Crapture

Here's another idea whose time has not yet come. As if the novels weren't trashy enough, now someone (the folks at Left Behind Games apparently) thinks that a video game based on the books is a good idea. I'm almost certain they gotta be wrong.

Brews for Jesus

I know the Sunday morning commute to church from Bend, OR, to San Diego, CA, is gonna be a killer but I can't pass up attending a church where "Beer is one of our core values."

Benny Hinn Is a Big Fat Con Artist

I hate televangelists in general and Benny Hinn in particular. He fakes healings. He bilks people out of their money. He lives a lavish and outrageous lifestyle. His theology stinks. And if he really can heal people (and he can't) how come he can't heal his own dumbass hair? Worst of all, he does it all in the name of Jesus.

Here are a few of the documented excesses of this weaselly sleazeball:

1. Hinn's salary is upwards of one million a year
2. He owns a $10 million dollar mansion (bought by the ministry).
3. He has a Gulfstream jet with $1.5 million in annual maintenance costs.
3. Two Mercedes valued at $80,000 each
4. Expenses for layovers between Crusades at locations such as Hawaii and Milan costing from $900 to almost $3,000 for one night. 5. Receipts showed that Hinn received $25,000 in petty cash for a Crusade that was 30 minutes from his home.
6. Other receipts showing his daughter received $1,300 in petty cash and her boyfriend getting $2,550 for babysitting.

Here's a story from the BBC that details some recent outrageous behavior that has gotten Hinn in a Nigerian money row.

If you want to know more about Hinn, check out this article from the folks at MinistryWatch.com.

Quote Worthy

I have always admired the ability of others to express an idea in uniquely understandable ways. So, like it or not, I've decided to share some of my favorite quotes with you over the next few weeks.

This first is from an unknown source. It was on a sticker I found in a novelty shop a few years ago and it's been on my Nalgene bottle ever since. It has generated more than a few comments - some less than favorable. I realize that, to some, it borders on the sacriligeous but when you really stop to think about it, it is exactly true.

Jesus loves you, but I'm his favorite.

We Love White Kids. And Only White Kids!

As usual, we Americans went nuts this week over a young Boy Scout lost in the woods AND we're obsessed about a high school girl who has turned up missing in Aruba. But gee, how come no one seems all that interested in the three boys found dead in the trunk of a car today? Hmmm . . . I wonder why? Oh wait! I know! The Boy Scout and the girl missing in Aruba are white and the three little boys, well, they're only Latinos.

On The Rocks Is Right!

Dang! I wish this weren't true. I love sitting in my big easy chair, reading a good book and sipping my single malt scotch! (And for those of you who might want to criticize my choice of an alcoholic beverage over a warm cup of tea, let me just say, "Yes, I am certain this is what Jesus would do!")

The Rock That Doesn't Roll

Larry Norman is the granddaddy of Christian Rock and Roll. After becoming a Christian in 1973, I discovered that his music was not only tolerable but (amazingly for Christian music at the time), actually dang good. I loved songs like, I Wish We'd All Been Ready and The Rock That Doesn't Roll. It was Christian Rock & Roll in a time when those in the Christian music business didn't have clue one about what it should look or sound like.

It turns out that Larry Norman is playing his last concert ever tonight in Salem, Oregon. That's his current (and my former) hometown. I wish I had found out before just a few minutes ago cuz I woulda been there! I guess I'll just have to settle for this article and interview in the Salem Statesman Journal.

Historical Jesus

From Lee Strobel's interview with Dr. Craig Blomberg in The Case for Christ

". . .perhaps the most important creed in terms of the historical Jesus is I Cornithians 15, where Paul uses technical language to indicate he was passing along this oral tradition in relatively fixed form"

Blomberg located the passage in his Bible and read it to me.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. The he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

"And here's the point," Blomberg said. "If the Crucifixion was as early as A.D. 30, Paul's conversion was about 32. Immediately Paul was ushered into Damascus, where he met with a Christian named Ananias and some other disciples. His first meeting with the apostles in Jerusalem would have been about A.D. 35. At some point along there, Paul was given this creed, which had already been formulated and was being used in the early church.

"Now, here you have the key facts about Jesus' death for our sins, plus a detailed list of those whom he appeared in resurrected form - all dating back to within two to five years of the events themselves!

"That's not later mythology from forty or more years down the road . . . A good case can be made for saying that Christian belief in the Resurrection, though not yet written down, can be dated to within two years of that very event."

I am forever a skeptic. I never believe anyone. Okay, I usually don't believe anyone. And, when it comes to ancient history - especially religious history - that is especially suspect. However, the more I read and listen about the life of Jesus, the more reliable it all seems. I am impressed that while theologians have argued the validity of various aspects of Christ's life and ministry, almost all agree that the Resurrection must have happened. Maybe scripture is more reliable than we think . . .

Makes Jacko Look Tame

Being a former Mormon, I feel safe in making this statement: As if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints wasn't weird enough, check out their weirdo stepchild, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Jon Krakauer's book, Under the Banner of Heaven is a revealing and great read about both churches.)

Now comes news that Warren Jeffs, the head of the FLDS church is systematically weeding out competition for plural wives by banishing hundreds of teenage boys from their insulated communities on the southern Utah / northern Arizona border.

Old geezers preying on innocent young girls in the name of God. Is this a great country or what?

Where Am I Going?

From Annie Dillard's book, For The Time Being . . .

In Highland New Guinea, no Papua New Guinea, a British district officer named James Taylor contacted a mountain village, above three thousand feet, whose tribe had never seen any trace of the outside world. It was the 1930s. He described the courage of one villager. One day, on the airstrip hacked from the mountains near his village, this man cut vines and lashed himself to the fuselage of Taylor's airplane shortly before it took off. He explained calmly to his loved ones that, no matter what happened to him, he had to see where it came from.

When it comes to knowing God, how courageous am I? To be honest: not very. I love the idea of living boldly for God; of spending the bulk of my waking hours exploring every facet of my relationship with him. But, I don't. I let pretty much anything - comic books, reality TV shows, coffee, beer, work and many more things trivial and somewhat important - get in the way. Why can't I be courageous enough to lash myself to God's plane to see where it came from - and where it's going?

Flaming Fire Illustrated Bible

Here's a unique idea: The Flaming Fire Illustrated Bible. These folks are working to illustrate every single individual verse in the Bible. Check out their progress so far . . .

Idiot

Here's something fun - or maybe not. It's a "quick and dirty IQ test" from the folks at Blogthings. And, in the interest of full disclosure, here are my own results . . .

Your IQ Is 125

Your Logical Intelligence is Exceptional Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Exceptional Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Can I Live?

Drumline is a favorite movie at our house. It's star, Nick Cannon, has a new song out with a definite pro-life message. Regardless of how you feel about this issue, the video is worth checking out!

Is God Out Of The Loop?

From Annie Dillard's For The Time Being . . .

God is no more blinding people with glaucoma, or testing them with diabetes, or purifying them with spinal pain, or fiddling with chromosomes, than he is jimmying floodwaters or pitching tornadoes at towns. God is no more cogitating which among us he plans to place here as bird-headed dwarfs or elephant men - or to kill by AIDS or kidney failure, heart disease, childhood leukemia, or sudden infant death syndrome - than he is pitching lightning bolts at pedestrians, triggering rock slides, or setting fires. The very least likely things for which God might be responsible are what insurers call "acts of God."

Then what, if anything, does he do? If God does not cause everything that happens, does God cause anything that happens? Is God completely out of the loop?

. . . Nature works out its complexities. God suffers the world's necessities along with us, and suffers our turning away, and joins us in exile. Christians might add that Christ hangs, as it were, on the cross forever, always incarnate, and always nailed.

I got nothin' to add . . .

Betcha Can't Eat Just One . . .

. . . Lays potato chip with an image of Jesus on it!

W.D.J.D.O?

What did Jesus did Jesus die of? It may not have been due to a loss of blood, as is commonly thought. Israeli researcher Benjamin Brenner, says it's more likely Jesus died from a blood clot.

A Reuters article available from MSNBC says, "pulmonary embolisms, leading to sudden death, can stem from immobilization, multiple trauma and dehydration."

"This fits well with Jesus’ condition and actually was in all likelihood the major cause of death by crucifixion," according to an article by Brenner that is "based on religious and medical texts."

Ultrasound 'Baby Jesus'

I can't wait to see the shrine that gets built around the Ultrasound 'baby Jesus'!

Maybe It Was Gay Pride Week

A church in Kentucky has experienced something kinda unusual. During a worship service on May 22nd, a rainbow appeared on the ceiling. What made it even weirder is that it remained even after closing blinds and turning off the lights. Was it a sign from God? Or something else?

Know Your Bible!

I'm a devoted David Letterman fan. Obviously that means I can't be a Jay Leno fan. However, I think this JayWalking clip is kinda funny. It definitely helps illustrate the lack of basic Bible knowledge out there in the real world.

via Challies Dot Com

Feeling Small?

From Annie Dillard's For The Time Being . . .

One-tenth of the land on earth is tundra. At any time it is raining on only 3 percent of the planet's surface. Lightning strikes the planet about one hundred times every second. For ever one of us living people, including every newborn at the moment it appears, there are roughly one thousand pounds of living termites. Our chickens outnumber us four to one.

One-fifth of us are Muslims. One-fifth of us live in China. Almost one-tenth of us live in range of an active or temporarily dormant volcano. More than 3 percent of us are mentally retarded. We humans love tea; we drink more than a billion cups a day. Among us we speak ten thousand languages.

A hundred million of us are children who live on the streets. A hundred twenty million live in countries where we were not born. Twenty-three million of us are refugees. Sixteen million of us live in Cairo. Twelve million fish for a living from small boats. Seven and a half million of us are Uygurs. One million of us crew on freezer trawlers. Two thousand of us a day commit suicide.

HEAD-SPINNING NUMBERS CAUSE MIND TO GO SLACK, the Hartford Courant says. But our minds must not go slack. How can we think straight if our minds go slack? We agree that we want to think straight.

Anyone's close world of family and friends comprises a group smaller than almost all sampling errors, smaller than almost all rounding errors, an invisible group at whose loss the world will not blink.

In the sampling error that is my world something significant is happening this week. Our youngest child, Jeremy, is graduating from high school. This is a time filled with celebration, a strong sense of accomplishment, relief, a little anxiety about the future, a fair amount of excitement about the adventure ahead and, well, lots of memories that are likely to stir a fair amount of emotion. Our little rounding error has grown up to be an outstanding young man - and not at all round, by the way.

For those of you who have children (or can remember this far back into your own childhood), do you remember the first day of school? This week I reflected on our oldest kid's first day as she headed off to school. (Okay, we took her and dropped her off but it was momentous, nonetheless.) It all came flooding back to me yesterday morning as Jeremy headed out the door for his last day of school. Our last child. His last day. Some twenty years have passed between that first day and the last one and a lot has happened in between.

I don't know about you, but it is this kind of thing that helps me to see the hand of God in my life. And by the way, speaking of which - thanks God!