Gossip and the Gospel [Kindle Edition]
Timothy Williams (Author)
Hidden Life of Prayer [Kindle Edition]
David McIntyre (Author)
When Sinners Say "I Do" - STUDY GUIDE
Dave Harvey (Author)
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Why We Lie
Not exactly the theological angle here that I would find ultimately persuasive, yet this study is quite interesting and points to our collective brokenness.
DAN ARIELY writing for the Wall Street Journal:
DAN ARIELY writing for the Wall Street Journal:
Everybody has the capacity to be dishonest, and almost everybody cheats—just by a little. Except for a few outliers at the top and bottom, the behavior of almost everyone is driven by two opposing motivations. On the one hand, we want to benefit from cheating and get as much money and glory as possible; on the other hand, we want to view ourselves as honest, honorable people. Sadly, it is this kind of small-scale mass cheating, not the high-profile cases, that is most corrosive to society.Read the rest.
Sniffing Glue - A childhood in Christian Pop
Basically, CCM caught on to the number one rule of coolness: don’t let your marketing show. The best bands—the successful ones, at least—learned to gloss over the gospel message the same way TV producers camouflaged corporate sponsorship. Explicitly Christian lyrics prevented DC Talk from crossing over to the secular market in the ’90s; today it’s difficult to imagine their unapologetic faith making it in the Christian circuit.Read the rest.
This trend spreads beyond CCM into many areas of evangelical culture. The church is becoming increasingly consumer-friendly. Jacob Hill, director of “worship arts” at New Walk Church, describes the Sunday service music as “exciting, loud, powerful, and relevant,” and boasts that “a lot of people say they feel like they’ve just been at a rock concert.” Over the past ten years, I’ve visited churches that have Starbucks kiosks in the foyer and youth wings decked out with air hockey tables. I’ve witnessed a preacher stop his sermon to play a five-minute clip from Billy Madison. I’ve walked into a sanctuary that was blasting the Black Eyed Peas’s “Let’s Get it Started” to get the congregation pumped for the morning’s message, which was on joy. I have heard a pastor say, from a pulpit, “Hey, I’m not here to preach at anyone.” And yet, in spite of these efforts, churches are retaining only 4 percent of the young people raised in their congregations.
Despite all the affected teenage rebellion, I continued to call myself a Christian into my early twenties. When I finally stopped, it wasn’t because being a believer made me uncool or outdated or freakish. It was because being a Christian no longer meant anything. It was a label to slap on my Facebook page, next to my music preferences. The gospel became just another product someone was trying to sell me, and a paltry one at that because the church isn’t Viacom: it doesn’t have a Department of Brand Strategy and Planning. Staying relevant in late consumer capitalism requires highly sophisticated resources and the willingness to tailor your values to whatever your audience wants. In trying to compete in this market, the church has forfeited the one advantage it had in the game to attract disillusioned youth: authenticity. When it comes to intransigent values, the profit-driven world has zilch to offer. If Christian leaders weren’t so ashamed of those unvarnished values, they might have something more attractive than anything on today’s bleak moral market. In the meantime, they’ve lost one more kid to the competition.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Why Facebook Removed Photos of a Baby
Karen Swallow Prior:
We can't stand to face our mortality.
When Time’s July 2010 cover featured a portrait of a disfigured 18-year-old Afghan woman whose nose and ears had been cut off by her Taliban husband, the magazine was awarded the World Press Photo organization's 2010 Photo of the Year.Read the rest.
When Heather Walker posted pictures of her newborn anencephalic son, Grayson, on Facebook, the web site took the photos down and temporarily disabled her account.
We can't stand to face our mortality.
One Downside of the Internet
And one huge upside to Christian community.
The Daily Stat:
The Daily Stat:
Between 1985 and 2005, the number of Americans who said they definitely felt satisfied with the way their lives were going dropped by about 30%, and the ranks of the most dissatisfied rose by nearly 50%, according to a study involving thousands of people by Chris M. Herbst of Arizona State. The reasons appear to be related to Americans' declining attachments to friends and family, lower participation in social and civic activities, and diminished trust in political institutions, Herbst says. The only good news: The rate of decline in satisfaction appears to have slowed during that two-decade period.
Faithful is the New Radical
Daniel Darling:
If there is anything that marks my generation of leaders, it’s the desire to be “radical”—to violently overthrow old paradigms. We want to shake up the status quo in the church, in government, in business, in philanthropy. And this is good.His three points:
By and large millennial Christians want offer lives in service to God and others by offering new and creative solutions. This is good.
But if I could speak a word of caution, from one rabble-rouser to another, I would say that sometimes the most radical thing you can do with your life is to simply be faithful.
Yes, you heard that right. By consistently doing the same thing every single day you might be more radical than you think. I know that doesn’t sound very sexy, but it’s the stuff that gives weight to significant social movements.
- Your Personal Peace.
- Your Personal Presence.
- Your Pleasant Personality.
Talented quitters are a dime a dozen, but people with marginal talent who commit to hard work in the day-to-day grind always stand out as radical.Read the rest.
On The "Dark Night of the Soul"
Steve Brandon:
(HT: Chris Brauns)
Most Christians, as I can tell, go through a crisis of faith in their lives. By this, I simply mean a time in which they really question the reality of God or of His working in their lives. Sometimes it occurs when people are in their teens. At other times it occurs later in life. The result of these times is either an abandoning of the faith or a strengthened resolve to the realities of the faith.Read the rest.
The Biblical writers are no strangers to such feelings. More than a dozen times, we read the Psalmists expressing their doubts to the Lord saying, “How long?” (For example: Psalm 13:1, 2; 79:5; 94:3). Asaph chronicles his life by saying, “My feet came close to stumbling. My steps had almost slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (Psalm 73:2-3). Habakkuk said, “How long, O LORD, will I call for help and you will not hear?” (Habakkuk 1:2). Job said, “I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer me. I stand up, and you turn Your attention against me” (Job 30:20).
And yet . . .
(HT: Chris Brauns)
The Demise of Guys: How video games and porn are ruining a generation
CNN:
(HT: T-Wax)
Is the overuse of video games and pervasiveness of online porn causing the demise of guys?Read the rest.
Increasingly, researchers say yes, as young men become hooked on arousal, sacrificing their schoolwork and relationships in the pursuit of getting a tech-based buzz.
Every compulsive gambler, alcoholic or drug addict will tell you that they want increasingly more of a game or drink or drug in order to get the same quality of buzz.
Video game and porn addictions are different. They are "arousal addictions," where the attraction is in the novelty, the variety or the surprise factor of the content. Sameness is soon habituated; newness heightens excitement. In traditional drug arousal, conversely, addicts want more of the same cocaine or heroin or favorite food.
The consequences could be dramatic: The excessive use of video games and online porn in pursuit of the next thing is creating a generation of risk-averse guys who are unable (and unwilling) to navigate the complexities and risks inherent to real-life relationships, school and employment.
(HT: T-Wax)
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Onetime top California football prospect Brian Banks exonerated of kidnap-rape conviction
The NY Daily News:
The kidnap-rape conviction of a once-promising prep football star was dismissed Thursday following a recantation by his accuser.MARANATHA.
Brian Banks collapsed in sobs on the counsel table during a court hearing where a prosecutor quickly conceded the decade-old case and moved for the dismissal.
In the summer of 2002, Banks’ future looked bright: He was a 17-year-old high school football star being heavily recruited by a number of colleges. But in a single day that changed with the accusations of kidnapping and rape by a female student.
He maintained there was no rape and their sexual contact was consensual, but his lawyer urged him to plead no contest rather than risk a sentence of 41 years to life in prison if convicted. He followed the advice and went to prison for six years, shattering his dreams of gridiron glory.
Lawyers for the California Innocence Project were prepared Thursday to argue he should be exonerated.
In a strange turn of events, the woman who accused him a decade ago friended him on Facebook when he got out of prison. Wanetta Gibson explained she wanted to “let bygones be bygones.”
According to documents in the case, she met with Banks and said she had lied; there had been was no kidnap and no rape and she offered to help him clear his record.
But she subsequently refused to repeat the story to prosecutors because she feared she would have to return a $1.5 million payment from a civil suit brought by her mother against Long Beach schools.
She was quoted as telling Banks: “I will go through with helping you but it’s like at the same time all that money they gave us, I mean gave me, I don’t want to have to pay it back.”
Justin Brooks, a lawyer who heads the innocence project, said that Banks has remained on probation, under electronic monitoring, has had to register as a sex offender and has had trouble getting a job.
He said Banks continues to train for what he hopes will be a future chance at a football career.
Mommy Wars
DG Blog:
Two mothers woke up and opened their Bibles to pray, one a perfect mother and the other a not-so-perfect mother.Read the rest.
The perfect mother prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am Mom enough, not like other mothers who have no clue what they’re doing, or even like those whose children disobey and don’t achieve as much as mine do.
But the not-so-perfect mother prayed, ‘God, help me, a grace-dependent mother whose faith is so small but whose God is so great!
Don't Sweat The "Culture Warrior" Tag When it Comes To Abortion
Owen Strachan:
I am glad to contend for the pro-life cause in a reasoned, rational way. But I am not willing to lay down this fight because someone brands me a “warrior” because of it. God’s glory is in this fight. We may never win it, or we may. But it is worth our time and effort. If we abandoned abortion as a first-order issue to focus on other issues of less import, we would not be seeing the gains we are currently witnessing.Read the rest.
So, young evangelicals: do not believe the “fetus fatigue” language. Do not pass on an issue because it’s controversial and people won’t like you because of it. Do not cease to contend for the unborn, whether through calm conversation in the lunchroom or advocacy in the nation’s capitol. Never make the mistake of thinking that this cause is the kingdom, or that the state is the church. Don’t make the further mistake of writing everyone off who came before you simply because the media branded them with the “culture warrior” tag.
With a proper perspective of this issue, keep fighting and praying for the day when Roe v. Wade is struck from the books.
Cheap eBook Alert
The Insulted and Injured
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Kindle Price: $2.99
Luke: The Gospel of Amazement
Michael Card
Kindle Price: $2.99
Real Riches
Nathan Busenitz:
Money can’t buy happiness.Read the rest.
That simple fact has been clearly demonstrated time after time. Remember King Solomon? He had more money than he could possibly spend, but by the end of his life, he came to realize it was all vanity. In Ecclesiastes 5:10, he said, “Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless.”
Other wealthy men throughout history have agreed with Solomon’s conclusion. It was Andrew Carnegie who reportedly said, “Millionaires seldom smile. Millionaires who laugh are rare. My experience is that wealth is apt to take the smiles away.” William Vanderbilt’s comment was this: “The care of 200 million dollars is too great a load for any brain or back to bear. It is enough to kill anyone. There is no pleasure in it.” And Henry Ford concluded, “I was happier when doing a mechanic’s job.”
Even John D. Rockefeller couldn’t find happiness in the millions he amassed. When he was asked, “How much is enough?” he answered, “Just a little bit more.” Toward the end of his life, he said, “I have made many millions, but they have brought me no happiness. I would barter them all for the days I sat on an office stool in Cleveland and counted myself rich on three dollars a week.” And when his accountant was asked, “How much did John D. leave after he died?” The accountant’s reply was classic: “He left all of it.”
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Juggling While Doing an Triathlon
My question is "why"? But I guess you could say that same thing about doing a triathlon in general.
(HT: 22 Words)
(HT: 22 Words)
Catacombs and Cathedrals
Russell Moore:
As you’re reading this, I’m in Italy leading a Southern Seminary study tour through Rome. In the past two days, I’ve spent time praying in Saint John Lateran Cathedral here, and in the ruins of the ancient Christian catacombs. It struck me that we Christians sometimes forget the paradoxical grace of God in giving us a legacy of both cathedrals and catacombs.Read the rest.
The catacombs, of course, are the legacy of a tiny persecuted band of believers, meeting in their graveyards to escape the all-seeing eye of imperial Rome. The cathedrals represent a very different turn in church history: a church that not only could grow in size but could, in fact, outgrow and outlast the Empire itself. The catacombs represent simplicity and earthiness; the cathedrals transcendence and wonder.
We need both, somehow.
Cheap eBook Alert
More than Desire: Hope for Women in the Shadows of Pornography
Author(s): Ashley Weis
Price: $0.99
Description:
Every woman I have ever met has been burned by the desire to be good enough. And I’ve met many, many women who struggle to believe they are beautiful because their husband’s or boyfriend’s pornography addiction. After I discovered my husband’s pornography addiction, I blogged about the healing process we went through together. I was stunned by the number of women who contacted me, struggling to find their worth in the aftermath of porn crashing through the door of their marriages.
The porn industry is a billion dollar industry. It’s everywhere. And it’s affecting marriages across the globe. I thought I would have found helpful, relevant resources to aid me in healing from the damage porn caused to our marriage, but most resources said the same things over and over: “Don’t look to men for validation; look to God.” I knew that, but I wanted something deeper, something that reached into the heart of the woman healing from the pain of her husband’s porn addiction.
In More than Desire: Hope for Women in the Shadows of Pornography, I dig deeper to help women discover why their husband’s porn struggle hurts so much, how porn destroys lives, and how they can actually find hope and healing for their own hearts and their relationships.
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