Tag Archives: hate

Oct 2 2012

this went thru my mind

 

Attack ads, critics & hate: Jesus and Paul Under Fire & The 2012 USA Presidential Election by Frank Viola [required reading]

“… why do politicians spend obscene amounts of money on ads which attack their opponents – most often falsely? Because they work. In general, people are gullible and will believe whatever they hear or read without checking the facts or going to the sources themselves. … his got me thinking. What’s happening in the political world right now in the USA has been going on in the “religious” world for over 2,000 years. Consider the misrepresentations and false accusations leveled at Jesus during His earthly days, thousands of years before the Internet and cable news …”

Evangelicals, history & politics: Pro-Life, Pro-Left ‘Moral Minority’ by David R. Swartz [a book review]

“So why did the evangelical left seem to dissolve into irrelevance? Swartz argues that evangelicals’ mass enlistment in the conservative Republicanism of the “culture wars” was not the inevitable consequence of doctrine or history: Jesus did not leave behind a clear party platform. But while members of the Christian right set aside doctrinal differences to rally around a shared cultural agenda, the left fell victim to internal identity politics and theological disputes.”

Logic, discussion & reasoning: Making An Argument the “Christian” Way? by Kurt Willems [required reading]

“… if we want to discover more truth. Here are my suggestion of arguing styles to be wary of.”

Migration & US population: American Migration [very interesting!]

“Close to 40 million Americans move from one home to another every year. Click anywhere on the map below: blue counties send more migrants to the selected county than they take; red counties take more than they send.”

Movies: Hollywood’s New Bible Stories

“The studios are increasingly reliant on source material with a built-in audience, something the Bible—the best-selling book in history—certainly has. And like the comic-book superheroes that movie companies have relied on for the past decade, biblical stories are easily recognizable to both domestic and the all-important foreign audiences. What’s more, they’re free: Studios don’t need to pay expensive licensing fees to adapt stories and characters already in the public domain.”

Non-Christians & perceptions: Seven Common Comments Non-Christians Make About Christians by Thom Rainer

“Over the past several years, my research teams and I have interviewed thousands of unchurched non-Christians. Among the more interesting insights I gleaned were those where the interviewees shared with me their perspectives of Christians. In this article, I group the seven most common types of comments in order of frequency. I then follow that representative statement with a direct quote from a non-Christian.”

Aug 16 2012

Bruner on John 20.19

 

“‘… while the disciples were gathered together behind locked doors because of their fear of the Jewish people …‘ In the mid- and late-first century, the Christian disciples were from time-to time, in fact, gathered together behind locked doors because of their fear of the Jewish (and other) people, if the accounts in the Acts of the Apostles and other first century records are to be trusted. But in the longer subsequent centuries, when Christians became the majority and the Jewish people the minority, it was usually Jews who hid behinds locked doors for fear of Christians. Our present verse must not be allowed to perpetuate the canard of unique Jewish evil; it should, with every reading of comparable texts of Scripture, after a long and sorry history, be an occasion for the Christian confession of sin.”

Frederick Dale Bruner, The Gospel of John: A Commentary (Eerdmans, 2012), p.1161

May 23 2012

this went thru my mind

 

Advice & opinions: Whose Opinion Matters by Ron Edmonson

“All leaders constantly hear opinions. It seems everyone knows what you should do. … Whose opinion matters?”

Anger: So You Are Angry by Dan Bouchelle

“So you are angry? Well, you might want to do something about that. That road goes to a bad place.”

Church & love: How to Love by Dave Barnhart

“I’m not sure who came up with this illustration, but I really like the way it helps me understand what Christian individuals and communities are supposed to do.”

Color: The Psychology of Color

[infographic]

Faith: Atheism & Belief in God: Countries Get Ranked

“The researchers looked at data from 30 countries where surveys, taken at two or more time points between 1991 and 2008, asked residents about their belief in God.”

Forgiveness: Baptism Means You Can’t Hate Anyone by Dan Bouchelle

“Accepting baptism into the name of Jesus means you have to forgive everyone. Everyone! It doesn’t matter what they have done to hurt you.”

Internet: Almost Half of Online Americans Use the Internet for Religious Purposes

“… 17% read religion-oriented blogs once a month or more … 57% of online adults under age 35 use the Internet for religion, compared to 48% who are 35 to 49 years old, 36% who are 50 to 64, and 31% who are 65 or older …”

Texting: The Problem With Texting

“Sherry Turkle is a psychologist and professor at M.I.T. and the author, most recently, of ‘Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other.’”

Apr 9 2011

this went thru my mind

Archaeology & backgrounds. Man alive, talk about a double punch! Just this past Sunday morning while preaching from Matthew 5:27-30, I made reference to the Valley of Gehenna as Jerusalem’s “trash dump.” Then this week I come across this post by Tedd Bolen entitled The Myth of the Burning Garbage Dump of Gehenna. I’ve read and heard of the “Jerusalem trash dump” business from careful scholarship for many years now, so, needless to say, this came as a great surprise to me. That was the first punch. What was the second? My scheduled sermon topic tomorrow morning is … wait for it … lying. Doh! No kidding.

If you’re even half as interested as I am in what life was like in the places where Christianity first got a foothold in the ancient world, you will likely be very interested in a new blog that is about all thing related to the ancient city of Corinth. It’s called simply Corinthians Matters. The site’s self-description reads: “This site is devoted to the archaeological and historical research and study of Corinth and its territory.  The site is also designed to educate the public on the ongoing archaeological work of the sites and microregions of the eastern territory.” This site is the work of David Pettegrew, an “Assistant Professor of History at Messiah College near Harrisburg, PA where he teaches classes in Greek and Roman History, Late Antiquity, Historical Mediterranean Archaeology, and Latin.”

Bible. Did you know that Steve Green, the president of Hobby Lobby, is a long-time Bible collector? Read more in this CNN article entitled Eyeing a national museum, a collector’s bibles hits the road.

Bible interpretation: The “most loved verse” of most, Philippians 4:13, is the subject and Timothy Archer comes right out and says what needs to be said. This may be the most important post you’ll read of those listed here simply because it reminds us that unless Scripture is understood in its context, it will be misunderstood and misused. Spot-on, brother. I Can Do All Things. Incidentally, this verse is a good illustration of why I’m a fan of the Common English Bible. The CEB renders Philippians 4:13 quite well, capturing its meaning in its original context: ”I can endure all these things through the power of the one who gives me strength.”

Church. It seems as though this must be “National Write Some Exceedingly Good Stuff About Church Week.” Quite a number of fine pieces came through my Google Reader this week about church. Following are three of the best. Dan Bouchelle’s post entitled Too Busy to Bother Driving is required reading. Here’s an excerpt:

“Most churches are busy doing all manner of things. … if not truly important things. But, rare is the church that has a true biblically informed operational vision that guides all they do and gives them the framework to decide what not to do. Everyone with a good idea and the willingness to put some time in can develop a program that consumes church time and resources. … The core problem, I think, is that there is no real consensus about why the church exists. The congregation came into being sometime in the past but no ones seems to remember why because vision leaks. It has been years, if ever, since the entire leadership gathered around the Word and prayerfully asked and studied critical questions like the following …”

Dave Jacobs makes an equally important point in Not All Healthy Things Grow and Reproduce. Who will believe his report, though? I, for one.

Wade Hodges hit the nail on the head as well with his post Before You Go: Leave Your Ideal Church Behind.

And without a doubt, if the post Church in China to Risk Worshipping in Park doesn’t humble us, I shudder to think what it would take to do so. See ya’ Sunday, right?

Computing. Do you subscribe to any e-mailings from businesses who use Epsilon? I do. And if you don’t know if you do, then you’ll definitely want to read Mike Lennon’s post Massive Breach at Epsilon Compromises Customer Lists of Major Brands as well as Kim Komando’s advice on the matter.  Jason Stellman’s Googling Ourselves to Death reiterates a point I’ve made earlier here. We all need reminding. And speaking of “all” and “reiterating,” this infographic regarding Web Use Through the Generations just doesn’t ever get old to me. Why? It speaks volumes of how people communicate and how they learn things, things we do well to be aware of if we want to communicate Christ to people and ways that can be effectively heard.

Death & dying. Rob Moll’s piece entitled The Art of Dying addresses a crucial question: “How should the Christian community respond when a member is told he or she has a terminal illness?”

Hate. This ol’ world is not in short supply if it. Unfortunately, it’s not in short supply among many who claim faith in Christ, either. Two posts I saw this week give additional application points to a subject I dealt with the Sunday before last (anger). They are Julie Clawson’s piece entitled Embracing Creation Theology and Rubel Shelly’s FAX of Life entitled People Who Burn the Quran.

Humor. Wish I had wrote this piece. Top Ten Signs Your Pastor Has Caught You Napping During His Sermon. You think this is funny being one who sits in the pew, you ought to read this as a preacher. Pretty funny!

Kindle. “Free” is one of my favorite words and books are one of my joys in life, so when PC World clues me in on how to Find Free and Discounted Kindle E-Books I couldn’t help but take notice. If you have a Kindle, eReaderIQ is a good thing to know about.

Pornography. My sermon last Sunday morning (Toward a Life Without Lust) dealt, in part, with the subject of porn. Jonathan Stormented’s post Cruciform Sex is good stuff along this same line.

Sabbath. Michael Hyatt’s ten minute video interview of Craig Groeschel has some good thoughts on God’s expectations for us in terms of the use of our time and the application of the Sabbath today. If you’re just too busy for ten minutes (well then, you really need this lesson on the Sabbath!), skip to the 6:30 minute mark of the video and go from there. We study the fourth of the Ten Commandments (“keep the Sabbath holy“) in most of our adult Bible classes tomorrow at MoSt Church. And there’s a superb, brief excerpt entitled Busyness from one of Eugene Peterson’s first books, Working the Angles, a classic on ministry.