Thankful Thursday

A couple of days ago I noticed a charge on my online credit card statement that I couldn’t remember making. I do  online shopping at the Apple Store, and sometimes I can be forgetful, so I checked my Apple account to see what I’d ordered recently. There was nothing there. I called the credit card company to dispute the charge, only to find that their had been recent authorizations for other fraudulent  online orders, including one at Amazon.ca for $700. These latest purchases just hadn’t shown up yet on my statement. Coincidentally, or maybe not, at the same time the same credit card company red-flagged my son’s business card because of online purchases made for airline tickets in Europe, among other things. So we both had to cut up our cards and have new ones issued. Its been an annoyance and a little unsettling, but really, not much more than that, and for that I am thankful. I am thankful that it was all so easy to take care of.

I’m thankful for online credit card statements which help me keep track of things, and for online shopping in general. I’d hate to go back to the days when I had to buy everything at stores here in town. There were always a lot of things that just weren’t available, and would have to be bought on trips to other cities or not bought at all. Over the winter, we’d save up lists of things we needed to buy when we were outside (That’s Yukon-speak for down south.) in the summer, and then we’d spend half our holiday time shopping. But no more, and woohoo for that.

Just this week, the belt broke in the power nozzle of my vacuum, so I ordered a new one online for $9.00. Ten years ago, that fix would have been a lot more difficult and maybe impossible. Online shopping is a good gift, both for me and for my son, who is constantly ordering things for his business that he would not be able to get otherwise.

I’m thankful for our continued warmer weather, which also make life easier and better. I’m thankful that the big job cleaning and rearranging the kitchen cupboard is done. I’m thankful for a few good books in my reading line-up and beef barley soup in the crock-pot.

In case you think I have only small things to be thankful for, let me say that I’ve got at least two big items of praise that I’d be unwise to post publicly.

I’m thankful that our God is a God who works in both small things and big things, so that we can thank him for everything because it all comes from his hand.

 Throughout this year I’m planning to post a few thoughts of thanksgiving each Thursday along with Kim at the Upward Call and others.

Open Question

I spent a bit of time responding to a comment on this week’s Theological Term, which was, in case you’ve forgotten, open theism.

From the comment from Kane:

Have you read Gregory Boyd, or John Sanders? Perhaps Clark Pinnock?

I’m thinking more specifically about the books God At War, Satan and the Problem of Evil, The God Who Risks, or Most Moved Mover. They’re all very impacting reads and make exceptional cases for providential openness.

I haven’t read all of those books, but I have read one of them, so I gave a quick summary of the reasons that I reject the arguments in it.

I’ve read John Sanders quite thoroughly. (Once upon a time we went to the same church.) I’d have to say that I didn’t consider his arguments compelling and here’s a quick summary of my reasons why:

• First, I don’t share the philosophical assumptions that gave rise to the whole openness system. It’s hard to buy the system if you don’t buy the presuppositions.

• I’d also argue that the notion that classical view of God borrows from Greek philosophy is bogus. That criticism actually better fits the openess view.

• What’s more, I found the exegetical arguments unconvincing. I accept that most of the proof texts used to support the open view are anthropomorphisms and anthropopathisms. After all, God is not like us, so we would expect that when he communicates truths about himself to us by means of human language, it will always be by way of analogy, because there are only inadequate human categories to use.

• And last, even though open theists claim to be vindicating God, I find open theology to be useless as a theodicy.

If you want me to explain more about any of the points, let me know.

Round the Sphere Again: An All Fun Edition

Dear Dad
A young boy asks for more allowance (Letters of Note): “I put in my plea for a raise of thirty cents for me to buy scout things and pay my own way more around.”

Guess who?

Birthday Books
Find out the New York Times best sellers for the week of your birth. I’ve read none of the books on my list, but I’ve heard of a couple of the non-fiction ones:

• The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale
• Abraham Lincoln by Carl Sandburg

Have you heard of any of the books on you list? Read any of them?