Books of the Law” or “The Books of Moses”.  Anytime you read a reference to “the Law” or ”the Law of Moses”, these 5 books (in their entirety) are what is being referred to, whether Old or New Testament.
2. Historical Books: Joshua – Esther.  These books detail the nation of Israel from the time they enter the Promised Land until after they come back from exile.  The rough dates for this are 1200 BC – 430 BC.  There is some repetition between some of the books and this is because they were written by different authors and for different purposes and focuses. 
3. Wisdom Literature: Job – Song of Solomon.  Wisdom literature is meant to highlight how we are to live in relation to a Holy God and provides insight on how to have real emotions (anger, hurt, jealously, hatred, fear…) and still live in a right relationship with God.
4. Major Prophets: Isaiah – Daniel (Lamentations is stuck in there because many people attribute its author to Jeremiah, but it can also be considered wisdom literature).  These prophets are called Major prophets because their body of work is greater than those of the Minor prophets, not necessarily because of the content of their prophesies.
5. Minor Prophets: Hosea – Malachi.  The last 12 books are the minor prophets.

The New Testament is divided into 4 main sections:

1. The Gospels: Matthew – John.  These books are the accounts of Jesus and his ministry on Earth.
2. Acts – This book is a continuation of sorts of Luke (and written by the same author) and gives us the history of the first few decades of the Church after Jesus died.
3. Epistles: Romans – Jude.  These books are letters written to specific people and/or churches.  They were written by Paul, Peter, James, Jude, John and an unknown author (Hebrews).  This is where church doctrine mostly comes from because it provides for us the basis for how we are to think theologically in light of Jesus.
4. Apocalyptic: Revelation.  Revelation is a book written by John (the Apostle) and is a book that provides a present, 1st century context to its readers and an End Times context for us today.

There you have it, the major divisions of the bible.  Next time I’ll cover the types of writings in the bible and how we are to read the text in light of the genre – a very important topic.

Until next time!

I want to continue the exploration of God’s Holiness today.  I’m struck by the similarity of the 3rd commandment in Exodus 20:8-11:

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

And the parallel verse in Genesis 2:1-3:

2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.  

How many of us think about keeping the Sabbath Holy?  I know that I have problems with this.  I often wake up on Sunday with selfish thoughts of sleeping in, taking it easy, and occasionally wanting to ditch church for having a solitary, relaxing day.  What’s wrong with this picture?  Where is the honor to God in all of this?  How does this recognize His Holiness?

It is not surprising that his command, to keep the Sabbath Holy, follows the first two:  you shall have no other Gods before me and you shall not make any idols for yourself.  These two commands should give us a clue as to what constitutes a Holy Sabbath.  In my description in the previous paragraph about my usual thought pattern regarding Sundays, I believe that I’ve broken both of the first two commandments.  If I place myself first, and worship that which makes me happy (and is not God-centered), then I’m dishonoring God and placing importance on the things of this world instead of honoring God by thinking about Him and being concerned with His nature.

So what does living a Holy Sabbath look like?  I’ll try and address this next time.

Holiness is one of God’s attributes that I believe goes under-studied these days.  Society seems to be on an upward slippery slope of “anything goes” and the word of the day is “tolerance”.  The catch is that once we become tolerant of a behavior or attitude, we become susceptible of exhibiting that behavior ourselves; but God wants us to strive for holiness within our lives and at minimum understand His holiness. 

This word has numerous connotations for us today.  What does holiness mean?  What, or who, can be holy?  How does one become holy?  What is required of me?  These are just some questions we could ask. 

Before we dive into this study, it would be best to understand a basic definition of the word and term as it is used in theological circles and writings.  The Hebrew word for holy is qadosh.  The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament defines it this way:

connotes the state of that which belongs to the sphere of the sacred. Thus it is distinct from the common or profane. ..it [also] connotes the act by which the distinction is effected. 

Warren Wiersbe defines holiness this way:

God’s holiness isn’t simply the absence of defilement, a negative thing. The holiness of God is positive and active.  It’s God’s perfect nature at work in accomplishing God’s perfect will. 

God is perfect and in that sense He is also holy.  It is an attribute of God’s that we can’t completely have, yet there is a striving for His holiness that we should be living out.  There is little that we can do to have holiness in our lives except to live within God’s will for us and to be transformed into His image.  This transformation is called sanctification and it is a process by which we turn over all of our fleshly thoughts and practices and replace them with thoughts and practices that are in alignment with who God is, namely His holiness, righteousness and perfection.

This idea of holiness has the most effect on us in our relationship with God.  Because He is so entirely Holy, Pure and Just, we simply cannot even think of approaching Him.  To be able to approach a Holy God, we MUST do it His way.  This is the basic tennant of the book of Leviticus: to teach us how to be able to approach a Holy God so that we might be in relationship with Him.  We don’t have the same challenges today – His Son, Jesus, the Messiah, died so that we could have immediate access and relationship with God, Christ being our priest and mediator.  But there are times when we know that sin is blocking us from having a right relationship with God.  Certainly David felt this way when he penned Psalm 51.  It is virtually impossible to know God’s holiness completely, however, sin is something that keeps us from having a right relationship with Him; if we could just eliminate, or at least minimize our sin (the process of sanctification), then we can come close to knowing His holiness.

Psalm 51

1      Have mercy on me, O God,
          according to your steadfast love;
     according to your abundant mercy
          blot out my transgressions.
2      Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
          and cleanse me from my sin!
3      For I know my transgressions,
          and my sin is ever before me.
4      Against you, you only, have I sinned
          and done what is evil in your sight,
     so that you may be justified in your words
          and blameless in your judgment.
5      Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
          and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6      Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
          and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7      Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
          wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8      Let me hear joy and gladness;
          let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9      Hide your face from my sins,
          and blot out all my iniquities.
10      Create in me a clean heart, O God,
          and renew a right spirit within me.
11      Cast me not away from your presence,
          and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12      Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
          and uphold me with a willing spirit.

I have spent most of my life wanting to know who I am. I grew up in a typical small, middle-class family. I grew up not being around other family. My parents moved so that my Dad could attend a PhD program in another state – a state that was 4 states over from where they grew up. I grew up with my Mom writing letters weekly family, both her family and my Dad’s family. They were connected in such a way that I was a little jealous. They had a history between them that I could never have.

Identity is such a personal thing. Some people claim identity with certain religious groups. For some, identity is simply acceptance in their peer group. For me, identity was, and is, my heredity. Who were my grandparents? Who were their parents? What were their struggles in life? Who did they vote for for President and why? What were their family traditions growing up? Were there other languages spoken in their home? Ultimately what countries did they come from? What nationalities make up my family?

It is difficult, at best, to answer these questions when you can’t form a dialogue with the people who you are interested in. To be sure I had some wonderful conversations with my grand-parents about times when they were growing up, and I am even privileged to have known my great-grandmother really well – she passed away when I was 26. Unfortunately their stories were presented as stories, little anecdotes that were told about a past and time long gone. Even with the abundance of stories there still seemed to be something lacking. Connection? Community? I’ve not quite put my finger on it exactly.

Part of my mystery was solved a few years ago. My grandmother, Mam-ma (it’s a southern name, I can’t explain), voluntarily placed herself into a nursing home in late 1998. After nearly 2 years of her house standing vacant, my Mom, Aunt and I decided that we needed to sell the house. Before we could do that we needed to clean the house. How do you clean a house that has 70+ years of collected stuff? Answer: spend several weeks wallowing in it.

It was amongst said stuff that I discovered a picture of my grandfather and my Mom’s biological mother, Kathleen. Kathleen died when my Mom was six, so I (obviously) never met her. My grandfather, Pap-pa, remarried soon after and they had a child soon after that (my Aunt mentioned above). Pap-pa’s second wife is my Mam-ma. She was my grandmother for all intents and purposes. I’ve always known that she was not my “biological” grandmother, but there was never any discontinuity with how we were treated, and so the notion of having a “step-grandmother” never really entered into the equation.

But I digress. The picture of Pap-pa and Kathleen is a black-and-white that has been colorized and they both look really young and beautiful in the photo. I asked my mom if I could have the picture and she said yes. Now at this time, summer of 2000, I already had the sense that I would be moving soon and so I never unpacked that photo from its box. When I finally did unpack it, in the summer of 2003, I discovered a part of me that I never knew I had. What I discovered is that I look like Kathleen. I have her smile. We are connected in a way that I had never thought of before. And for some reason this little discovery has partly answered the question of who I am. I have discovered part of my identity. I belong to Kathleen.

Now this discovery does not answer all my questions, by any means. But it has begun a thought process in me that I’ve been mulling over for several years. What the picture did for me was place the question of identity at the top of the list of things to think about. Here’s where I am currently.

I can imagine that some people feel this way when they come to Christ and are accepted into the eternal and ginormous family of God. I can well imagine that some people have no family, or their family is estranged. Perhaps they want to forget about their family and are running from a bad past. But here’s the thing. By becoming a Christian, we gain identity. No longer are we “that” person’s son/daughter/wife/husband. We are the chosen children of God. We matter to Him more than any earthly being could claim. We are all connected. We are loved. And, best of all, we can identify ourselves with the creator of the universe. No more floating around identity-less. Our identity is in Christ.

The women’s Thursday morning bible study group is reading a book this summer and discussing it online.  I think it’s a pretty cool concept, and even though I am not a part of the Thursday morning bible study, they are letting me participate anyway.  The book is turning out to be fairly interesting.  We’re reading Eat This Book: A Conversation in Spiritual Reading by Eugene Peterson (who is the author of The Message bible translation).

I was thinking (hoping, really) that the book would be more instructional – as in how to read the bible in a more transformational way.  Instead he is exhorting us to do this, a prodding if you will, explaining why we should.  He has some really great points and ideas.  However, I’ve lost my book.

So I did a sensible thing and purchased an audio version of the book.  I thought..”wow, I can knit and read at the same time!  Who wouldn’t do this?”  So last night, I was listening to Chapter 5 while doing things like: putting away laundry, washing dishes and generally getting things gathered and organized for work today.

Result?  I can’t remember a thing I heard.  I can distinctly remember several times last night when I was excited about a point that he made and several times when I thought “I need to remember this..”, but alas, I can’t remember anything today.

So I guess I need to go an buy the book again.