The UmBlog

slip the headphones in your ears and settle back to listen to your ePhod , like the iPod but not one

a passage i'll be teaching on soon This last Sunday I faced a fairly simple and straightforward passage: 1 Peter 3:8-12. It is a call to grace filled relationship: humility, unity, brotherly love, and the like. It is a call not to take revenge. It is an application of Psalm 34 and the pursuit of life. How does the Gospel fit into this? How can people see the Savior with faith and apply his work to their own lives? God gave us grace to see this as we discussed the passage. The general pattern would be to preach an outline, to define each idea as clearly as possible, to illustrate it clearly. The goal would be people walking away with a clearer understanding of their duties. But is that what Peter had in mind? Here is what we found: The cross is the center of the passage -- starting in 2:13 and going through 4:6. The Savior's sacrifice is there twice (2:21-24 and 3:18). We asked: How is Peter reflecting on the cross here? The passage is about r...

regarding post modern evangelism And that brings me to my second observation -- whatever thinking we may do about how modernity has shaped our theological categories -- we must have the humility to recognize that the first centuries of the church were in non-modern culture. And in the midst of that culture, the Christians and their pastors made the truth so clear that they were martyred for the faith. A commitment to theological vagueness is a dishonor to those whose clarity brought their death. And if we travel to places in the world where our Western modern world-view is utterly foreign (let's go to the heart of Hinduism in India or Buddhism in Sri Lanka) -- what do we find? We find brothers and sisters hated and persecuted and put to death because they bear clear testimony to the Gospel. I get the impression from my reading that this kind of clarity is outmoded for our new day. I don't think so. Yes, we need to speak clearly and connect the dots of people's li...

i started this blog in the midst of the battle for Terri Schiavo's life in march 2005. in 22 months i've managed to produce 1000 posts, almost 2 per day, although i don't post daily. if there's nothing to say or something better to do, i won't post. i've had over 7000 hits since i added my hit counter in Nov. 2005. technorati ranks me in the 60,000th range. my tagging on the earlier posts are pretty weak but the tags show my priorities in blogging... church persecution India African-American emerging church abortion homosexuality house church theology politics human rights prayer Islam missions book reports and i guess these topics say something about me. but all those other topics on the side bar and in the zoom cloud add some more details. today's quote on my google home page is by George Bernard Shaw, "The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time." my high school english teach told u...

and is graciously received .

Avoid the dangers of Scientology according to this writer's personal experience and research...

Eric reports that Beth observed"doesn't it seem like americans are politically active when it concerns issues of sexuality but politically passive when it concerns issues of freedom?"

the internet monk picks on hyper-calvinism

HT i forgot....sorry, but thanks to the ESV blog

now our church has a blog ... my pastor does too...so does the youth pastor and the youth group . we have a radio station too that has live streams

at the Glocal Trekker blog by a mega-pastor Bob Roberts, Jr. Where faith has exploded, it has never been because of the multiplication of mega-churches, but of smaller churches from 50 to 200. This happened in the early church, Europe, American history, and now it is happening in Asia. Nothing wrong with a mega-church if that’s what God has for a church. NorthWood is a mega-church, BUT to not know history is to make some major mistakes. Second, they don’t understand the nature of movements. Movements are personal and viral. Where movements have emerged, it hasn’t been because of the large, but because of the small. There is a difference between a fad and a movement. A fad is a short-lived growth spurt based on mass hype and enthusiasm. A movement is a long-term growing tsunami gathering every drop of water that will change the landscape of everyone and thing it touches. So . . . I’m at a conference called Faith Forward at the Crystal Cathedral and I meet this young pastor David Philli...

John Armstrong found an important quote recently. I admit the statement struck me immediately with a sense that I needed to reflect on it further. I thought about it for some time today and then took down my dictionary to think about it more deeply. The words I refer to are those of founding American father Alexander Hamilton, who created our central treasury, and in some ways gave to us the concept of a central federal government that developed after the Civil War. Hamilton is not, by any stretch of imagination, my favorite founder. But here is his quote that stopped me in my tracks today: "A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one." Disgrace? The word means a loss of favor or a downfall from a position of respect. It also refers to a cause of reproach or a thing or person involving dishonor. So, if I read Alexander Hamilton correctly, he is saying a nation that prefers to become a reproach, or to be deliberately deceived, or ...

a first person account of the work of the International Justice Mission who tries to rescue children from sex markets.... The theology I learned at seminary in the northwest suburbs of Chicago didn’t seem to add up to much in South Asia sitting across from a little girl moments before she was raped. I would have long since conveniently buried this experience beneath a mountain of rationalizations if I hadn’t looked deep into the vacant eyes of a 12-year-old sex slave and vowed never to forget. Her expression cannot be purged from memory and sometimes my mind plays tricks by imposing her face on some little girl walking in the mall or playing at the park. Returning to my past world of ignorance would relieve my grief but I can’t go back, it no longer exists. There are some details about my rude awakening in South Asia that I cannot relate to you. I traveled with a small band of highly trained professionals from International Justice Mission, which covertly deploys operatives around the...

from CNN She was sold to a brothel by her parents when she was 5. It is not known how much her family got for Srey, but other girls talk of being sold for $100; one was sold for $10. Before she was rescued, Srey endured months of abuse at the hands of pimps and sex tourists... Srey was rescued from the life of a sex slave by Somaly Mam, a former prostitute who runs shelters for the victims of Cambodia's sex trade. Somaly has rescued 53 children, so far. Many of them have profound psychological trauma. Some clearly are mentally ill... One girl at Somaly's shelter appears especially disturbed. She was rescued after being imprisoned for two years in a cage, where she was repeatedly raped. She needs psychiatric care, but there is none available. Somaly says she does her best to give this girl love and support, but that it's not easy with so many other needy children around... Asked what the future holds for Srey, Somaly stroked the girl's hair and paused. Srey is HIV-positi...

i'm reading through the Bible in 90 days. i'm finishing judges today. i've learned alot about Bible geography this month. keeping everything close together in time as i read it has enabled me to keep things in context in my head, including where all sorts of places are. some places aren't on my back of the book maps so i tried the Bible map site today. it's not great, but its not bad either. thanks to Boundless for the link.

from bosnews a former Hindu died in the neighboring state of Madhya Pradesh as he was allegedly thrown off a train by militants of the Bajrang Dal. Bansi Lal, 18, died of his injuries January 12, three days after the incident, AsiaNews agency reported. Police officials said initially that the incident in Devas district appeared to be a "case of suicide" but local Christians said too his death was the "latest example of religious persecution by Hindu extremists." The young man converted to Christianity from Hinduism two and half years ago and had reportedly been threatened ever since as even his family did not approve of his decision.

article summary at Crossroads . it seems that the large Islamic presence is really good for the church in Nigeria.

i found out today an article i linked to was quoting a racist, and even if he makes a good point, unless he's repentant, i don't want to white wash his racist past...

absolutely hilarious and tragic from Worldmag blog The letter "X" may soon be banned from Saudi Arabia after the country's Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice ruled against Amru Mohammad Faisal, a Saudi businessman who asked to trademark the English name "Explorer" for a service he was providing. The commission nixed the name because religious experts deemed the letter "X" suspiciously similar to a cross. Faisal mocked the commission in a newspaper article, wondering if they were going to ban the plus sign in mathematics, in order "to prevent filthy Christian conspiracies from infiltrating our thoughts, our beliefs, and our feelings."

the Boundless blog asks if kissing is sinfu l? my wife and i also refrained from kissing... OK, that's perhaps a needlessly inciting headline. But it does get us to focus like a laser beam on the morality of kissing someone you're not married to. The point in Scott Croft's article, published this morning on Boundless , is that kissing as typically practiced within modern dating relationships is sexual in nature, and that there's no place for sexual activity outside of marriage: God's design of sex doesn't merely include the act of sexual intercourse. It's also everything that leads up to that act, and everything on the sexual continuum is meant to end in that act. It's called foreplay, and it's a fundamental part of God's design for sex. To borrow (and embellish) an analogy from Michael Lawrence , sexual activity is like a down-hill on-ramp to a highway. It's one way, you gather momentum the second you enter it, and according to the Great E...

Boundless blog looks at the NYT's numbers on calculating 51% of women aren't married... They arrived at that number by including "women" as young as 15, women whose husbands are deployed overseas, women who are currently separated and widows. They want us to believe marriage is on the outs.

this morning, sunny, extra layers, no wind, 16F. going down hills hurt my forehead from the wind chill. my water bottle had iced up by the end of my 20 minute ride. i'm looking forward to the above 30F temps this afternoon for my ride home. why? no pain, no gain. no biking, no blood pressure lowering, no wallet fattening from no gassing up the car, no contribution to global green house gases, no quiet, no radio, no finding a dollar bill on the road, no sense of accomplishment.

Christianity Today has a book review of Reconciliation Blues with some provocative thoughts, I know many of my white friends and colleagues, both past and present, have grown irritated by the black community's incessant blabbering about race and racism and racial reconciliation. They don't understand what's left for them to do. "We have African Americans and other people of color on our staff. We listen to Tony Evans's broadcast every day. We even send our youth group into the city to do urban ministry. Can't we get on with it already? Haven't we done enough?" I can empathize. I know that black people are tired of the blabbering as well. I would love to move on. Somehow, though, on our way to racial resolution, we've gotten stuck in the rut of familiar patterns. These patterns lead us to believe we've accomplished something simply by, for example, hiring a person of color or speaking to a person of another race at church or hugging someone we...

EEaYF has a great post on Psalm 23 Psalm 23 “The Lord is my Shepherd That’s Relationship! I shall not want That’s Supply! He maketh me to lie down in green pastures That’s Rest! He leadeth me beside the still waters That’s Refreshment! He restoreth my soul That’s Healing! He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness That’s Guidance! For His name sake That’s Purpose! Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death That’s Testing! I will fear no evil That’s Protection! For Thou art with me That’s Faithfulness! Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me That’s Discipline! Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies That’s Hope! Thou annointest my head with oil That’s Consecration! My cup runneth over That’s Abundance! Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life That’s Blessing! And I will dwell in the house of the Lord That’s Security! Forever.” That’s Eternity! Face it, the Lord is CRAZY ABOUT YOU!

Guy Muse quotes from The Whole Christian', "Proceedings of the International Conference of Christian Medical Students", ed. Lee Moy Ng (London: ICCMS and Christian Medical Fellowship, 1980), p. 46. to remind us... There are the five parts of the Bible. The God of the Old Testament is a missionary God, calling one family in order to bless all the families of the earth. The Christ of the Gospels is a missionary Christ; he sent the church out to witness. The Spirit of the Acts is a missionary Spirit; he drove the church out from Jerusalem to Rome. The church of the epistles is a missionary church, a worldwide community with a worldwide vocation. The end of the Revelation is a missionary End, a countless throng from every nation. So I think we have to say the religion of the Bible is a missionary religion. The evidence is overwhelming and irrefutable. Mission cannot be regarded as a regrettable lapse from tolerance or decency. Mission cannot be regarded as the hobby of a fe...

more specifically a jail in Birmingham, written by a preacher in 1963, who was held for advocating for equal treatment for people with a tiny genetic variation resulting in darker skin pigment... I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I. compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid. Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of d...

The Post Modern Negro writes I wonder what my prayers would look like if an Evangelical Protestant like myself was allowed to pray to canonized saints. I wonder what my prayers would look like if they were addressing slain prophet Martin Luther King Jr.. What would we talk about? Of course…good Pentecostal that I am I would expect two-way communication. I would expect a response from the person I am addressing. But if I could pray to St. Martin what would the conversation be like? Although I do not believe in praying to saints (no disrespect to my Catholic brothers and sisters) I wonder what a prayer session with St. Martin would be like. Can you imagine that? This weekend on the eve of observing Dr. King’s b’day I will be hosting three prayer sessions with Saint Martin. Each day I will begin with an opening petition. I will begin tomorrow. What will he say to me? day 1 has begun

just stop and think is not unlike those nooma videos...a guy walking around (with a surfboard) and talking about God. unfortunately, you only have to look for nooma on you tube and you'll see alot of knockoffs. rob bell had a good idea and everyone jumps on the bandwagon. high production. good message. but it's time for the parodies. they are on you tube also. in the world of the new media, ideas get old too quick. as for just stop and think, it also comes with alot of resources on other religions. good stuff

from the point n astute reader noted that a Darwinist proponent would respond with their standard mantra, "absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence,” while holding that, in regards to God, “absence of evidence IS evidence of absence.” He’s quite right, as I’ve found in a number of dialogues with materialists. When I point out their little double standard the fun begins.

Jim Hamilton gives a wonderfully gentle critique of NTW. here is a snippet When I read Paul’s letters, it sure sounds like he’s dealing with legalism. Correct. Wright likes to set statements that Paul makes in the wider context of the whole story of the Bible. This wider story often controls Wright’s interpretation of Paul’s words—to the exclusion of the words themselves. Okay, so if Paul isn’t confronting works based righteousness, what is he confronting? In Wright’s system, justification isn’t about “getting in” or “becoming a Christian.” Instead, justification is about being identified with the community God is going to vindicate when the final verdict is handed down. So the important point is not an individual conversion experience but participation in the community God is going to justify. So in Wright’s view, the “works” that Paul is opposing are not things people do to earn God’s favor, they are things people do to be part of the community. For Wright, circumcision in Galati...

amazing story at the Breakpoint blog Cosmopolitan , Redbook , Glamour -- what kind of articles do you expect from those magazines? The usual answer would be "the kind from which you want to shield your child's eyes at the grocery checkout line." And "'feminist' rantings about sexual empowerment in any and every form -- and line of work." Well, Glamour started the year with an unexpected gem about redemption and restoration -- and changing the culture (H/T Thunderstruck ). An article about Harmony Dust tells her story from abused child to stripper to a redeemed life in which she now runs Treasures Out of Darkness to reach out to women caught in the stripping industry. (Warning: an instance of profanity, descriptions of stripping.) And rather than praising stripping as an "empowering" alternative for women "in charge of their bodies," Glamour presents the "industry" as Harmony sees it, which is exactly as it is: a "...

two questions of Mr. Chavez. do you read communist history? do you care how many lives are sacrificed before failure is acknowledged? here's a brief article at the Acton Institute

from Compass Direct MUMBAI, India, January 10 (Compass Direct News) – Seven youths beat Pastor Robert Kennedy of Bangalore in Karnataka state on Sunday (January 7), after asking him to “pray for a sick friend.” The pastor required 16 stitches to his head and back after the assault. In neighboring Andhra Pradesh state, Hindu extremists beat two pastors on January 6 and 7, and another on December 28, after warning them to cease Christian activities in their villages. Pastor Kennedy and the small congregation of Jesus Preeti Church had gathered for worship for about and hour on Sunday morning when seven young men entered the house church and sat down. They talked among themselves, and one of them made calls on his mobile phone as Kennedy preached. At about 12:30 p.m., when the service had ended and the believers had left, the youths approached Kennedy and asked him to accompany them to the home of a sick friend who needed prayer. Since the house was supposedly nearby, Kennedy asked some o...

a friend and reader who works in the HVAC industry directed me to the ancient Roman radiant floor heating method, the hypocaust

another Northern European invention. closed loop warm air circulation in a concrete floor, Legalett . i had written about another system earlier , but it was a warm air system that circulated in the floor before blowing out of registers into the room.

Joe Carter reports In a remarkable medical breakthrough , scientists from Harvard and Wake Forest report that they have discovered a new source of stems cells that have the ability to create muscle, bone, fat, blood vessel, nerve, and liver cells in the laboratory. These newly discovered stem cells, which they have named amniotic fluid-derived stem (AFS) cells, may represent an intermediate stage--“halfway houses”--between embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. The research, which has been ongoing for the past seven years, was reported in yesterday’s Nature Biotechnology .... ESC: [embryonic] Requires destruction of a human embryo to obtain cells. AFS: [amniotic] Obtaining cells is ethically unproblematic. ESC: If genetic matches for transplantation could be obtained at all, it would come from the creation and destruction of cloned human embryos. AFS: Genetic matches for transplantation can be obtained from discarded placentas. ESC: Therapeutic uses impeded because they ar...

Living Stream is another aberrant off-shoot of Christianity and tries to establish itself through the court system. Living Stream Ministry and the "local churches" (also known as The Lord's Recovery), both founded by the late Witness Lee, have been involved for decades in legal and theological controversies with noted Christian institutions and leaders. In light of this history of litigation and conflict, we the undersigned make this public appeal. Because the following statements by Witness Lee appear to contradict or compromise essential doctrines of the Christian faith, we respectfully call on the leadership of Living Stream Ministry and the "local churches" to disavow and cease to publish these and similar declarations: If the leadership of Living Stream Ministry and the "local churches" regard evangelical Christians as fellow believers, we request that they publicly reno...

it's still at the concept stage ... Introduced at the North American International Auto Show here, the Chevrolet Volt will draw power exclusively from a next-generation battery pack recharged by a small onboard engine -- if the technology is ready in two or three years. "We have a thoroughly studied concept, but further battery development will define the critical path to start of production," said Jon Lauckner, a GM vice president for product development. The Volt is designed to run for 40 miles on pure electric power, making it marketable for everyday family use. For the average American driver who drives 40 miles a day, or 15,000 miles a year, the Volt will require no fuel and lead to an annual savings of 500 gallons of gasoline, GM said. Unlike current gas-electric hybrids, which use a parallel system twinning battery power and a combustion engine, the Volt will be driven entirely by electric power. GM has some bad history to atone for with electric cars. the questio...

The Color of Paradise is an Iranian movie with subtitles. It's about the blind son of a widower. The father's village culture can't "see" past the disability, so he must hide his son in order to get married again. but who is the blind one? deep and hard questions are asked about God. its the problem of evil. it is powerful. i love these middle eastern movies . it is so refreshing to look at the world without American lenses on.

a horrific story from 20/20 about domestic violence and the years long spiral of abuse and the last straw till she escaped. the worst part is the video the father insisted the son film while he abused her for an hour, which she eventually used in his criminal case, which ended up in his sentence of 36 years. her co-workers heard her call him "master" on the phone. 1 peter 3 refers to this practice of Sarah, but what is the context? The Example of Holy Women of Old (3:5-6) Bible.org 5 For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands. 6 Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear. 93 A “gentle and quiet spirit” is totally the opposite of the spirit of the contentious wife of Proverbs (see Proverbs 21:9, 19). The spirit or disposition which underlies submission is of crucial importance. Peter t...

Guy is a missionary and he wants prayer for stuff that m's i talk to often need prayer for too. so pray for Guy, but also pray for your friends who are m's. James 5:16 exhorts us to, "confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed ..." As we begin a new year, I have many sins to confess in my life...I need to be healed...will you pray? My list includes: resentments, supressed anger, weariness, tired of the battle, longing to be elsewhere, lack of love for the people we are called to serve, laziness, spiritual dryness, passionless prayer and devotional life... I don't mean to imply that God is not at work around us and in us. He is doing many wonderful things. I am indeed grateful for what I see are clear blessings and His presence and working in our lives. But where is the joy I once knew in the Lord? Where is the passion for souls? The thrill of being one of his servants? What happened to the creativity and energy I used to h...

all about getting yourself noticed in google,

what do you want to learn ?

"We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true." Robert Wilensky

The American Daily reports “More than 10,000 Muslims accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior throughout India during the last year. The Bible Society of India publishing thousands of New Testaments for the Muslims with their own terminology and vocabulary in different Indian languages and Tazi language. “Pastor Paul Ciniraj Mohamed, the Director of the Salem Voice Ministries, is one of the key persons of the Bible translators of the Bible Society of India to reach the Gospel to the Muslims. He is in the midst of persecution. Recently also he was threatened by the extremists to count down his days along with the whole family. “In Iraq, more than 5,000 Muslim converts to Christianity have been identified since the end of major combat operations, with 14 new churches opened in Baghdad, and dozens of new churches opened in Kurdistan, some of which have 500 to 800 members. Also, more than one million Bibles shipped into the country since 2003, and pastors report Iraqis are snatching...

 we talked about this today at work church I have to admit that I have no fondness for New Year's resolutions. It has been my experience that they have two possibilities. Either I will fail to keep my resolution (perhaps not immediately, but after a time) and will therefore feel shame, or, I will discipline myself to achieve the resolution and feel a sense of pride in the accomplishment. Neither shame nor pride is a healthy state for the soul. But I have found it only takes a slightly altered attitude towards resolution-making to avoid these ends. Instead of New Year's resolutions I have experimented with crafting a list of prayers for the New Year. Thus, if I do not act in conformity to the prayers I pray--for example, if I pray to stop sinning in a particular way but take no steps to avoid the temptation--the proper response is repentance. If God answers my prayers, the proper response is thanksgiving. Both repentance and thanksgiving are healthy states for the soul...

i'm sure my vacation reading choices are abnormal and a sign of some psychological issues. Philip Short has written an excellent biography with insights into the genocidal mind of Pol Pot . Before he changed his name, after Stalin's custom, Pol Pot's name was Saloth Sar. "The Cambodian revolutionaries could care very little about Communism. It was only a means to an end. The end was the overthrow of the monarchy, personified in Prince Sihanouk. Hence, although Marx's theory was the workers would overthrow their oppressors, Cambodia had very few in the working class which the Communists couldn't rally so the revolution had to come from the peasants. Subsequently, as in most Communist thought, the refusal of reality to conform to theory meant that the workers had been wrecked, "by 1965 they decided that the factories had been 'infiltrated' and 'the workers transformed into enemy agents'. From then on, factory workers were systematically refus...

at the Glocal Trekker blog Another thing to think about. So, so much emphasis on starting a church, but the reality is that’s only a 2 to 3-year process. How does what we teach enable someone, not just to start a church, but to "complete" it? Maybe we should change the term to "church finisher" rather than "church starter!" The goal cannot be to inspire lots of people to start churches. The measure cannot be the hype, the conference, the launch, but the measure is the church ten years after it is planted. If that were the case, I promise you, it would change how most people teach and how we plant churches.

in Daniel 9 , Daniel repents of the sins of his people. 9:3 So I turned my attention to the Lord God to implore him by prayer and requests, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. 9:4 I prayed to the Lord my God, confessing in this way: “O Lord, great and awesome God who is faithful to his covenant with those who love him and keep his commandments, 9:5 we have sinned! We have done what is wrong and wicked; we have rebelled by turning away from your commandments and standards. 9:6 We have not paid attention to your servants the prophets, who spoke by your authority to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, and to all the inhabitants of the land as well. (NET) and it's always been a puzzling thing to me. how does Daniel's repentance of something he didn't do move God? but at Bible study at work (AKA work church) some griping was heard regarding unethical behavior by leaders. and i thought, stuff like this rolls downhill. if those of us lower down the food chain adopted ...

 i was wondering these things and came up with some cool links Scandinavian Homes in Ireland builds a passive house Canadians have a voluntary standard called the R-2000 home and the Envirohome one Canadian blogs about his ICF contractor issues but is coming around to a happy ending he tried to use a radiant floor product called Warmboard , which sounds interesting as its not a concrete floor, but the contractor's crew incorrectly installed it... finally, i'm intrigued by this enviroboard construction panel made out of rice and wheat waste. unfortunately, the website doesn't have enough info... surfing around turns up that other companies are doing similar  things,  agriboard , for instance. the product is the same as particle board but made from waste straw, but more expensive.