Understanding Revelation in Five Minutes or Less

 

Wednesday Link List

Regular readers will know this already, but I’ve never quite come out and said it: I find it somewhat snobbish when bloggers publish link lists where anything older than 2-3 days is considered obsolete. A true link sleuth will unearth some great material and won’t be concerned if the post is dated 30 days ago. If it was true then…

• Essay of the week: Church Planting in Montreal. A somewhat typical couple has been living together for ten years but has never gotten close to having any kind of spiritual discussion. And that’s just one challenge. The Quebecois version of Hybels’ “unchurched Harry” is quite different from “Harry” in the rest of North America. 
• Runner up: Remember that feeling when you were young and you came home from school only to find nobody home and you immediately thought everybody had been raptured?  Well, it happens to not-so-young college students, too.
  
• Okay, so that video about how to write a worship song wasn’t the first time Jordan at BlimeyCow waded into Christian music criticism. Or church camp. And different types of churches. 
• While everyone else on Sunday night was watching The Bible miniseries on History, one blogger was putting the final period on his review even as the credits rolled. I guess that way you get to say, “First!”  (The cable channel show beat all the big networks in the ratings.)
  
• If you know people whose Christian faith is characterized by what they are against, may I suggest you copy and paste this article and email it to them.
  
• For people who don’t know how to use a “table of contents” in a book, The Alpha Bible presents the Bible books in… well you know.
• Given the success of The Book of Mormon, a Broadway production by The Foursquare Church denomination on the life of Aimee Semple McPherson probably seemed like a good idea at the time. 
• The idea of gospel tracts probably seems somewhat archaic to most readers here, but the concision of these short presentations actual suits present attention spans. Now 31 Good News tracts are available on audio.  
• Matt Hafer comes out of church leadership hibernation with five ways for pastors to tell if people are truly on board.
• I know I often link you over to Christianity 201, but I really want you all, if nothing else, to catch this video.
  
• In some ways connected to a link we had here last week, a Christianity Today women’s blog suggests a little bit of Christianese is OK.
  
• As someone whose entire wardrobe was purchased at Goodwill and Salvation Army stores, this is scary: Pat Robertson allows the possibility that those shirts and sweaters could have demonic spirits attached. (That’s why Pat buys professionally tailored suits, I guess.)
• Once we know the name of the new Pope, the new Pope has to choose a name. Past Pope picks included these. (You remember Pope Urban, right?) 
• How is it possible that this great song by the Wheaton College Gospel Choir has had less than 2,500 views in two years?  If this don’t bring a smile to your face, your mouth is broken. Watch, copy the link and share.
• Jon Acuff finds himself in a prayer meeting with someone who gives a whole new meaning to the phrase too much information. 
• If you missed it January, Shaun Groves shares songwriting secrets for worship composers. But ultimately, “I think worship writers have parted with standard songwriting practices because they’re creating with the live experience in mind. So their priorities are much different from those of a traditional songwriter.”
  
• The people at Thomas Nelson flatly refused us a review copy of this, but I’ll be nice and tell you about it anyway. Jesus: A Theography is a new book by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola combining theology and biography with –[free review time expired]
• …Mind you, that was already better than this guy’s review. “After a while, I finally put the book down and said enough.” (When you accept a free book you do agree to finish reading it.)
  
• Remember Anne Jackson? Well she’s still kicking around, still writing, and apparently this Friday is a special day. 
• Nadia Bolz-Weber, the Lutheran with attitude, shares her struggle preparing to preach on The Parable of the Vineyard. (Open the audio link in a new tab, then click back to follow the text; the whole sermon is about ten minutes.) Actual quote: “…you’d think that I’d totally remember a parable where poop is mentioned.”
• Meanwhile Steve McCoy’s kids, age 12 and 14, are taking sermon notes while he preaches.
  
• On our fifth birthday, we introduced you to Derek the Cleric. We had a tough time that day choosing between two cartoons and thought we’d stretch the written permission we received to do just one more.
  

Rapture Cats

Sometimes an image is simply so powerful, so compelling, I just can’t say no. This is from the video produced by After The Rapture Pet Care.

Related articles here (Colson: Pets don’t go to heaven) and here (Alcorn: Oh yes they do). And on the rapture, this piece (Rapture? What Rapture?).

Wednesday Link List

Here in the frozen north, Thanksgiving has already come and gone, but that didn’t stop temperatures from reaching 30 degrees Celsius on the weekend (mid 80s Fahrenheit) for three straight days which made link-catching less appealing than suntanning.

• For you worship-leader types, here’s one of the most comprehensive articles you’ll see on the “worship wars” discussed entirely in terms of church architecture.
  
• Just nine more days to another Harold Camping end-of-life-as-we-know-it date.
  
• If you don’t know what I mean when I say, “Stethoscope Video” then you haven’t seen it.  Take 2 1/2 minutes and enjoy.
• It’s official: Mitt Romney tells Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress that he thinks that Baptists are a cult.  …Okay, not really, but maybe he should have.  Here’s the original story,  a response from Robert Mouw, and a sample of comments; all from CNN.
• You’ll want to read the comments to find more links to get the full 411 on this story, but the blogger Tulip Girl has a blog post implying that another child death may be linked to the controversial book, To Train Up A Child by Michael and Debi Pearl.
  
• No, what follows is not a typo: Is it possible to hate Jesus but love Christianity?  David Paul Dorr looks at that here and here [part two link to follow!]
  
• Are you “crazy busy” all the time?  Pete Wilson hints you may need to invest in the concept of sabbath.
  
• This isn’t new, but… here’s one of those church video clips from Igniter media that uses a Facebook theme; naturally, this one’s titled Follow.
  
• Canadian Anglican Pastor Leonard Griffith is now 90 and just keeps on going.
  
• More from James MacDonald on the decision to invite T. D. Jakes to a forthcoming seminar, aka The Elephant Room controversy.
  
• Hey kids!  Wanna learn Biblical Hebrew in just three easy lessons?  Well, you can’t.  But maybe 40 moderately challenging lessons from Charles Grebe at Briercrest College and Seminary. Learn more about Charles at AnimatedHebrew.com starting with the Hebrew alphabet. Shalom!
  
• The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) celebrated a 50-year anniversary earlier this month.
  
• In a culture focused on the excitement of church planting, we never think about the sadness of church closings that are constantly taking place at the same time.
  
• Natalie Grant adds “actor” to her list of accomplishments with a feature role in the movie Decision.
  
• From Internet Monk writer Jeff Dunn

There is a story told of an old woman who claimed she and God talked on a regular basis. Her bishop was doubtful of her claims to hear from God. After all, he prayed on a regular basis, but the Lord never spoke back to him. So he decided to put this woman to the test in order to reveal her for either a misguided soul or a fraud. He went to her and said, “The next time you are talking with God, ask him to tell you what my most grievous sin was.” The woman agreed to do so.

A week later the bishop returned and asked, “Did you ask God to reveal to you my worst sin?”

“Yes,” said the woman. “I did ask him.”

“Well,” said the bishop, “what did he say?”

The woman said simply, “He says he forgets.”

Wednesday Link List

The linkology lecture resumes; with this week’s being more diversionary than anything else…

• Pete Wilson has now posted the full 20-minute interview he did with Heaven is For Real authors Todd and Colton Burpo.  The full interview was played in all services on Sunday as part one of the church’s 3-week Glimpse series.
  
• The Christian Post reports that rapture prophet Harold Camping was heading home from hospital on Monday after suffering a mild stroke.  (HT: Bene)
  
• Christianity Today returns, a year later, to talk with Adam Young, aka Owl City, but the musician’s excessive shyness forces an email interview.
• Michael Krahn looks at the “me, myself and I” individualism in modern worship music, but also cautions about over-correcting.
• Southern Baptists are facing declining numbers, especially in an area near and dear to their faith: Baptisms are at lowest numbers since the 1950s.
  
• Ron Edmondson offers seven ways to get the most out of your overall experience of church life.
• There were a couple of pieces at Christianity 201 this week that I was quite pleased with, though they’re too long to run here.  One was a Christian counselor discussing what it means to put something “on the altar.”   The other was a piece by Rooms author James Rubart remixing the story of the Prodigal Son.
• J. Lee Grady looks at baby Storm, the Toronto child whose parents want to raise him/her as an individual without specific gender; and the resulting confusion that creates.
  
• James MacDonald says that the congregational form of church government is from Satan.  Yes, he really said that last week.  The firestorm resulted in this response on Monday.  Is it tongue in cheek?  (In tomorrow’s Our Journey devotional, readers will discover that MacDonald believes that we should pray to God and not to Jesus.  I read the paragraph three times to make sure, and that after getting a phone call on it.)
  
• An unusual request for a minister to receive:  We want you to marry us, but just don’t mention God.  Should he do the wedding?
  
• Her-meneutics writer Karen Swallow Prior thinks that when congressman Anthony Weiner says that texting isn’t adultery, he’s actually illustrating the mind-body dualism known as Gnosticism.
  
• Yes, heaven is for real, but didn’t we already know that?  Greg Thornbury is worried about the weight being placed on an extra-Biblical account.
  
• Time for a couple of video links.  This one is from 2007 and was filmed using all the latest technology.  (HT: J-Walk)
  
• Unless you have pre-schoolers at home, or have no sense of musical integrity, you’ll need a strong stomach for this one, but Darrell at Stuff Fundies Like has uncovered The Potato Chip Song, a bus ministry song on YouTube.  Maybe you should read the article first.
  
• And this fits right in:  If your church sends out postcards or notes when you miss Sunday worship, perhaps there’s more to those notes than what you see.
• Our cartoon this week is from Mick Mooney at the blog Searching For Grace; a new comic with only eleven strips so far.

Wednesday Link List

Thanks for all of you who voted for us as Top Christian Blog Link List Published on a Wednesday.   Our visitor at right can be purchased as a poster at Zazzle.com, though, truth be told, there isn’t much you can’t buy there.

• Angela Wyatt — as in Angela Schuller Wyatt — reports at Christian Post as to Why The Selling of the Crystal Cathedral is a Bad Idea.  Highlight: ” In any U.S. corporation, the leadership would be REMOVED in the face of bankruptcy.  As long as the current leadership maintains control, there will be no positive change at the Crystal Cathedral. They’re buying time by hawking one of America’s greatest cathedrals. Their actions will only delay the inevitable. It’s like loaning money to a gambler.”
• Who better than The Pipe-ster himself to challenge Rick Warren as to whether or not he’s “deep” enough as a preacher.  Piper sits down with the Saddleback pastor and Purpose Driven author for a longer interview.  This YouTube link will actually set you up to watch a number of the topics  continiously in a playlist.   Even though you’re not a pastor, there are some good issues raised here.
• On the other hand, I’d say this one is deep, and it’s in, of all places, The Washington Post.  Kyle Roberts and Adam Rao contrast popular “rapture theology” with what what they prefer, calling it “Biblical Eschatology,” or if you like, “de-raptured theology.”
• Here’s a site you’re going to want to bookmark and return to often, though maybe not if you have high blood pressure issues.  Faith and the Law’s Blog highlights stories where churches encounter the legal system in all of its forms (legislation, justice, enforcement, etc.) in various parts of the world; such as, for example, this story where a Charlotte area church was fined $40,000 (US) for improper trimming of their trees.  Seriously.  It was based on $100 per branch.
  
• “Hey, That’s Not in the Bible!”   A CNN Belief Blog item about non-existent Biblical quotes has now crossed the 6,000 comment line.  So now there’s a best of the comments item, but it’s crossed the 1,o00 comment mark.
  
• Dan Bouchelle reminds us that being a former pastor doesn’t mean that all interest in former parishioners and counselees disappears when the paychecks stop coming.  Basically, it all comes down to motivation.
  
• Youth ministry people:  Here’s a new blog from New Zealand that started a few weeks ago and has already received a healthy response.  It’s called Ideas for Youth Ministry in New Zealand but blogger Amy wants to collaborate with people from other parts of the world.
  
• This link actually ran here a long time ago, but it’s an excellent article by Craig Groeshel on Generational Tension In The Church.
• Here’s another one that was still in my files from December of last year.  It’s a longer article on Why C. S. Lewis’ Popularity Still Endures.
  
• For this week’s link list cartoon, we return, after a long absence to Dan Lietha and the After Eden comic at the Answers in Genesis site.  (Click the image to link.)

Wednesday Link List

There are a couple of blogs I read where there are well over 30 links represented weekly.  Trevin Wax at Kingdom People does a summary of each one, at least four a day with some longer lists;  while Zach Nielsen at Take Your Vitamin Z turns each one into a post of its own.  I guess that relatively speaking I’m not that dedicated.  …The Iberian Lynx makes a rare appearance here this week, while these weekly links do contain items that deserve a few clicks:

• A Christianity Today item last week reported that atheists want to be participants in military chaplaincies, in a story appropriately titled, Atheists in the Foxholes.
• Here’s a fun activity for those of you who studied the maps in the back of your Bible, it actually was an ad-link from the above the story; you simply click and drag the push-pin from the tribe name to the territory on the map and thereby Locate the Lost Tribes of Israel.  (I did not do well…)
• Living Bible Explorers, a ministry organization in Winnipeg, Ontario which tries to steer younger youth away from gang activities believes that gang member wannabes are responsible for fire destroying their three buses.
• A Christian counselor suggests that, of all things, humility is the key to a Fresh Approach to Facing Fear.
  
• Yawn!  In case you missed it yesterday, Harold Camping, everyone’s favorite prophet, has revised the 5.21.11 date… it’s now 10.21.11
  
• Russell D. Moore tears a strip off the romance novel genre, and before leaving the topic suggests that while some of their Christian equivalents are different, some are not.  Can Romance Novels Hurt Your Heart?
• Is a lazy pastor one who simply wastes time, or one who chooses the easy approach over the difficult?  Darryl Dash shifts the priority emphasis at The Pastor Who Jogged While Mowing His Lawn.
• Justin Holcomb at Resurence thinks perhaps the parents of young girls need to consider Eleven Ways to Protect Your Daughter from Barbie.
• Julia Rhodes guests at SCL and attracts over 300 comments with another look at the need to Proofread your Worship Slides.
  
• Some of you know that in addition to whatever we do on Sunday morning, every Sunday night at 6:00 EST since last fall I’ve been part of virtual church with Andy Stanley at NorthpointOnline.TV.  Well…this week I also checked out what Pete Wilson is doing at Crosspoint.TV; a service which features a live Q&A after the message.  Their time is 6:00 CST which is an hour later, or 7:00 PM Eastern.  His guest was Jon Acuff and together with host Jenni Catron the program was both informative and entertaining to the point where I began to wonder if Leno and Letterman might have some competition.
  
• It’s too bad the retail book industry was such a “sitting duck” for online takeover, and too bad that non-computer-user book-lovers have to pay a great price for the changing paradigm in book sales; as I rant yet again in Anger in the Face of Retail Contraction.
• A timely cartoon from Sacred Sandwich…

5.21.11 — All Quiet on the Western Front

There’s been a volcano eruption in Iceland today, and a landslide in Malaysia, but beyond that it’s been a rather typical Saturday.   There will be a day that the course of world events changes, but it’s not 5.21.11.  All the prophetic markers will be lined up like dominoes, but only a very few will see it coming.  Internet traffic would seem to indicate that a large number of people are simply not ready.  Skeptical, mocking, laughing hysterically; but quietly hedging their bets.  People have an innate sense that if it were true that today was “last day of business” they are not right with God.  The ‘if” means that this potentially applies to everyone. So…ready?

This reminds me of the time — WOW! Did you hear that loud crack in the sky?  Honey could you look outside and see if anything — – — –

Are You Ready? – Pacific Gas & Electric

click above to play

There’s rumors of war
Men dying and women crying
If you breathe air, you’ll die
Perhaps you wonder the reason why
But wait! Don’t you worry
A new day is dawning
We’ll catch the sun, and away we’ll fly…

Are you ready to sit by His throne?
Are you ready not to be alone?
Someone’s coming to take you home
And if you’re ready, then He’ll carry you home

(Are you ready?) (2X)

People say that He won’t come
And I don’t know what say you
But if He should, would you be the one?
I’ve got a little question I’d like to ask you

Are you ready to sit by His throne?
Are you ready not to be alone?
Someone’s coming to take you home
And if you’re ready, then He’ll carry you home

(Are you ready?) (2X)

Brothers and sisters, I have many
Stumbling along to do their thing
Love is a song, it’s better than any
It’s better for music, it’s easy to sing

Are you ready to sit by His throne?
Are you ready not to be alone?
Someone’s coming to take you home
And if you’re ready, then He’ll carry you home…

Learn how to be ready.

graphic:  Artboy

…

Wednesday Link List

This was a week for reconstructing the blogroll here.   “Oh, Oh, The Places You’ll Go” lists all the things that are NOT blogs, along with, for a limited time, a description of each one on-screen — you don’t even have to mouse hover — which for some strange reason Made Every Word Start With A Capital Letter.

The actual blogs are now found further down in a new section called “Blog Stops.”

And now on to this week:

• Now I know what my wife does when I’m out of the house.   She performed this song and created this YouTube video.
  
• Denny Burk considers the Rolling Stone interview with Kate Perry, the artist formerly known as [contemporary Christian music artist] Katy Hudson.  “…perhaps there is a flicker of gospel still alive in Perry.”
• What if your prayers sounded more like someone placing an order at the fast food drive thru window?   Maybe they do.
• Former Crossroads Christian Communications president — and son of the founder — Ron Mainse has repaid the Ontario Securities Commission for his part in a Ponzi scheme; so the org is putting a positive spin on it, though it’s just a drop in the bucket compared to massive investor losses.
• Don Miller on how reading transformed his life, and what reading will do for you.
• Speaking of reading, are you reading this because you missed the rapture?  Don’t worry, there’s a book explaining how the Left-Behind set can get ahead financially.
• The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada’s Activate Blog looks at the current attitude toward pornography in a world of human trafficking.
• Here’s a testimony that will open your eyes: Kristine McGuire’s story is called I Was a Christian Witch.  She says the church needs to be aware of their existence.
  
• Greg Boyd on the passing of enigmatic theologian Clark Pinnock at age 73.
  
• Zach says the strongest argument against weekly observance of The Lord’s Supper (aka Communion) is invalid since it doesn’t apply to other worship service elements.
  
• “Where there is no vision, the people perish;” isn’t about programmatic vision for your local church so much as it is about big-picture spiritual vision, i.e. seeing the world through God’s eyes.
• A 60-second devotional thought on a classic Dwight L. Moody quotation on faithfulness.
• Or if you prefer, from the same Canadian blogger, a few additions Paul might want to make to one of his epistles if he were around today.
• Sometimes I land on a blog with no particular post to mention, but worthy of recommendation.  So for the women out there, check out Sheep to the Right.
  
• USAToday becomes the umpteenth media outlet to discover Amish fiction.   Yawn.
• The annual Beloit College “Mindset List” gets us inside the heads of the college bound kids who form the Class of 2014.
  
• Back to Zach’s blog again; if you say your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, you might want to rethink consumption of soft drinks.  (Click through to read full size.)
  
• Tony Reinke says if you have a problem with getting to the point too quickly, you might consider something he calls Sdrawkcab Gnitirw aka Writing Backwards.  [HT: Trevin]
  
• And speaking of Trevin Wax, here’s an analogy comparing law-centered faith to your computer’s operating system.
  
• Our comics this week are from ASBO Jesus, (from the British Anti Social Behavior Order) by Jon Birch.

Jesus to Return on 5.21.11 — Colorado Bus Bench Ads

Be sure to read the May 18th update below…

They’re nice looking ads.   Buying space on the bus benches in Colorado Springs probably doesn’t come cheap, either.  (Try $1,200 for the period from now through October.)   Especially for a 31-year old woman who is unemployed.   The theme is “Save the Date.”   (It’s a Saturday, if you’ve got plans…)

Left Behind co-author Jerry Jenkins is happy the discussion is happening, but calls it “folly” to choose a date, since Jesus himself knew “neither the day nor the hour.”   (Though we are instructed to know “the times and the seasons.”)

Watch the CNN video report here.   Or check the website, WeCanKnow.com

What do you do with people who are willing to spend their own money for something they believe in so passionately?    The woman in the story compares herself to Noah, who was derided by his contemporaries when he began to build an ark.   What do you do when there probably will be some positive spin-offs in individual lives, as people contemplate the return of Christ or discuss it with friends?

But then, on the other hand, what do you do with the negative publicity in the [most probable] event that life continues as normal into the day the follows?

For all the lessons we’ve learned from date-setters — the book 88 Reasons Why Jesus is Returning in 1988 comes to mind — why do people keep doing this?

With files from the Colorado Springs Gazette.

May 18th update...

Okay, so over 100 people showed up here today. For this blog, that’s a lot of traffic.  So what if it’s true?  What if the world as we know it were to end on Saturday?

Better yet, what if you’re standing at the gate of heaven and God (or St. Peter!) is standing there saying, “Why should I let you in?”

If your answer is because you went to church, or lived a good life, or never stole or murdered, or gave money to the poor; then you’ve missed it.  That’s “religion,” where standing before God is measured by what you “do.”  But the only acceptable answer is that admittance to heaven is based on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Only his blood can satisfy a holy God.  In other words it’s not based on “do,” but based on “done.”  It’s been done.  You simply have to tell God, through prayer, that you recognize the need for forgiveness for those areas where you missed the mark, or standard, of his holiness, and want to be included, or covered, in what Jesus has already done.

Then you can have the assurance that you don’t have to worry about whatever happens on May 21st…

Click here to learn more.

7:00 PM (EDT), Saturday May 21st:  Here’s my take on how the day went!