Check out the Brownblog
No, it’s not the latest musings of UPS’s employees, but the blog of Mark Brown, “who was the National Director of the Scripture Union in New Zealand for three years, [and who] is now the CEO of The Bible Society in New Zealand,” according to Cynthia Ware.
The Brownblog offers “fresh thinking about Christian ministry.”
Great photos: ‘Christmas Around the World’
Please say a prayer for Ian Murphy
Carolyn McCulley shares the account of Ian Murphy, who was planning to get engaged to his girlfriend, Larissa Whiteley, when he had a life-threatening accident that left him with severe brain damage. “Initially,” McCulley writes,
“… he wasn’t expected to survive. Then, with his significant brain trauma, he wasn’t expected ever to improve. Then he wasn’t expected to be able to communicate in any measure, such as with sign language. He was not expected to be able to feed himself. Nor use a motorized wheelchair on his own nor even stand on his own. But praise be to God, he has done all of these things! Now, to the amazement of all, he has even spoken his name!
Two days ago, Larissa posted that Ian is mouthing words a lot, and thus their life has become a game of charades. Then she added, ‘Ian said tonight that he wanted me to ask blog readers to pray for his voice.’ I am joining the hundreds who are praying and I’m asking you to do so, too.”
2008’s debates
A list of the 13 debates that James White has participated in this last year has been posted by by Tur8infan.
David Wayne asks for prayer
‘JollyBlogger‘ David Wayne has been diagnosed with colon cancer and asks for prayer:
“I had the colonoscopy on Friday and he found a tumor in my colon. Usually, he says, they biopsy it, and they are doing a biopsy on mine, but he said that he could tell by looking at it that it was cancerous, my colon is nearly blocked by it. So, tomorrow I will see a surgeon and will probably have surgery within a week or so. I do very much appreciate your prayers - please don’t forget to pray for my wife Lynette and my kids - D. J., Michael and Rebekah, and my mom in Jacksonville. Also pray for our church. We are closing on a new building, getting ready for our final service in our current facility and moving and it may be that I will be out for all of that.”
Bad reporting on church discipline case in Florida
At the GetReligion blog, Mollie Ziegler Hemingway discusses the way journalists have reported the case of Rebecca Hancock, who says she has been harassed and threatened with public rebuke by the leaders of Grace Community Church in Mandarin, Florida:
“There are so many problems with the coverage that it’s hard to get it all down. Note the last line of the first paragraph above. It’s not that the church is going to go ‘public’ with her sin, they’re going ‘very public.’ There’s really no need to overly dramatize the situation, particularly when the woman in question has taken her situation to the national media — and not the congregation.”
‘In Defense of Santa Claus’
At Boundless, Candice Watters reflects on a Wall Street Journal article by Tony Woodlief about the benefits that come from preserving a mystical, fictional concept like Santa Claus in our homes:
“You may be thinking the links between Santa, Darwin and Jesus a bit flimsy or hokey, but trust me, they’re there …”
Two ancient coins found on Temple Mount in Jerusalem
A story from the Jerusalem Post (HT: Todd Bolen):
“Two ancient coins, one used to pay the Temple tax and another minted by the Greek leader the Jews fought in the story of Hanukka, have been uncovered amid debris from Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, an Israeli archeologist said Thursday.”
Take a Christmas quiz
… at Christian History dot net:
“3. Who is credited with creating the first Nativity scene (or creche) on Christmas Eve in 1223?
- Bernard of Clairvaux
- Pope Gregory the Great
- Raphael
- Francis of Assisi”
(HT: David Gibson)
Congratulations to John and Noël Piper
… on their 40th wedding anniversary yesterday.
Weekend Walkabout, December 20, 2008
26 posts from the week that escaped mention (almost!):
“All” Always Means ALL. Right? - Phil Johnson
A Bad Sign - The Sacred Sandwich
CCM Magazine’s Top Ten Artist Blogs of 2008 (HT: Worship.com)
Don’t Waste Your Sexuality - Josh Harris
The Elvis-Beatles Relativity Fallacy - Rod Dreher
“Free” Christian music downloads from CompassionArt - Gospel Soundcheck
Glorifying God in Our Christmas Shopping - Tony Reinke
“Does my gift serve the soul of the recipient?”
How Hellish is ‘Time Out’? - Russell Moore
If Only it Were That Clear - Mark D. Roberts
Jonestown and the Reformed Movement - R. Scott Clark
“As weird and impossible as Jonestown seems today, what happened to them and what they did to themselves, is not utterly unrelated to ideas, causes, and personalities in the Reformed movement over the last three decades.”
Killing is My Business, and Business is Good - Paul Manata
Lewis’s Famous Essay on Bulverism (HT: Victor Reppert)
Martin Luther’s Christmas Book - Between Two Worlds
No Good Reason - Cerulean Sanctum
“In sorting through this clothing, the realization that I throw away just about nothing hit home.”
Online Community…Does it exist? YES! But I Think You Are Asking the Wrong Question - Rhett Smith
Phillips Daylight Window Concept Presentation - Joshua Sowin
Q+A :: How many U.S. churches exist? - Church Relevance
Reflections from a Church Pianist - Amy Scott
“When I have a brain freeze at a bad time, I’ve got a special look for the other musicians that asks, ‘What are you people thinking, man?’”
Six Christmas Poems - Marcus Goodyear
Tim Challies Day - Justin Taylor
Unpacking forgiveness in real life - Dan Phillips
Volition: A Short Film - Jonathan Ignacio
“It is a fifteen minute film focusing on three of the worst atrocities of human rights this world has faced.”
Why read through Calvin’s Institutes in 2009? - Ligon Duncan
Xmas Giveaway - Trevin Wax
“For the next ten days (Dec. 15-25), you have the opportunity to register to win all ten of my favorite books this year. Plus, an ESV Study Bible. That’s $260 worth of books!”
You Should Subscribe - Green Baggins
Zeitgeist as Agent? - Pseudo-Polymath
“Consider … for a moment the intelligent ant colony … from the ant’s perspective … here with man as ant. “
I, Avatar
At his blog, Lessons from Babel, Internet ministry researcher Dave Bourgeois discusses I, Avatar, a book by Mark Stephen Meadows, which he says is about “just what happens when someone spends more and more time in a virtual world …”
“Each avatar we encounter online, whether it be the more two-dimensional kind in Facebook or three-dimensional in W[orld] o[f] W[arcraft] or Second Life, represent a real live human being with a soul. A person that is just as important to the Creator as we are.”
Do you think church s**ks?
If so, there is a place where you can say so … and tell what it is about church that makes you so grumpy.
(HT: Church Marketing [Stinks])
255th Christian Carnival
The 255th Christian Carnival went up yesterday at Parableman, but I’m told it’s still up today. (Be sure to use chains if you drive … there will be snow. Parking is around the back, next to Woolworths.)
Some of the posts featured:
- Save Your Christmas
- Fasting: Keeping It Secret In Our Culture of Food in America
- Stewardship 101
- 5 Inspirational Bible Quotes To Enhance Your Day
Some ‘gentle’ Christmas carol corrections
… courtesy of Philip Schroeder, at The Thinklings blog:
“‘We Three Kings of Orient Are‘ –The Bible doesn’t say how many wise men there were. Traditionally the songs and stories only say there were three because there were three gifts. Wise Men, or Magi, were not kings. They were advisers and magicians for kings. As for the Orient, they were from the middle-east, not the far-east.”
From ASBO Jesus:
