Tag Archives: archaeology

Apr 25 2013

this went thru my mind

 

Affliction, faith, loss, pain, & suffering: There Really Is A Reason – 12 Benefits Of Afflictions

“God doesn’t afflict us or allow us to be afflicted for no reason. … in God’s plan, afflictions have great benefit to us, as painful as they are at times.  If we keep these benefits in mind when we suffer, they can help us endure joyfully.”

Archaeology: Roads of Arabia Exhibition: Update

“Here is the schedule for upcoming shows of the exhibition … The Museum of Fine Arts – Houston, TX – December 22, 2013 – March 9, 2014.”

Busyness & leadership: Busy is Killing Leadership

“If you’re not careful busyness will quietly take over your life without you even being aware of it.”

Children & Uganda: Launching Reunite Uganda in the US! [essential reading; the work of one of MoSt Church's own: Darby Priest]

“Help us get Ugandan children out of orphanages and back to their families.”

Church, fear, ministry & the work of God: Francis Chan: Are You ‘Protecting’ Your Church from a Movement of God?  [10 min. video clip; required viewing]

“… it blew my mind that an older man would come alongside of me and believe in me.”

Church & intergenerational ministry: Congregations as Families of Faith: Beyond Age-Level Ministries

“…  research has continued to show that intergenerational relationships are like glue that makes faith sticky for young people. Age-level ministries are still important to create a community of peers for children, youth, and adults to belong to. But if we hope to make disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world, then we must develop intergenerational ministries that model the faith for our children and youth, and support our families as they seek to follow Christ. The research tells us that we need to be doing church differently.”

Communication, culture, demographics, social media, & society: Just Who Uses Social Media? A Demographic Breakdown

“You think you know social? How about who uses it? Well, you might not know it as well as you would have guessed. A new study from the Pew Research Center and Docstoc shed some light on just who uses social and on what platforms. Some of the findings seem in line with what you would probably guess, but others were surprising.”

Distribution of wealth: A Rise in Wealth for the Wealthy; Declines for the Lower 93%

“During the first two years of the nation’s economic recovery, the mean net worth of households in the upper 7% of the wealth distribution rose by an estimated 28%, while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93% dropped by 4%, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly released Census Bureau data.”

Employment, faith, jobs, & work: Why Tim Keller Wants You to Stay in That Job You Hate

“‘I hate my job. It’s not just like I don’t have a lot of power—I really can’t stand what I have to do every day.’ How would you pastor someone in that situation?”

Expectations & introverts: 7 False Assumptions Made About Introverts by Ron Edmonson

“There are a lot of false assumptions made when someone is introverted. Here are 7 false assumptions made of me as an introvert …”

Church finances, collection, contribution, electronic giving, & offering: What the Decline in Check Writing Will Mean for Your Church

“If we do not change our process for collecting the offering we will see our offerings decline. The reason is simple. The harder we make it for people to give the less likely they will give.”

Ego, Facebook, photography, pride, & vanity: Snap Judgments: Our Societal Obsession With Taking Pictures [required reading]

“Each day, we upload more than 5.2 million photos to Instragram and 100 million to Facebook, with no signs of slowing down our snapping and sharing. … In a sense, this is totally natural. Photographs speak to the age-old custom of physically marking spaces and moments in thanksgiving and remembrance. … The danger of using photos as markers is that images appeal to our vanity. We become quickly obsessed with accumulating experiences, capturing them in photos, and publicly displaying our photos as trophies. If we aren’t careful, our Facebook pages and blogs can become trophy cases of our own accomplishments: Me, on a church mission trip, lumped in with a group of smiling ethnic children.”

Grace: God at Work: Common Grace by Jonathan Storment [required reading]

“The bad guy in the Christian story isn’t someone, it’s the broken reality that Jesus calls sin. And because of common grace we can see God working through people outside of our tribe, our immediate community, or our faith. We can see the image of God in everyone.”

Hope, immigration, mercy, North Korea, pain, & suffering: Hyeonseo Lee: My Escape from North Korea [12 min. video clip; required viewing]

“… one day, in 1995, my Mom brought home a letter from a coworker’s sister. It read, ‘When you read this, all five family members will not exist in this world, because we haven’t eaten in the past two weeks. We are lying on the floor together, and our bodies are so week, we are ready to die.’”

Ministry, relationships, & time management: How Does a Pastor Interact With Those Who Seek to Monopolize His Time on Sunday?

“It is one of the great dilemmas every Sunday for the pastor.  Who do I speak with and for how long?  Most pastors stand at a doorway after the morning service to greet those who are leaving.  Others stay down front inviting folks to come and speak with the pastor to ask questions about the sermon.  It is a constant juggling match that most pastors feel they fail at most of the time. What adds to the madness is the person who aggressively hunts the pastor down after the service and feels entitled to his undivided attention for a long time.”

Worship: Your Worship Service is B-O-R-I-N-G!

“There’s a reason your church isn’t more creative. … most churches are boring because of The Olive Garden Problem.”

Americanism, culture, & politics: A Political Rant Born From a Deeper Theological Conviction than “Americanism”

“I’ve seen several posts on social media advocating a picture as a “way forward” in terms of political policy. It looks like this … What I want to do is interact with these ideas as a Christian who takes Scripture seriously and who is more committed to the kingdom of God than to a specific country/government. I intend to provide a ‘play by play’ through each of the statements …”

 

Apr 11 2013

this went thru my mind

 

Archaeology: Cyrus Cylinder Begins American Tour

“Since its discovery more than 130 years ago, the Cyrus Cylinder has been a striking example of an archaeological artifact that independently confirms a Biblical account. … Visitors to five U.S. museums will have the rare opportunity to see this fascinating artifact firsthand in The Cyrus Cylinder in Ancient Persia, on tour this year. The cylinder is usually on display at the British Museum in London. … May 3–June 14, 2013 – The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston – Houston, Texas – www.mfah.org“

Communion: A Hearty Eucharist [very interesting; read this with my sermon last Sunday morning in mind]

“… there is something to be said for going back, insofar as possible, to a practice that more closely resembles the early church or Jesus’ last meal with his disciples itself. How can we reclaim, for our congregations and our worship services, a sense of how the early church both commemorated the last supper and ate together? How can we, in our communion practices, strive to (in the most literal sense) be more Christ-like?”

Depression: How Can the Church Help People Struggling with Depression?

“How can the church do a better job of helping people struggling with depression and mental illness?”

Entitlement: What I Deserve

“I deserve better. I’m entitled to certain things. I have my rights. My forefathers worked hard so that I could live a certain way. I’ve worked like a dog so that I could live like a king. Said any of those things? Thought any of those things?”

Grief & miscarriage: How Does a Pastor Care for a Couple Who Just Experienced a Miscarriage?

“Here are a few tips for those interested in knowing helpful ways to care for a couple who have just experienced this loss.”

Hospital visitation: Five Things I Learned in the Hospital

“With my almost 3-week hospital stay behind me, I realized there are several things I learned from the experience. Here are five of them.”

Marriage & ministry: * Is Ministry Killing your Marriage?; * 10 Things I’ve Learned About Being A Preacher’s Wife

* “Pastors reflect on building a harmonious relationship between their ministries and families.”

* “I don’t think preacher’s wives are understood by most people. … Here are some things I presume most preacher’s wives wish someone had told them before they became such.”

Speech, suffering & words: How Not to Say the Wrong Thing [required reading]

“… you can say whatever you want if you just wait until you’re talking to someone in a larger ring than yours.”

Suicide: 7 Questions About Suicide and Christians

“… to address seven of the questions that arise in our minds at times like this.”

Dec 6 2012

this went thru my mind

 

Aging & scams: Why It’s Easier To Scam The Elderly by Patti Neighmond

“The older adults rated the trustworthy faces and the neutral faces exactly the same as the younger adults did, but when it got to the cues of untrustworthiness they didn’t process those cues as well,” she says. “They rated those people as much more trustworthy than the younger adults did. In a small follow-up study using brain imaging, Taylor’s findings suggest older adults may have less activity in the very area of the brain that processes risk and subtle danger.”

Archaeology & ancient peoples: Did Moses Know the Alphabet? Was There Writing in Ancient Israel? A Lecture with Dr. Alan Millard at Lanier Theological Library [55 min. video; there's a great, brief bit of humor regarding graffiti from 16:54-17:18]

“… there is the question of how early in their history the Israelites could write their records, rather than relying on oral tradition. This lecture will explain how discoveries in the Holy Land are helping to answer these questions and consider if it matters whether Moses could write, or not.”

Bethlehem: Bethlehem: Then & Now by Mitrib Raheb

“At the time of Jesus, Bethlehem was a little town of 300-1,000 inhabitants. What people might not know is that the city of Bethlehem today is not in Israel but in Palestine, and that it is a bustling city with 28,000 people. One third of them are Palestinian Christians.”

Culture, ethics & trust: Gallup’s Ethics by Profession by Ed Stetzer

“Gallup releases their listing of professions and the public’s perception of their ethics. Sadly, “clergy” are about in the middle of the pack. But, be thankful you are not a car salesman.”

Loving your enemies: Can Israel Love Its Enemies in Gaza and Keep Its People Safe? by Morgan Guyton

“Many of my fellow Christians see Jesus’ command to “love our enemies” as an impossible moral standard that we are exempted from fulfilling by accepting Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins. What’s even more ludicrous to many is to claim that Jesus’ teachings are relevant not only in private life but in the most complex geopolitical situations. I am convinced that loving your enemies is not only a moral standard but could be a very successful foreign policy strategy, even though it gets laughed out of the room by the same people who claim to advocate “Biblical” values in our government. What would loving your enemies look like in the greatest foreign policy crisis in the world now? What would it look like for Israel to love Gaza?”

Poverty: Poverty Pictured by Larry James

“Mental … spiritual … social … physical.”

Dec 4 2012

this went thru my mind

 

Archaeology: Road Found at Bethsaida from Time of Jesus by Todd Bolen

“We uncovered a paved street from the time of Jesus’s disciples, which runs westward through the residential area from the corner of the Fisherman’s House down toward the Jordan valley. … I tell people that Andrew, Peter and Phillip almost certainly walked on it because they would have had to have gone out of their way to avoid it!”

Grief & mourning: When We Don’t Give a Pause: Javon Belcher and the NFL by Caleb Wilde

“We’re too busy with school to give a pause.  Too busy with work to give a pause.  Too busy with our Facebook feed to give a pause.  Too busy with OUR lives that we forget about the lives of others.”

Hope & hopelessness: Salvation By Port-A-Potty by Wade Hodges

“My favorite scene from the movie Castaway … [is] is the pivotal scene after Tom Hanks’s character has acclimated to life on the island. He’s given up trying escape. He’s tried to kill himself and failed. He has no hope of being rescued. His life has come to a dead end. He’s exhausted all of his options. Then one day he wakes up and finds a surprise on the beach. A piece of a port-a-potty has washed ashore.”

Jesus: 7 Things You May Not Know About Jesus by Frank Viola

“Jesus envelops time. … Jesus sung on the cross. … Jesus’ twelve disciples were teenagers. … Jesus was fragrant when He rose from the dead. … Jesus had a keen sense of humor. Jesus completed and replayed the story of Israel. … Jesus was regarded as a political figure.”

Politics, terrorism & war: Stop Supporting the “War” on Terrorism by Tim Archer

“There is no defined end to this war. … There is no clear definition of who the opponents are. … Christians who believe in just war need to stop supporting the so-called war on terrorism. There is nothing just about it. It’s just war, plain and simple.”

Racism: Racism and American Politics by Roger E. Olson [required reading]

“…  I believe I have detected an underlying current of racism at work in MUCH of the hateful criticism aimed at Obama personally.”