Here is a great open letter to the PM of Canada regarding re-evaluating the science behind "climate crisis" in light of the call to review the Kyoto treaty. The article is stating the obvious, and repeated, points made by many who find global warming a scam. What is interesting is the list of professionals that signed it. For all those who say that there is a scientific consensus, this list would be one example to prove them wrong. Check it out. [Link]

One of the other industries around here is bourbon; a puff piece on Buffalo Trace's six millionth barrel of hooch was in the paper, which included this interesting paragraph-

Buffalo Trace put up its 5-millionth barrel way back in 1981. That reflects the industry's slowdown years ago and its recent resurgence, Traver said. For comparison, in 2005 Jim Beam sealed its 10-millionth barrel. Heaven Hill Distilleries filled its 5-millionth barrel in 2006.

We have the dinner and keynote address for our Sullivan University retreat at Buffalo Trace's distillery in Frankfort last fall, but never heard of the place before moving down here. I'm far from a boozer, but Jim Beam is one I easily recognize. Somehow, the Buffalo Trace folks have put out roughly half as …

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I was watching out of one eye this morning as the “Today Show” played on the old television while I was getting up and around. Al Roker, their intrepid weather guy who’s one of my favorites, was in Orlando getting ready to help kick off a new rollercoaster type ride at the big movie theme park there. (I think we know which theme park that was, don’t we? No, it was the other one.)

If you’re in Florida, or you’d like to be in Florida, the Bardell Real Estate people have a nice vacation villa for sale they’d be happy to show you. They specialize in vacation property in and near Orlando, home of some of the neatest (Sea World?) and biggest (Disney World?) vacation destinations …

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I got a chance to talk to Patti on the phone today. What a treat! I’m so very thankful for the amazing people God has brought into my life through the chaplaincy. I hope someday we can be stationed together!

Copyright © 2008 GentleWhisper.com - By Amy Maxwell. [Link]

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I mentioned a day or two ago (who keeps track of the time??) that I was on the library’s waiting list for Anne Lamott’s newest book about spirituality and faith, “Grace (eventually),” and that I expected to get it in a week or so.

I was wrong. The good folks at the library came through today.

Unfortunately, I’ve got three or four other books I must read first, but I hope I’ll have it done and collect my thoughts enough to write a few paragraphs telling you about it. Stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: Anne Lamott, Grace (eventually), book about spirituality and faith

Post from: Writing Tips at GarySpeer.com

Got that Lamott book from the library — I’ll give you a review when I’ve read …

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Today Ron Woods quoted Mohammed Ali. Not sure if I got the quote exactly right, but here's the idea:

No boxer can win every round. My goal is to win the first round, the last round, and the last ten seconds of every round.

Sounds like a good goal for a pastor:) There's no way we're going to preach a slam dunk every week. But fortunately, if we can make our lay-ups, we score the same amount of points and still get the job done. Some weeks our sermons will be better than others. But if we can plan a strong introduction and conclusion, plus a few aha moments along the way, there's a good chance you can make your big idea memorable.

Some thoughts for …

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Getting excited about Unplugged.

We’ve got a few spots remaining, but they are going quick. Really excited about hanging out for a couple days, June 26-27. Not only will we talk about the five greatest challenges every pastor faces. To top things off, we'll have our inaugural corn hole tournament on Thursday night complete with a grill out and root beer keg!


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The President unleashed an interesting can of worms, blasting a generic group of peaceniks in a speech to the Knesset-

Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

A year before that, Neville Chamberlain became the poster-boy for appeasement, going to Munich and signing off on a deal to give …

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Without a doubt, one of the main things that has helped me in losing weight and getting spiritually, physically and emotionally healthy is having a completely sacred and secret relationship with God through on-line journaling. I am a HUGE believer in the "secret of the secret place"!

I’m not kidding when I say it's helped me to lose a lot of weight. This is so important, I've put it first in this little "losing weight" series on my blog.

I have always journaled. Prior to three years ago, it was all in journals that I hand wrote the old fashioned way. Then I got an on-line password protected journal and my life changed. This coincided with me joining Weight Watchers. It's not something they teach you in …

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Wisdom for a Fresh Encounter with the King and His Kingdom
Part Two

The Pillar of Fire

God’s Provision, Protection and Leading (preparation and readiness) ready to wait and ready to go. Ex 13:19-22; Neh 9:11-12; Neh 9:19-21; Ex 16:10

A First Look
When we look into this example of God's Supernatural intervention into the events of human history we are tempted to only see these obvious or stated truths.

1. The people were to make themselves clean before they left Egypt.

2. They had to be ready to go at all times.

3. The people were protected and comforted by the power of God made real by the Pillar’s majesty and by the visible demonstration of God presence of with them.

4. The people were organized by tribes but it was … [Link]

1 The war between the house of Saul and the house of David lasted a long time. David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker.

2 Sons were born to David in Hebron:
His firstborn was Amnon the son of Ahinoam of Jezreel;

3 his second, Kileab the son of Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel;
the third, Absalom the son of Maacah daughter of Talmai king of Geshur;

4 the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith;
the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital;

5 and the sixth, Ithream the son of David's wife Eglah.
These were born to David in Hebron.

We normally associate Solomon as the multi-wife guy, but David's doing a good …

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The Weird Worship meme seems to have taken off. See David Ker’s latest roundup, also this one I wrote earlier today in a comment, and this comment I made on ElShaddai’s blog.

Here I offer some examples of weird worship from children’s songs. These are all from songs in my church’s official song book, although we don’t sing any of these now at least in the main services.

I’m gonna dance, gonna go completely loopy, will you? (from God Loves Me, Whoopah, Wahey!)

Great great brill brill, WICKED ! (from Oh It’s Great, Great, Brill, Brill)

You won’t get to heaven by jumping from a plane
And flapping your arms real quick (from The Camel Song)

I love custard creams and Wall’s ice-creams (from The Custard …

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Below is a note I posted on a messaging board where I talk with other folks in the ministry. I am not altering it at all, this is simply copied from that board, a post I made on May 8.

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At the risk of hanging myself out there for great criticism, I have decided it is time to share what the Lord has been speaking to me.

Most of you, especially those of us in the mid-west, are aware that we had an earthquake and a series of aftershocks just a couple of weeks ago. Let me begin by going back to that time. The afternoon, or early evening prior to the earthquake, I was standing in my kitchen when suddenly both of my kids came running, … [Link]

Many of you have heard me speak of what the Lord was speaking to me concerning the earthquake that shook the mid-west last month. (For those who have not, I will follow this post up with another entry and relate what the Holy Spirit spoke to me)

Anyway, a friend found this blog entry and shared it on a forum where we had been discussing the Word God had spoken to me. It written by a man named John Gross, who lives in the Kansas City area. I think you will find this interesting.

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At the end of my commentary on this morning shaking’s you will find a copy of a news story by Matt Sepic. While reading his story He mentioned …

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This graphic makes me giggle*. It leads to a blog called Milo’s Turf Tips. Milo is one of the anchors of WDAZ, the "local" news (which is out of Grand Forks and really, all things considered, not so local).

The Quest for the Perfect Lawn is the sub name of the blog (which makes me want a sub name for my own blog).

There have been other quests throughout history, real and fictional. This includes the Holy Grail. Aeneas. Gilgamesh. Odysseus. Dorothy. Frodo.

But Milo is going for the perfect lawn.

This is a quest only a few select people have. It seems like a MacGuffin, serving little purpose than taking up some time on the nightly news and getting a few sponsors to put low-res graphics on the … [Link]

As you may have noticed, I have begun running Google Ads on The Revival Blog.  This is not a plea for you to click them.  The ads make almost nothing for me and I am not trying to generate an income from this blog.  Websites that have religious content are very low earners.  People are […] [Link]

I've referenced it a couple time so I thought I'd blog about it. In a couple weeks I'll take our entire staff off-site for a daydream day. We'll rent space at the National Cathedral–very cool place to pray, meditate, dream, and hang out. Plus I love the observatory. One of the best views of the city. We actually went their before launching our second campus so it's one of the places we go to dream.

I have a simple formula: change of pace + change of place = change of perspective. I've been concerned lately about lack of clear vision. I never want us to go through the motions. So our entire team is reading Making Vision Stick and I'm asking everybody on our team to … [Link]

Last night I was asked the question: What is the sin unto death in 1 John 5:16? Let me quote Ray Steadman to give an answer:

“Now do not let curiosity over this mortal sin (or rather, much better, "the sin unto death"), keep you from seeing the relationship of these verses to what he has just said. These two verses are an illustration of a request that is in the will of God, as contrasted with one that is not in the will of God. That is what he has just been talking about, urging us to pray only concerning that which is the will of God. He then gives us these two illustrations, one which is in the will of God, one which is … [Link]

I played racquetball early this morning. I have spent some time with Jesus, and will finish prepping for this afternoon. I will be speaking at Milan prison. I have an appointment to look at a used car, then back here to get a lot done for Sunday. Gabe has a concert tonight and that will be fun. We had a great time yesterday. I went with his class to Greenfield Village. Drew went too. We had a great time.

It seems have have generated a lot of "hits" and comments (emails) about my comments on Todd Bentley and Lakeland…….

Lois commented on this Blog and listen to what she says

“…. I spent too many years following after signs and wonders and it never satisfies. I …

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An exclusive relationship
A very small percentage of Americans claim to live in an arrangement that baffles me called 'open marriage.' Supposedly these couples feel a need to have intimate partners other than their spouse so that they are able to move through stages of emotional development. It is sometimes called 'love without jealousy.' God calls it immorality. Marriage is an exclusive relationship and those who do not remain with the one to whom they are pledged, with or without their spouse's consent to their infidelity, are committing adultery. In most situations, jealousy is a destructive reaction, but in defense of our vows, we do well to jealously defend our claim to the affections of our spouse. We are right to insist that as remain … [Link]

Has anyone who feels that God is angry (with them, or in general) ever stopped to consider why He might be?

Wouldn’t you be a bit upset if someone shoved their image of you in a 6×9×2 inch box and slammed the lid shut, and then proceeded to ignore the REAL you?

Let your imagination wander…

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It seems an age, but is actually little more than two weeks, since I wrote about Possibly another hopeful moment in the Church of England, and the Anglican Communion, referring to the Manchester report on how the Church of England might accept women as bishops. I welcomed this report not because of how it related to women bishops (or female bishops, as some prefer to say), but because of its

acceptance … of the principle that, in effect, a congregation or parish may choose to separate from the diocese in which it is geographically located and join [another] one

- what some have called the Swiss cheese model of dioceses with holes in them.

But my welcome for the Manchester report is not shared by the …

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The following video was filmed at New Word Alive in April of this year, when I had the opportunity to speak with Don Carson. We spoke about his reasons for coming to the UK, about how he chose to leave the field of chemistry to become a pastor and then left pastoral ministry to train ministers in a seminary, the crucial importance of the local church, and his relationship with his father.

Jonathan Leeman has kindly transcribed some of the key points about seminaries and churches-

• “The front line is the local church, and there's a sense in which the seminary is a back up slot."
  
• “The first impetus toward ministry and toward stamping people for what ministry ought to be ought to be within …

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The other day, I politely asked three junior high girls who live behind my church not to climb the fence that separates the church and their homes. My concern was legal liability; if they fell and hurt themselves, we could be sued. I was a bit surprised by the sarcastic vituperation they hurled my way. When I was their age, which wasn’t that long ago, you simply didn’t talk to your elders that way. And if you did, it would be reported to your parents, and just wait till dad got home! Social scientists tell us there are two kinds of social control: external and internal. External social control is the discipline that authorities impose on us, whether it be a parent spanking a wayward … [Link]

I usually restrict my posts to the theme of my blog, but have over the years felt the need to ask my readers if they could pray for support if so minded.

Today is one of those days.

My youngest daughter as special education needs, and is moving to high school next year (Autumn 2009), and requires a ‘Statement’, which is a legal document from our local government authority (LEA) that then allows us to look for a school, and have her needs met by local government.

The first hurdle is having the LEA agree to assess her for a statement. Most of the time they usually say no automatically, due to funding restrictions, and wait for parents to appeal and take legal action. …

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When I'm traveling, I usually listen to either the local Christian radio station or to National Public Radio (once in awhile I'll tune into talk radio until I can't take it anymore–usually about 10 minutes).

I often wonder what non-Christians think about Christian radio when they surf the dial–especially the various genres of Christian music.

Here is a New York Times blog posting about Christian music from a secular Jew. It makes me feel so out of touch. Of his top 10 Christian songs, I've only heard the top 2 (incidentally, I agree that Larry Norman's "Why Don't You Look Into Jesus" is a great candidate for the best all-time Christian rock song.)

Anyhow, I'd be interested, especially from fellow evangelical Christians–how many of these have you … [Link]

Alright, here's your last chance to get a Chase the Lion t-shirt. We're giving away a free t-shirt with every purchase of a case of books. Once they are gone they are gone. Look for prices to soar on Ebay. Or not. The case is 50% off plus a free t-shirt through May 31st.

You can email resources@theaterchurch.com.

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Thoroughly enjoyed my time in South Carolina! Gotta love sweet tea and southern hospitality. And the Chase the Lion message never gets old to me. Man, I love preaching that message!

I take a 5 AM shuttle to the airport tomorrow and then it's home sweet home. Definitely an intense travel schedule these next few weeks. I'm in California next week for a few days. Then I'm off to Ethiopia for a few days at the end of the month.

Looking forward to some down time this summer! [Link]

I think I speak for everyone here when I say that I hate spam e-mail.

What really gets me is when this blog’s inbox starts filling up with spam. I mean, the inbox for Cerulean Sanctum is geared toward you, the reader. That e-mail address exists for you to use to contact me about important issues. It’s your way to get personal, to go beyond the public discourse of a blog comment section.

Sadly, I get more spam here than I get personal e-mails from readers. The proportions are close, but spam still wins.

And what kind of spam fills this blog’s inbox? Want to take a guess?

Actually, it’s entirely spam from Christians. Or spam representing Christians. Not any Christians I know. Not from readers, …

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Six years ago, sitting in the principal’s office and discussing the idea of my working with a young autistic boy in Special-Ed, I was not all that enthused. The condition was a term not in my vocabulary and my greatest fear was that perhaps I wouldn’t be able to communicate with him. That proved to be an erroneous assumption on my part, although, as I’ve learned along the way, the label covers a [Link]

I went to Ignited Church back in June of Last year and blogged about it.  Here is a little thing I did not write.  At the end of worship a young guy from the church came up to me and commented on our vibrant worship.  He said, “That’s the way to worship.” I said to him, “Get some!” I […] [Link]

Amazing facility isn’t it? Check this out: It is 32,000 sq. feet of prime retail space in Austin, TX and it has been rented by The Parks Church, a new church plant of about 50 people led by Devlin Watson. The price tag on the space? Only $5,000 per month. At $1.87 per square foot, I can say that this is ridiculous. This is $30-50,000 per month space at a minimum. I’ve honestly never heard of anything remotely like this before.

Well, they can make their $5,000 per month payment. But, they don’t have much left over. This is one of those situations that you just don’t pass up. You just go for it. They’ve done that. Now, we have an opportunity …

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Agathos of the blog Scotteriology has been blogging about what he (gender assumed from the grammatical gender of the Greek word “agathos”) calls “Mammonianity”. This is basically criticism of what is otherwise known as “Prosperity Gospel” teaching, that Christians can expect to prosper materially and the key to this is giving.

Now there is some truth to this teaching. God does indeed desire to give good things to his people, and especially to bless those who give generously to his work. But it is a complete perversion of this good biblical teaching to make material prosperity, rather than serving God, the aim, and also to make giving into a means of becoming prosperous rather than a cheerful sacrifice.

I remember long ago reading a book called …

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I've been wondering if I should say something here about the "revival" going on down in Lakeland. Some of my friends are just way excited about this stuff. Me, I don't want to be a wet blanket or something, so I've been operating under the Grandma rule: If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

Well, but the problem with that is, people sometimes mistake a smiling reticence for approval. Furthermore, I just read Jared’s post on the same subject, and I just want to say, Yeah. Me too.

I’ve watched a little of the video, listened to and watched some of the impresario's preaching, and read a few pro and con bloggers, etc. All I can tell you is, if feelings are worth … [Link]

Foster himself places St. Francis squarely in the Charismatic stream, citing him as a prime historical example. “I commend Francis of Assisi to you as a model of charismatic jubilee” (106). Jubilee sums up the beautiful sense of joy found in St. Francis. From Le Jongleur de Dieu to whimsical songs to brother Sun and moon, to his own child like wonder and perpetually simple faith, joy filled the Franciscan spirit. It was also jubilee in the sense of the freedom. The emancipation from the dark ages, and the freedom granted in supernatural works. His was a strange mix of celebration and asceticism — they found their home together in his constant practice of simplicity. Simplicity as Foster notes brings freedom and joy.

From the horrors … [Link]

Today I watched quite a lot more of Todd Bentley and his team from the revival in Lakeland, Florida, which friends had recorded from God TV. I am convinced that this is a real move of God’s power, although through imperfect human agents and so not entirely perfect. My previous post on the subject generated some discussion, but I will not try to engage with criticisms of what is happening.

Henry Neufeld offers an interesting perspective on these revival meetings from his friend and former pastor, rounded off with some of his own thoughts, cautious but not negative. The former pastor, who was involved in the Brownsville revival in their home town of Pensacola (also in Florida but several hundred miles from Lakeland), writes as …

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Spent some time today thinking about preaching and evaluation. The best professional athletes watch their own game tape. Even at the top of their game they watch themselves in order to improve.

One of the podcasts I subscribe to is my own. I don't particularly enjoy it. Actually, I get really uncomfortable listening to my own messages. But it would be foolish to not take time to evaluate something that I do every week.

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you evaluate your own communication:

• Did the introduction make a good first impression?
• Did I build a bridge to people?
• Did each illustration communicate what I intended?
• Did I use words that unchurched people might not understand? If so, did I explain them?
…

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Scribe members were recently offered a wonderful opportunity to receive and review a DVD-based small group curriculum published by Threads/ LifeWay called The Tough Sayings of Jesus II (Leader Kit). Part of this opportunity included a series of interviews, hosted by individual Scribe members, with Michael Kelley, the creator/author of the curriculum. I personally love The Tough Sayings of Jesus I and II, and could not wait to ask Michael Kelley a few questions about it! You can read the interview with Kelley after the jump …

Tribe: Hi, Michael! I have a bunch of questions concerning the Touch Sayings of Jesus curriculum, but before we dive into those will you share a bit of your personal story/testimony? What church do you attend? …

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My wonderful friends, Mitch and Lisa Merwin, sent me a very profound and saddening e-mail this morning. Lisa was expecting their second child, whom they planned to name "Hope."

A couple of weeks ago, Mitch informed all of us (their friends and family) that the doctors had found some "complications" with their yet-unborn daughter. Some very serious complications.

We have all been praying like crazy, asking the Lord to heal this child. And God has indeed healed this precious "Hope." He did it HIS way.

I received the following email from Mitch, Lisa, and their small son Micah, earlier today:

Dear friends, Thank you so much for standing by us and praying for us. We cannot express how much it means to us knowing that we have so many … [Link]

Here is a good article by Lee Grady, Editor of Charisma mag.

Honest Questions About the Lakeland Revival
I support any holy outbreak of revival fervor. But let’s be careful to guard ourselves from pride and error. God is stirring deep spiritual passion in the hearts of the thousands of people who have traveled to Florida during the last month to experience the Lakeland Healing Revival. Since these meetings began in a 700-seat church on April 2, the crowd has moved four times to bigger venues, the fervor has intensified and the news has spread worldwide—thanks to God TV and online broadcasting. Within a few weeks, the bandwagon effect was in full swing. It’s safe to say that no

outbreak of Pentecostalism in history has gained so …

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I know that many of you blog or host your own websites to which you add regular content. Many of you, I’m sure, have various scripts or software on your site that allows you to poll your customers about an issue.

Forum software, I’m sure, allows this pretty easily. But I don’t run a forum here, I run WordPress blogging software. I’ve searched around the Internet several times and not found anything really easy and practical to use to put up a poll that you, my visitors, can respond to.

Consider this my cry for help — any of you have a website script, WordPress plugin, or something very easy to use and very free that will do what I’m looking for?

Drop me a comment …

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I am about to do something I have never done before. I'm about to show you pictures of my new purse and my new shoes. Cheesehead does it all the time and she gets terrific shoes! There are several reasons I have never posted pictures of shoes before, but I guess the main one is that this is my usual footwear. Well, I also have a black pair and a white pair.

The sensible me says that I should, considering my difficult beginning in life, rejoice that I can walk. I do, oh I truly do. I am also very glad to have this footwear. It is important that I not end up with terrible arthritis in my feet and that I walk with more …

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Over at Dilbert.com, you have the opportunity to come up with your own punchline to a Scott Adam's Dilbert cartoon.

Fun.

Some of the punchlines people have come up with are kind of lame, but the idea is cool.

Thanks for reading. Please consider visiting my web site for a look around.

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Found this link on Adrian Warnock’s blog. There was a lot to be thankful for over the weekend at the Easter services at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington USA—a remarkable account.

Mars Hill Pastor Mark Driscoll Reports:

Something broke this weekend, spiritually. I’m not sure how to explain it, but God’s favor was evident everywhere. … We had at least 11,718 people altogether this weekend, somewhere near 200 baptisms yesterday alone, and are still trying to figure out how many people got saved. My children loved seeing all the new converts and baptisms yesterday…

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Mars Hill Baptism video (6 minutes)

Yesterday while singing with the congregation at each of the five services I preach live, I could not stop weeping. People were …

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David Ker has started a new meme on Weird Worship, and has honoured me as one of the first group of five to be tagged. Not being one to duck out of a challenge like Nick Norelli, I decided to look for my own selection of weird lines from worship songs. But I will look in a more authoritative source even than Songs of Fellowship volume 4 - my TNIV, and specifically the Book of Psalms:

There is no God (14:1)

Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls (42:7)

Moab is my washbasin,
on Edom I toss my sandal;
over Philistia I shout in triumph. (108:9)

Happy are those who seize your infants
and dash them against the rocks. ( …

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My friends recently moved to a new house which is cute and cozy and in no way huge (which is a good thing). As a house-warming gift, I thought I'd give them the gift of a little room (a wooden, hand-built box, painted inside, with an open front).

So, here it is.

A "little room."

It’s been lived in. I had Bob try it out with some of his furniture. It looks like he settled right in. After I could see that it was structurally sound, I sent the empty room on its way, with a few usage instructions:

How to use your new storage room:

1. Hang it on a wall or set it on a shelf.
2. Put stuff in it, like mementos, or a small photo in a frame.
…

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Have you ever needed a list broker? Perhaps you aren’t familiar with mailing lists and those who use them, but here’s a useful website, put up by the Direct Contact Marketing Group, explaining what list brokers do and how your business or freelance writing career might benefit from lists and the services of list brokers.

I’ve done a few direct mail campaigns for some marketing endeavors in the past, and on one occasion did some direct mail using a list broker. The results were not spectacular, but I only tried once.

Go to the site and look around. It’s very informative and there are links at the bottom of the page if you wish to pursue the matter and find some lists related to your needs. …

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Here’s another of those simple, basic writing tips you may already know — or you may be overlooking. I hope it’s helpful. In a word: Speed writing.

Okay, I cheated. That’s two words, but it’s a simple and effective way to start a writing session anytime you simply can’t get the words flowing and get started any other way. It’s a technique that’s pretty much self-descriptive.

Speed writing means sitting down at your keyboard and letting the words flow without purpose, without forcing words or thoughts. You’re simply trying to put down everything that comes to mind as quickly as you possibly can. It’s sort of a combined typing race and free-association exercise.

One writing coach of mine suggested setting a timer of some sort to …

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Memes. I have a love/hate relationship with memes. When I’m tagged, I kind of cringe a bit, initially, because I’m not sure what is entailed in any given meme. Some I skip; others I dive into head first because they are actually meaningful. I was just tagged for a meme, but luckily it is a good one! I am a huge move and DVD fanatic. My wife and I love collecting DVDs. Some day we will have a ridiculously over-sized home theater in which we will comfortably watch all of the movies we have collected over the years with our children and then with their children. Yeah, there will be an old fashioned popcorn machine in there too! We do love our movies!

At any rate, …

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I was watching this story with Diane Sawyer (found here) about a woman who has this gift/curse of not being able to forget. They're not sure if it is a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) or if she is an Autistic Savant. They are doing research to map her brain to see if it might be helpful for Alzheimer's Research.

She can remember what happened to her on any day over the course of her life. If you giver her a date she can tell you something that happened on that day. She has done work for TV shows doing retro specials because she can remember every episode of her favorite shows. Some think that she has a gift, she sees it a little more …

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In the article I Told You So, I introduced you to one of my key hermeneutical principles in interpreting prophecy– those things which play key roles in the unfolding of Redemptive History have been told to us by God. With this article, let me add a couple of corollaries:
1) if the prophesied event occurred within the time frame during which biblical writing was inspired, its fulfillment will be recorded in the scriptures dealing with that period; and
2) if a prophecy interprets the past (as it certainly does in the Revelation) it's fulfillment in the past will be recorded in the scriptures dealing with that period.

These may not be found in any standard, evangelical approach to hermeneutics, but then again, would I be writing this if … [Link]

Let me clarify something from my blog yesterday. Change resisters are never to be viewed as adversaries but as advisers. Resisters to change are a necessary piece in the process of transforming a good idea into a great one.

I like the analogy that I read that we should view change resisters as one of those funny sounds that our car makes when it is out of tune and in need of repair. Those sounds can be our allies and not our adversaries in the process of tuning our car to make it run better. Using change resisters in a positive way it a great way to make our ideas more workable and saleable.

Change resisters help us recognize the flaws in our ideas. It's amazing how … [Link]

There is only one way to God the Father (1 John 2:1) and that is through Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5).  There is only one way to Jesus and that is through the power of the Holy Spirit (John 16:5-11).  I would offer a practical and Scriptural suggestion (John 4:28-29) that I’ve noticed over and over.  Friends position people to be in close proximity to an omnipresent God.

Community/relationship is almost always the front door to the drawing, convicting power of the Holy Spirit.  People often buy into me before they buy into Christ.  If I fail to open my life to others- to extend myself on behalf of Christ, the door to Jesus may be more difficult to access.  I bring …

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Great news if you're looking for the place where media & the Church converge. COLLIDE Magazine has a brand spankin' new, redesigned website. It's less than 48 hours old.

And how can I resist mentioning COLLIDE when several Digital contributors are featured in the magazine's new May/June issue. Odd happenstance? I don't think so; it's more like Spirit-led inspiration if you ask me.

Our Digital contributors in COLLIDE include:

Aaron Linne (Mr. Vimeo himself) His article, Stop Throwing Sheep, explores how we can use Facebook applications to spread the messege.

Cynthia Ware My article, Technology and the Virtual Church, was written to inspire early adopters of new media technologies to forge ahead.

Joe Suh (MyChurch.org founder) Joe's interview explains how …

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"Because with lies you have made the heart
of the righteous sad, whom I have not made
sad; and strengthened the hands of the
wicked, that he should not return from
his wicked way, by promising him life"
(Ezekiel 13:22).

In the Book of Ezekiel, God has severe
issues with the purveyors of Israel's
idolatry. He accuses the false prophets
of having a false vision of peace for
Jerusalem instead of calling her out of
her idolatry (13:16).

He rails against those who sell items
of idolatry to encourage idol worship,
causing people who are trying to do
right to stumble and causing people
who perpetrate this idol worship
to prosper (13:19,20).

What makes a false prophet false is that
they do not speak for God. They do not
speak the truth: they lie. They say that
“Everything will be fine," they say that
“peace is coming," … [Link]

From Wright's “Redemption from the New Perspective? Towards a Multi-Layered Pauline Theology of the Cross":I am saddened that many have imagined they have nothing to learn from Sanders’s massive scholarship and have run howling back into the arms of Luther. In some cases—these are, I think, the saddest of all—they have been reduced to appealing over the head of the New Testament to the tradition of the sixteenth century, which is all the more ironic when we reflect that Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, and the rest would certainly have advised us to read the New Testament even better than they did, not to set up their own work as a new authoritative tradition, a fixed lens through which the Bible would have to be viewed for … [Link]

So much of what the Holy Spirit is working in us as believers begins with how we identify ourselves, and how we understand ourselves as persons. The Spirit works to impress on us our new identity in the eyes of God. There are so many facets to this that we never do receive the full understanding. Our minds would simply explode! We receive it piecemeal, little by little.

On the other hand, a self-identity fostered in us by the world . . . that is, a pattern of self-understanding that is accepted as an unquestioned and unquestionable fact, but which in truth is a product of the lie spoken by the serpent long ago and repeated in various forms to every person in every generation since … [Link]