Putting down the word on Halloween. Talking about integrity.
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Music by Rhodes, Sun Like Blood and Randy Stonehill
Yes, I owe you all a podcast. I’m working on it. I have to go to Lexington today.
I don’t do lists of links, but Zoo Station has a fine one. Spend some time there.
As election time rolls around, I’m still unimpressed with either Presidential candidate, but I’ve made up my mind on the Kentucky Senate race. Mitch McConnell’s attack ads on Bruce Lunsford are the most incredibly vicious distortions and manipulations I’ve ever seen in politics. And this is a state where politicians still shoot each other with some regularity.
We’re studying Exodus in my Bible classes, and Peter Enns’ Exodus Commentary in the NIV Application Commentary series is outstanding for teaching that is aimed at bridging contexts and majoring on application. I have several good commentaries in that series. They are non-scholarly, but highly useful to the communicator.
Robert Velarde writes on C.S. Lewis’s view of pop culture. Lewis’s disdain for the newspaper reminds me that the information revolution has had a terrible effect on Christians. Few read. Few think. The majority believe all kinds of things that aren’t true or are patently ridiculous. But of course, without Snopes, how would I know that?Continue reading “The IM Weekend File 10:25:08”
Paul made a lot of sin lists. You know, lists of sins.
If you’re a preacher or teacher, you’ve probably used Paul’s sin lists a few times as the raw material for a talk or sermon. You’ve walked through the list, one sin at a time and said a little something about each one. It may not have been the most interesting talk you ever did, but it took up some time and sin is always relevant, right?
Those lists can be pretty spectacular.
Romans 1:28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Comprehensive, that’s for sure.Continue reading “A Short List of Troublingly Common Sins”
Originally published at the Steve Brown, Etc. Guest Room Blog. You also might enjoy “The Great Pumpkin Proposes a Toast,” from deep in the IM archives. Here’s a good post on “How to have a great Catholic Halloween.” No Protestants are harmed. It’s OK.
As October 31st looms, it’s time for true confessions.
I grew up among Southern Baptist fundamentalist Baptists. The KJV-only, women can’t wear pants, twenty verses of “Just As I Am,” Jerry Falwell, Jack Chick, twice a year revival kind of fundamentalist Baptists.
We were serious about things like beer. By sheer quantity of attention in sermons, drinking beer was the most evil act one could describe. We were serious about movies, cards, and something called “mixed bathing,” which normal people would call “swimming.”
We were serious about the Bible, Sunday School, suits and ties, and walking the aisle to get saved.
And we were big time into Halloween.Continue reading “The Internet Monk Annual Halloween Rant”
There was a moment in last week’s House, M.D. that really reached me. (As this show often does. Its portrayal of the human soul is consistently remarkable.)
House has been forced to deliver a eulogy at the funeral of his father, whom he not only hated, but has concluded is not his biological parent. House begins to rip into his father’s faults in front of the gathered funeral congregation, acidly observing that if the test of a man is “how he treats those he has power over,†his father failed the test. His father, says House, was a tyrant over others, “incapable of admitting any point of view other than his own.â€
And then, mid-sentence, House realizes that he’s describing himself. (Or it seems that’s what he realizes. You’ll have to watch the show. You’ll get no spoilers out of me.) He is a tyrant over those under him. He is incapable of admitting any point of view other than his own. Continue reading “Arrested by The Word”
If you’ve read “Miracle on 34th Street Ecumenism,” then you know that I’m talking about various traditions, denominations and churches being willing to send their “customers” to the other “store” for what they’ve lost, left out, run out of or just don’t do well.
So…for open mic night here at the lounge, What Would Be Your Examples/Dreams of “Miracle on 34th Street Ecumenism?”
Who would you like to see visit whom? For what? (I’m especially interested in any actual examples, even from your own personal experience.)
Talk amongst yourselves.
Reading:
Jesus Wants To Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile by Rob Bell and Don Golden. A survey of the Bible’s message using the theme of the “New Exodus,†with lots of application to the current empire. Packaged in a rather distracting way, but plenty of good material in a relatively few pages. Good, not great.
The Church in the Making: Lumen Gentium, Christus Dominus, Orientalium Ecclesiarum by Richard R. Gaillardetz. Part of the seven volume series “Rediscovering Vatican II.†An extremely well written history and survey of the Vatican II documents on the church. Plenty to learn, and surprisingly inspiring. Many nuggets of exceptional prose and insight. I want to read more in this series. Outstanding.Continue reading “What I’m reading, watching and listening to these days.”
On the study Bible front:
The Hope for Today Bible—featuring notes and encouragement from pastor and author Joel Osteen and his wife, Victoria—is to be released in March by Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
Osteen—who wrote the best-sellers Your Best Life Now (FaithWords) and Become a Better You (Free Press)—pastors Lakewood Church in Houston with Victoria, author of the recently released Love Your Life: Living Happy, Healthy & Whole (Free Press).
Featuring the text of the New Living Translation, the Hope for Today Bible will be available in a hardcover for $34.99, a special edition hardcover for $54.99 and an eBook for $24.99
(Christian Etailing Newsletter, Oct. 20, 2008)
We’re approaching October 31, which means that Christians have to start saying things about the spiritual dangers of your nephew dressing up like Spongebob.
I have my Annual Halloween Rant up at Steve Brown, Etc. I’ll publish it here in a few days. I’ll be the guest at SBE on October 31st.
I love Christmas movies. We have many great family memories of watching Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas or singing “Sisters†and “Snow†with the cast of White Christmas. I have some personal favorites like almost any version of A Christmas Carol, the original Tim Allen Santa Clause and the strangely dark and mysterious Prancer.
I’m not a fan of the popular Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street. I’ve watched it 3 or 4 times, and maybe I just wasn’t quite in that particular frame of mind where a Christmas movie really appeals to me, but it’s never been a favorite of mine.
But there is something about “Miracle†that does appeal to me. We can call it “Miracle on 34th Street Ecumenism.â€Continue reading “Miracle on 34th Street Ecumenism”
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