stubble jumping

wow. it's feels like such a relief having made the decision now. we're going home. now that i'm thinking about it there are some interesting insights into life that i have gained...

i have a new appreciation for canada. not because i've been to some developing country or seen people living in poverty. it's because i live somewhere ridiculously affluent, but even more absurdly expensive! i can't think of how to save any costs off our budget without moving into a 1 bed flat!!

family is the greatest support system (both bio and christo fams). this is especially evident with a growing family. it's fun to explore the world, but eventually ya want to settle down "where everybody knows your name".

people are mostly the same the world over. at the basic level we all want pretty much the same things.

it's just really trippy thinking about being back to stay. so many times we've been booking a return flight.

not this time.

attitude check!

i'm not ashamed to own my Lord
nor to defend his cause
maintain the honour of His word
the glory of His cross

amen.

Gridblog: Generosity

due to receiving another of God's great gifts into our lives, i haven't been spending much time on the computer at all. other than uploading pix of our new family member from the camera, i really haven't had a desire to get an lcd-tan.

being that i'm getting pale, and friends are slagging me for my lack of picture posting on the family site, i'm online. and hey - a gridblog topic has been announced! and so i will add a short rambling to the group.

generosity should be encouraged - at a personal level. none of this left wing "have the government take care of them, isn't that what our taxes are for". that's all well and good, and the government should help those who have no where to turn. but let's not get lazy in our giving. find a cause that touches you; give to it generously.

give from what you have. if you are blessed with money, give it. if you are blessed with time, spend it. if you have skills and abilities that can be of use, put them to it. most of all, give with a joyful heart.

pax

the problem of evil blog

a relatively new blog concerned solely with the aforesaid problem. this could be very interesting as it is often one of the last resorts of disbelievers.

who's soliciting who?

talk about the pot calling the kettle black?

even old people can be a threat....

get this, the us secret service actually came to some 81 year old dude's place and questioned him over an editorial letter he wrote. they were concerned that it might be construed as threatening to the president.

the queen city

well, it's official... not only is regina a great place to live, it's the most affordable city to buy a house in canada.

it's quiet in here.... i think i like it...

yes, here in my own out of the way part of the net. posting ideas that probably only my wife and brother read. for the most part, i think i like it like that. i'm sure that some blog reading vagabond may find his random click bring him through some day... and that's ok. maybe someday i'll go back through this blog and see how my ideas have evolved. laugh at myself. grin at my sad attempts at poetry or photography. and that's going to be fun.

so am i talking to myself? most likely. but that's ok with me.

goodnight myself.... g'night.

christianity today

my eyes are getting sore after staring at a bunch of different sites about the emerging church movement. a lot of it seems to be verbiage defending itself from 'evangelicals' who are 'attacking' and then dishing out as good at it gets to the 'evangelicals' and 'modernism' in the church in general.

why all the labels? it seems that each time a group of Christians want to challenge their thinking and grow closer to God, the come up with a new label. a new rallying cry. a new set of tenets, even if the tenet is the lack thereof.

how about this for a radical idea?
- Christians are followers of Christ.
- Christians try to find out the truth of what God wants for us.
- Christians try to share that truth with the world.

... and the truth shall set you free

any questions?

are answers bad?

following on from thinking about velvet elvis, i've been reading up a little on the emerging church thing which it's author is a part of. the book struck me as asking a lot of questions, encouraging the asking of questions, but not giving what the author thought were answers, or may be answers, or hints of answers. it seems that questions, and dialog, and investigating, etc. are the end... rather than the means.... to the answers.

what good is questioning if not to find the answers?

velvet elvis

i received this book for Christmas last year and read it before the hols were finished. i thought that i'd post my thoughts on it, since i have seen it pop up in discussion at a few places.

i will sum up my assessment with a comment (as best i can remember), that my father-in-law made when i was telling the generous gift giver what i thought of it:

searching and questions are important, sure. but when you get to a certain point, you become more interested in answers, you already know the questions.

lord of it all

in some recent discussions, a supposed dichotomy has been raised. God or science as the answer to "why". i say that this is a not a dichotomy. the two are different. science has no power to answer why. it is descriptive. it isn't metaphysical.

now i hear the inevitable 'god of the gaps' rant coming. i'll repeat, there is no dichotomy. regardless of whether science has an equation for something, God is still the why. he is the why of the things we understand as much as those we do not. science was invented by people who believed in God, thought that he was an orderly God, and that his creation would therefore be orderly. they didn't have a problem with filling in knowledge gaps. this wasn't threatening to their belief in God.

it confirmed it.

score for religious people!

thanks to arthur c. brooks for writing up his research in a new book called Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism. here's a clip from a beliefnet article:

The book's basic findings are that conservatives who practice religion, live in traditional nuclear families and reject the notion that the government should engage in income redistribution are the most generous Americans, by any measure.

Conversely, secular liberals who believe fervently in government entitlement programs give far less to charity. They want everyone's tax dollars to support charitable causes and are reluctant to write checks to those causes, even when governments don't provide them with enough money.

not surprizing to christians, since pure religion consists of helping orphans and widows in their distress james 1:27

careful what you listen to

Gin thu neuere leuen alle monnis spechen, Ne alle the thinge that thu herest stingen. (_Proverbs of Alfred_, c1300)

believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear. i wonder if that goes for what we read as well. it's quite frightening to see what books are out there claiming some kind of expertise on a subject, when looking at the author's credentials shows that they aren't formally educated in it...
beware what may be lurking in the prose you read. it may do your brain more harm than good!

an athiest not to be taken seriously

a while back the topic of sam harris and his thoughts on religion came up at a blog i was frequenting. the blog post linked a youtube clip of him speaking at a convention. he made a comment that totally took a verse of the bible out of context and made a wild claim about christianity. i made the point that someone who is willing to stand up in front of people, pose as an authority on a subject, and then speak about something he a) knows nothing about, or b) is purposely misrepresenting is not to be taken seriously. the blog author has gone off the web, but i hope that he will read these responses to mr. harris' latest book specifically aimed at christianity.


ps - also at the end of the above link are some points about mr. harris' previous work.

is work worth anything?

read this, think about it. whatever you do, do it as for the Lord.

pax

thinking out loud

i have been wondering to myself, as of late, what is the use of this blogging thing anyways. is it a public journal? a place for me to put my ideas; to bounce them around off of random people that come traipsing though?

again i wonder if it is all very egocentric; a strange sort of group navel gazing. now that i think of it, that last comment is directed at a certain type of blog. there are blogs that i read and appreciate that focus on a specific topic. and family news blogs are a blessing in our dispersed age.

maybe those that blog are the ones that have eshewed gathering at the village pub or coffee house to swap stories, and engage in conversation to hash out our ideas.

and so for today, that is what i will conclude. for me anyways, my blog is my conversation with you the random reader who may sit in your chair, or on your sofa, and engage with me in witty debate, a search for truth, or appreciation of what beauties God has blessed our day with.

pax

martyrs

lest any of us forget, much of the world is still a dangerous place for christians. a quick stop by the voice of the martyrs will show you that we are still under threat of property confiscation, imprisonment, or execution for professing the name of Jesus. and throughout the civilized(?) world, speaking out regarding the truth will be met with vandalism and death threats. it's one thing to die for our faith... is it getting difficult, even in the west, to live for it?

logical fallacies

here is a great introduction to some issues in critical thinking and philosophical discourse. it is a gallery of logical fallacies. these are pitfalls to avoid in our own thinking and to watch out for in discussion with others. sloppy thinking is behind much of what ails society. don't be sloppy ;-)

simply christian

why christianity makes sense - by n. t. wright
this was a lovely gift. a book about christianity in the same vein as mere christianity is very welcome in this day of misinformation. it is unlike its predecessor in that nowadays, society at large is pretty much ignorant of christian beliefs. and so mr. wright goes about explaining the good news from a more basic level (therefore not getting to some stuff).

i quite enjoyed reading this book. it was well written. he proposed some interesting and thought provoking analogies to explain what is happening these days with the new-age movement, and other 'spiritual' stuff that is prevalent. for those who know why they believe Jesus, it will be a relaxing read. for those who don't believe it will be a level headed, readable introduction to the faith.

a nice read. thanks j.