Awakenings

Johann Gerhard is an example of an Orthodox Lutheran with the warm faith of what would be called later a "Pietist". Here is an excerpt from Gerhard on prayer.

2012-01-30T15:50:00.002-05:00

By Johann Gerhard

Translated by Wade R. Johnston

XXV. Concerning the salutary efficacy of prayer.

The sighs penetrate the heavens.

This is the greatest benefit of God: that he insists that the pious pray as if in a conversation with an intimate friend. He himself gives us the desire for prayer. He himself also gives the result of prayer. The power of prayer is great, which, issued on earth, nonetheless operates in heaven. The prayer of a righteous man is the key to heaven; the petition ascends to heaven and the acquittal of God descends. Prayer is a shield for protection by which all the arrows of the adversary are repelled (Ephesians 6:16). When Moses stretched out his hands the Israelites prevailed against the Amalekites (Exodus 17:17). If you extend your hands to heaven, Satan will not prevail against you. Just as a wall stands against an enemy, so also the wrath of God is turned aside by the prayers of the righteous.

Our own very Savior used to pray, not because he had to, but in order that the value of prayer would be commended to us. Prayer is an appraisal of our subjection because God instructs us to pray so that we might offer our prayers as a sort of daily spiritual tribute to him. It is our ladder for ascending, for prayer is nothing other than a kind of pilgrimage of the mind to God. Prayer is our shield of defense for the soul of the man living in prayer is shielded from the insults of demons. It is the faithful messenger of ambassadorship, for prayer ascends to the throne of God and summons him to produce aid. This messenger is never frustrated in attaining his goal for God indeed always hears us, if not according to our will, nevertheless according to our advantage and salvation. One of two things we are able to hope for without doubting is that he will either grant that for which we petition him or that he knows something better. God gave his Son, that most excellent gift, without our asking. What then will he do when we ask! We can doubt neither that the Father listens nor that the Son intercedes. For whatever reason, enter with Moses into the tabernacle to consult with the Lord through prayer and you will speedily hear a divine response. Christ was transfigured when he was praying (Luke 9:29). So also, a great transformation of the soul occurs when we pray, for prayer is the light of the soul that oftentimes leaves the very soul that it found despairing now rejoicing.

How will you gaze upon the face of the Sun unless you have first adored him who has sent that most sweet light for your eyes? How will you delight in peace of mind unless you first have adored him who has so abundantly furnished and bestowed such good things? With what hope may you hand yourself over to the nighttime unless you have first fortified yourself by praying. What fruit can you hope to reap from your labors unless you first adore him without whom all labor is useless?

If you then seek after spiritual or corporal gifts, ask and you will receive (Matthew 7:7). If you seek after Christ, seek him through prayers and you will find him. If you are afflicted with temptation and a lack of spiritual blessings in the desert of this world, approach the spiritual rock (1 Corinthians 10:4), which is Christ, through devotion. Strike it with the staff of prayer and you will experience that rivers of divine grace will gush forth to quench your thirst. Do you want to offer an acceptable sacrifice to God? Offer prayers. God will sense the sweet aroma and his anger will cease (Genesis 8:21). Do you want to occupy yourself unceasingly with God? Love prayers, spiritual conversations between God and the devout soul. Do you want to taste that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:9). Invite the Lord by prayer into the dwelling of your heart.

Prayer pleases God, but it must be offered in the appropriate way. Therefore, whoever desires to be heard should pray wisely, ardently, humbly, faithfully, steadfastly, and confidently. Pray wisely, that is pray for that which serves divine glory and the salvation of neighbors. God is omnipotent. Therefore, do not set restrictions on Him by the way you pray. God is omniscient. Therefore, do not prescribe an order for responses. Do not issue prayers without due respect, but let them flow from the faith that precedes prayer—the faith that respects the Word. Whatever God has thus absolutely promised in the Word, you may pray for absolutely. Whatever he has promised conditionally, such as temporal things, you may in like manner pray for conditionally. What he has in no way promised, that also you should in no way pray for. Oftentimes God gives us in his anger what he denies us in his mercy. Therefore, follow Christ who resigned himself completely to God’s will (Matthew 26:39,44).

Pray ardently. How indeed can you request that God hear you when you cannot hear yourself? Do you want God to call you to mind when you do not call yourself to mind? When you want to pray enter the closet and close the door (Matthew 6:6). The closet is your heart. You ought to enter into that if you want to pray in the right way. You must close its door, lest thoughts concerning the affairs of the world are able to disturb you. No voices come to the ear of God except the movements of the soul. The mind ought to be incited by the ardor of our thoughts so that it will greatly surpass what our tongue may express, for this is also to worship in spirit and truth, as the Lord requires (John 4:23). Christ used to pray on the mountain (Luke 6:12) and lift His eyes to heaven (John 17:1). So also, we ought to turn our mind away from every creature and to God. You do injury to God if you pray to him in order that he might regard you when you really have no regard for yourself. We are able to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) if we pray in spirit, so that our mind is vigilant with holy desires toward God. There is no need to always cry out loudly, for prayer also includes our thoughts. At times one sigh, stimulated by the Holy Spirit and offered to God in the spirit, is more pleasing to God than a long and drawn out repetition of prayers where the tongue speaks but the heart is completely silent.

Pray humbly so that you trust not in your own merits, but all the more in the grace of God. If our prayers lean upon our worthiness, they are damned, even though the heart may sweat blood in devotion. No one pleases God except Christ. Therefore neither may one pray correctly except through Christ and on account of Christ. Sacrifices that are not offered on the altar of the tabernacle alone are not acceptable (Deuteronomy 12:5). Prayer that is not offered solely on that one altar, that is, on Christ, does not please God. The prayers of the Israelites were promised to be heard if they faced towards Jerusalem when they prayed (1 Kings 8:44). So also, let us turn to Christ, the temple of the divine (John 2:19,21), in our prayers. When Christ prayed in the passion, he cast himself down on the ground (Mark 14:35). See how that most holy soul humbled himself in the presence of the divine majesty.

Let the Christian pray faithfully so that he may offer himself to the lack of every joy and to patience in every punishment. The sooner one prays the better. The more frequently one prays the better. The more fervently one prays, the more acceptable to God. Let the Christian pray with perseverance, for when God takes time in giving a reply, he is commending gifts, not denying them. Those gifts that have been desired longer are sweeter when obtained. Let the Christian pray boldly so that he petitions naturally in faith, never hesitating. O most merciful God, who has commanded us to pray, grant that we may also pray correctly.

'Sacred Meditations' by Johann Gerhard is available at Amazon.

Be Thou My Vision: A Few Thoughts about Spirituality

2012-01-28T09:17:00.002-05:00

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Have you noticed how much in the Scriptures is about sight and the need to see clearly? For instance, words like "perceive," which even sounds reminiscent of seeing. There are many sight motifs in Scripture, for example, "the lamp had not gone out completely, but visions were rare at the time of Samuel." Help me see, Lord.

When it comes to spiritual things we see best with our spiritual sight, not the eyes below your forehead but the eyes another foot below, the eyes of the heart. Of course, we need the eyes of the mind because with the eyes of the heart alone we can be suckered into an emotion-only based response. We can be tricked into a conclusion that is just as worldly as approving of something because of its appearance. We need spiritual discernment. We should not be too quick that something is from God. If it is, there will be verification.

Be Thou my Wisdom, Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee, Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

God’s Word is something that works on our mind and heart. If something makes rational sense based on our reason, our experience, our previous knowledge of God’s word and everything we’ve been taught by people whose values we respect, there is verification. We need God’s true Word, and more of it, every day of our lives. If we seek it out, if we pause and contemplate it when the encountered by the Word, more and more the Word will dwell in us, and we will then find our self dwelling with Jesus who addresses us with the kind invitation, “Abide in Me.”

Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for my fight,
Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight.
Thou my soul's shelter, Thou my high tower.
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

If this message is beginning to sound like it is all so very NICE but without substance, hold on. The life of a Christian has always been one to follow the cross, to make hard choices, to deny yourself, to submit to God’s Word in concrete ways in our day to day lives. How? You tell me. I don’t live where you live, I don’t know your family, neighbors, the people you work with. But you do. Think right now, how are you being brother, sister, neighbor? How do they think of you? You may be the only sermon they see all week. We can’t walk past people who need help; we can’t keep silent while people are harming themselves and others. However, we have God to help us to know what to do. He asks us to arm ourselves with His Word, to use discernment, to pray before we act. Scripture tells us that believers do spiritual battle in the high heavenlies. Our enemy is not human. Why are we so focused on what the media says? We need to ask God what is going on.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

So much of what passes for success, so much of our time and our work are poured out for the attainment of things that are of little value at the end of our lives. What does popularity mean anyway? What does it matter what people think of you? Be what God is calling you to be. Be very careful about measuring yourself by anyone else’s yardstick. Oh, it matters what your character is, and if your every action matches it. Your reputation matters, but only as it promotes what is good and true and eternal. Too many people want very much to be seen as the smartest person in the room, or the coolest kid in class, and their actions and behaviors show it. Our world, our country, even the churches suffer because people want to be seen as being up-to-date rather than in step with the eternal. It is not as though Scripture does not tell us what virtues we are to embody. It is helpful to hear again that most of the so-called virtues are merely a believer’s embodiment of a spiritual good that is one of God’s spiritual gifts or fruits.

Spiritual life is liquid. What? For example, Scripture says God’s love is poured into our hearts. We are nothing but wineskins folks. You know how they use to make wineskins, right? Don’t glorify people. We are just skin and bones, and our worldly existence is just a matter of a certain number of years. It is our spiritual existence that counts for so much more, and even there, what is there to glorify? Even as we are caught up in the spiritual, we are just skin, a wineskin, we can get inflated with hot air and get all puffed up, or we can ask God to fill us with the new wine of the Kingdom, to pour His love into our hearts, that we become gushing fountains of love, that this love wash over the people in our lives, that we all be refreshed. This world is a hard place these days and people are wrung out, cried out and dried up, become hard and brittle. Or maybe that’s just me?

High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heavens Son!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O ruler of all.

There is much in the Scriptures about sight. Jesus’ last words to his followers in Matthew before ascending were that they should teach new disciples to observe all things whatsoever he commanded. Observe. God is watching. People are watching us to see what it is Christians believe. It matters. Pray to the Lord of the harvest.

Thanks be to God that we are part of the harvest through our faith in what God has done for us through Jesus’ redemptive death on the cross.

Jesus, be our victory. Help us in our struggle. Help us that when we hear you, our spiritual ears are not only being tickled with favorite verses from the Bible and well-loved hymns. Help us to appreciate being your followers and to really try to follow in your footsteps. Help us to see in discipleship a way of life. Help us to reach others for you in all we do, not just in select moments. We do love you, and so in your mercy, we ask again, look in favor on your people, make our lives count for the eternal, use us. Dear Lord, we look forward to heaven; give us a glimpse of it now. Give us new life Jesus, be life to us, be our all in all. +Amen

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

KUHNER: Obama threatens religious liberty - Washington Times

2012-01-28T08:08:00.001-05:00

The ruling will not simply devastate the Catholic heath care system and elaborate social network, which includes soup kitchens, adoption centers, immigrant services and parochial schools. It directly assaults and violates the conscience rights of Catholics.

via washingtontimes.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Jesus and the Goodness of Everything Human | Why it matters that God became the human prototype. by Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen | Christianity Today :: A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

2012-01-27T14:08:00.001-05:00

via christianitytoday.com

Very good. I had a class with the writer. He is a good theologian. He has several good books, see his on "The Union with God."

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Did you hear the one about "ROSE AND BARB"?

2012-01-27T11:43:00.001-05:00

Two 90-year-old women, Rose and Barb had been friends all of their lives.

When it was clear that Rose was dying, Barb visited her every day.

One day Barb said, 'Rose, we both loved playing women's softball all our lives,

and we played all through High School. Please do me one favor: when you get

to Heaven, somehow you must let me know if there's women's softball there.'

Rose looked up at Barb from her deathbed and said, 'Barb, you've been my

best friend for many years. If it's at all possible, I'll do this favor for you.'

Shortly after that, Rose passed on.

A few nights later, Barb was awakened from a sound sleep by a blinding

flash of white light and a voice calling out to her, 'Barb, Barb.'

'Who is it?', asked Barb, sitting up suddenly. 'Who is it?'

'Barb -- it's me, Rose.'

'You're not Rose. Rose just died.'

'I'm telling you, it's me, Rose,' insisted the voice.

'Rose! Where are you?'

'In Heaven,' replied Rose. 'I have some really good news and a little bad news.'

'Tell me the good news first,' said Barb.

'The good news,' Rose said, 'is that there's softball in Heaven. Better yet all of our old buddies who died before us are here, too. Better than that, were all young again. Better still, it's always springtime, and it never rains or snows. And best of all, we can play softball all we want, and we never get tired.'

'That's fantastic,' said Barb. 'It's beyond my wildest dreams!

So what's the bad news?

'You're pitching Tuesday.'

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Our Daily Bread has an excellent devotional here, Psalm 18, a bit on the creation of Rock of Ages, etc.

2012-01-27T07:59:00.001-05:00

via odb.org

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Digital Evangelism Issues: War Horse is a powerful story of redemption

2012-01-26T16:38:00.001-05:00

Please share widely: Spielberg’s latest movie is getting rave reviews. And rightly so. The popular children’s book by Michael Morpurgo has been faithfully adapted: read story of the film and its making. (Trailer below.)

And there are many redemptive echoes embedded in it. Here are a few (spoiler warnings):

Joey the horse is sold into, essentially, slavery on the Western Front, for the biblically-resonant 30 currency units (Zechariah 11:12-13), having already been bought – extravagantly – for that price by Devon farmer Ted. This brings huge pain to the farmer’s son Albert, who has trained the horse and has a deep master/horse relationship with him.

Joey’s desire for home and his master survives ‘slavery’ on both sides of the war. His escape across no-mans land is stirring. By now, Albert has volunteered for the army and is being treated for temporary blindness from a gas attack in the trenches. Joey’s ability to respond to his master’s call (a simulated owl call) saves his life, and hastens Albert’s healing.

Albert then attempts to buy him back at the end of the war for the same 30 pounds, but is outbid at 100 pounds by the French farmer whose now-deceased grand-daughter had previously found and cared for Joey and stablemate Topthorn when they escaped from the German lines. In a gesture of extravagant grace, after learning of Albert’s deeper claim, he gifts Joey to him.

In different ways, the horse also brings bravery, reconciliation, healing and resolution to other characters in the story.

Damaris study guide

Culturewatch ministry Damaris has produced a study guide on the film. Join to subscribe to their email newsletter and receive regular commentary on movies and other resources, eg. Iron Lady. (Advance notice: they will soon be publishing free resources for the February release of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, starring Judy Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Penelope Wilton, Celia Imrie and Ronald Pickup.)

Using movies as a ‘good-news discussion starter’

Movie themes are a great way to start conversations, whether on Facebook or face-to-face. They also work very well in a planned group situation, as Krish Kandiah (UK Evangelical Alliance) recounts in relation to a recent student discussion of Shawshank Redemption. This approach works equally effectively in a poor inner-city area of London, where Pastor Michael Kosmas has made a film discussion club integral to his church-planting strategy.

Check Tony Watkins’ excellent guide on running a film discussion evening.

And see our other posts on movies.

Watch on YouTube:

Share & re-use . . .

	Please also share this post on Facebook, Twitter and Google +1 using the one-click links below. You can also automatically syndicate our blog posts to your Facebook Wall (and/or your Twitter stream) in three easy steps.
	You are welcome to use this item on your own blog as a guest blog post, or republish in any online or print newsletter. We also offer other free articles.
GET UPDATES BY EMAIL	Get our blog posts by email, two or three times a week: subscribe here or on Twitter
LATEST BULLETIN	Latest issue of Web Evangelism Bulletin is now online.
	FREE e-book downloads – a range of free PDF books and other downloadable resources.

Please CLICK BELOW NOW to like THIS post, on Google +1 and Facebook:

Please share this post on Facebook with your own comments

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

J. S. Bach - Cantata BWV 22 - Jesus nahm zu sich die zwölfe - 5 - Corale (J. S. Bach Foundation) - YouTube

2012-01-26T16:24:00.003-05:00

via youtube.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

J. S. Bach - Cantata BWV 22 - Jesus nahm zu sich die zwölfe - 5 - Corale (J. S. Bach Foundation) - YouTube

2012-01-26T16:24:00.001-05:00

via youtube.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Rescued Somalia hostages meet with their families –after "three months of hell with Somali pirates, my amazing wife was saved by the American military" USATODAY.com

2012-01-26T13:47:00.001-05:00

via usatoday.com

"This morning, after going through three months of hell with Somali pirates, my amazing wife was saved by the American military and she is now in safety!" Erik Landemalm wrote on his Facebook in Swedish. "Words cannot describe the joy and relief we feel! Thank you to all that have helped and apologies to all our friends I haven't shared this with. This a day of Happiness!"

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

No Sunday Paper :: Always check the calender

2012-01-26T11:54:00.001-05:00

This is dedicated to all of us who are seniors, those who know seniors, and to all who will become seniors:

"WHERE is my SUNDAY paper?!"
The irate customer calling the newspaper office, loudly demanded to know where her Sunday edition was.

"Madam", said the newspaper employee, "today is Saturday. The Sunday paper is not delivered until tomorrow, on SUNDAY".

There was quite a long pause on the other end of the phone, followed by a ray of recognition as she was heard to mutter:

"Well, #-&@, that explains why no one was at church either.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

The Disciple Ship - "Blessed Assurance"

2012-01-26T11:47:00.000-05:00

The Disciple Ship - "Blessed Assurance"

Facebook is an ancient idea: "Tanzania's Hadza group sheds light on ancient social networks"

2012-01-26T11:04:00.001-05:00

via latimes.com

Facebook is a very old idea, it seems.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

New Aurora Pictures: Solar Storms Trigger Northern Lights. Awesome pictures taken in Scandinavia recently

2012-01-26T07:38:00.001-05:00

via news.nationalgeographic.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Our Daily Bread: "The Land of And"

2012-01-26T07:29:00.001-05:00

via odb.org

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

You should watch/share: Reflections in Egypt on an Unfinished Revolution - Video Feature

2012-01-25T15:06:00.001-05:00

via nytimes.com

"Unfortunately, nothing happened."

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Top U.S. Catholic Bishop: ‘Administration is on Wrong Side of the Constitution Again’

2012-01-25T09:39:00.001-05:00

via cnsnews.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

"Those who are saved at the last are those who are genuinely in Christ in this life." (Please read the entire quote, it is interesting)

2012-01-25T07:58:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Feast of the Conversion of Paul
Any theory which asserts universal salvation in Christ must involve not only the potential notion of “anonymous faith” but also some doctrine of a future state in which those whose religion has notmade them “anonymous Christians”, and those who have professed and lived by no faith at all (a category often conveniently ignored in this context), are presented over and over again with the chance of faith in Christ. Such a theory is not only without scriptural warrant; it cuts clean across all that Scripture teaches about the historical nature of Christianity. Those who are saved at the last are those who are genuinely in Christ in this life.

... Michael Sadgrove (b. 1950) & N. T. Wright (b. 1948), “Jesus Christ the Only Saviour”, inThe Lord Christ, John Stott, ed., vol. 1 of Obeying Christ in a Changing World, John Stott, gen. ed., 3 vol., London: Fountain, 1977, p. 78 (see the book; see also Pr. 4:26-27; Isa. 30:20-21; Matt. 7:13-14; John 15:18-20; 16:33; Rom. 8:1; 9:30-32; 1 Cor. 15:22-23; more at Christ, Faith, Future, Life, Religion, Salvation, Scripture)

Compilation Copyright, 1996-2012, by Robert McAnally Adams,
        Curator, Christian Quotation of the Day,
        with Robert Douglas, principal contributor
Logo image Copyright 1996 by Shay Barsabe, of “Simple GIFs”, by kind permission.
Send comments to curator@cqod.com.
http://www.cqod.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Photos| Reuters :: A Syrian boy stands in front of a damaged armoured vehicle belonging to the Syrian army in a street in Homs January 23, 2012.

2012-01-25T07:40:00.001-05:00

via blogs.reuters.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Digital Evangelism Issues :: 8-year-old Zoe on guitar: raw musical talent (must see to believe!)

2012-01-24T16:52:00.001-05:00

Please share widely: Here’s some sheer musical talent to honor. And yes, Zoe Thomson is only 8. Her Stratosphere guitar is likely older than her.
Watch on YouTube:

Music is an integral part every culture, throughout history and across continents. We are hard-wired to communicate through music. The study of music in different cultures is called ethnomusicology. Using music in order to better communicate the good news in a cross-cultural mission setting is becoming increasingly understood. Often, culturally-appropriate music can be a key to unlock the message. Check these ethnomusicology resources.

Music strengthens almost any message – that’s why movies have music backgrounds. It’s like a flavor enhancer in cooking.

Words set to music are also memorable, of course. That’s one reason why Christians have always used music in worship, even in OT times. And in oral cultures, memorable lyrics are a way of understanding and remembering Christian teaching.

Do also check these free downloadable MP3s challenging us to share the good news.

Share & re-use . . .

	Please also share this post on Facebook, Twitter and Google +1 using the one-click links below. You can also automatically syndicate our blog posts to your Facebook Wall (and/or your Twitter stream) in three easy steps.
	You are welcome to use this item on your own blog as a guest blog post, or republish in any online or print newsletter. We also offer other free articles.
GET UPDATES BY EMAIL	Get our blog posts by email, two or three times a week: subscribe here or on Twitter
LATEST BULLETIN	Latest issue of Web Evangelism Bulletin is now online.
	FREE e-book downloads – a range of free PDF books and other downloadable resources.

Please CLICK BELOW NOW to like THIS post, on Google +1 and Facebook:

Please share this post on Facebook with your own comments

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Lutherans in Siberia « Light from Light

2012-01-24T14:48:00.001-05:00

on January 24, 2012 at 1:47 pm Eric Jonas Swensson (@KinderEric)
Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Count your blessings…Puts things in a different perspective for a Westerner.

via vdma.wordpress.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Institute of Lutheran Theology: Take a look at class offerings. Robert Benne, Paul Hinlicky and others.

2012-01-24T10:31:00.001-05:00

via ilt.org

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Rachel Held Evans | Blessed are the un-cool

2012-01-24T10:01:00.001-05:00

via rachelheldevans.com

Amen.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

The Christian-View Daily. Top story,"Muslim extremists in Uganda throw acid on church leader"

2012-01-24T09:44:00.001-05:00

via paper.li

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

20 TED talks on philosophy via onlinecolleges.net

2012-01-24T08:31:00.001-05:00

via onlinecolleges.net

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

The Reason Why Knowing God’s Will Is Like Making Pancakes

2012-01-24T08:29:00.001-05:00

via charlesspecht.com

LOL

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Be Thou My Vision: A Few Thoughts about Spirituality

2012-01-23T15:08:00.002-05:00

"Be Thou My Vision" is an ancient Irish hymn, possibly from the 8th C. It contains much wisdom, starting with the title. Be my vision. Help me see you, Lord. Help me see the world as you do. Help me see everything, including the heavenlies, the spiritual realities. Help me see, Lord.

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Have you noticed how much in the Scriptures is about sight and the need to see clearly? For instance, words like "perceive," which even sounds reminiscent of seeing. There are many sight motifs in Scripture, for example, "the lamp had not gone out completely, but visions were rare at the time of Samuel." Help me see, Lord.

When it comes to spiritual things we see best with our spiritual sight, not the eyes below your forehead but the eyes another foot below, the eyes of the heart. Of course, we need the eyes of the mind because with the eyes of the heart alone we can be suckered into an emotion-only based response. We can be tricked into a conclusion that is just as worldly as approving of something because of its appearance. We need spiritual discernment. We should not be too quick that something is from God. If it is, there will be verification.

Be Thou my Wisdom, Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee, Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

God’s Word is something that works on our mind and heart. If something makes rational sense based on our reason, our experience, our previous knowledge of God’s word and everything we’ve been taught by people whose values we respect, there is verification. We need God’s true Word, and more of it, every day of our lives. If we seek it out, if we pause and contemplate it when the encountered by the Word, more and more the Word will dwell in us, and we will then find our self dwelling with Jesus who addresses us with the kind invitation, “Abide in Me.”

Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for my fight,
Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight.
Thou my soul's shelter, Thou my high tower.
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

If this message is beginning to sound like it is all so very NICE but without substance, hold on. The life of a Christian has always been one to follow the cross, to make hard choices, to deny yourself, to submit to God’s Word in concrete ways in our day to day lives. How? You tell me. I don’t live where you live, I don’t know your family, neighbors, the people you work with. But you do. Think right now, how are you being brother, sister, neighbor? How do they think of you? You may be the only sermon they see all week. We can’t walk past people who need help; we can’t keep silent while people are harming themselves and others. However, we have God to help us to know what to do. He asks us to arm ourselves with His Word, to use discernment, to pray before we act. Scripture tells us that believers do spiritual battle in the high heavenlies. Our enemy is not human. Why are we so focused on what the media says? We need to ask God what is going on.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

So much of what passes for success, so much of our time and our work are poured out for the attainment of things that are of little value at the end of our lives. What does popularity mean anyway? What does it matter what people think of you? Be what God is calling you to be. Be very careful about measuring yourself by anyone else’s yardstick. Oh, it matters what your character is, and if your every action matches it. Your reputation matters, but only as it promotes what is good and true and eternal. Too many people want very much to be seen as the smartest person in the room, or the coolest kid in class, and their actions and behaviors show it. Our world, our country, even the churches suffer because people want to be seen as being up-to-date rather than in step with the eternal. It is not as though Scripture does not tell us what virtues we are to embody. It is helpful to hear again that most of the so-called virtues are merely a believer’s embodiment of a spiritual good that is one of God’s spiritual gifts or fruits.

Spiritual life is liquid. What? For example, Scripture says God’s love is poured into our hearts. We are nothing but wineskins folks. You know how they use to make wineskins, right? Don’t glorify people. We are just skin and bones, and our worldly existence is just a matter of a certain number of years. It is our spiritual existence that counts for so much more, and even there, what is there to glorify? Even as we are caught up in the spiritual, we are just skin, a wineskin, we can get inflated with hot air and get all puffed up, or we can ask God to fill us with the new wine of the Kingdom, to pour His love into our hearts, that we become gushing fountains of love, that this love wash over the people in our lives, that we all be refreshed. This world is a hard place these days and people are wrung out, cried out and dried up, become hard and brittle. Or maybe that’s just me?

High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heavens Son!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O ruler of all.

There is much in the Scriptures about sight. Jesus’ last words to his followers in Matthew before ascending were that they should teach new disciples to observe all things whatsoever he commanded. Observe. God is watching. People are watching us to see what it is Christians believe. It matters. Pray to the Lord of the harvest.

Thanks be to God that we are part of the harvest through our faith in what God has done for us through Jesus’ redemptive death on the cross.

Jesus, be our victory. Help us in our struggle. Help us that when we hear you, our spiritual ears are not only being tickled with favorite verses from the Bible and well-loved hymns. Help us to appreciate being your followers and to really try to follow in your footsteps. Help us to see in discipleship a way of life. Help us to reach others for you in all we do, not just in select moments. We do love you, and so in your mercy, we ask again, look in favor on your people, make our lives count for the eternal, use us. Dear Lord, we look forward to heaven; give us a glimpse of it now. Give us new life Jesus, be life to us, be our all in all. +Amen

Daily Bible Reading | American Bible Society | Check it out.

2012-01-23T09:45:00.001-05:00

via dbr.americanbible.org

This is a good devotional resource.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Frederica Mathewes-Green :: The Pro-Life Cause, Orthodoxy, and Hope

2012-01-22T16:19:00.001-05:00

via frederica.com

Today is the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion—through all 50 states, for any reason whatsoever. When I was a college student, back in the 70’s, I was in favor of legalizing abortion. I wasn’t a Christian then, but I was a feminist, the first feminist in my dorm, and I was loudly in favor of social revolution and women’s rights. I took it for granted that abortion was necessary, if women were ever going to be equal to men.

Of course, I didn’t think the number of abortions would ever be very high. Most of us, at that time, assumed that women wouldn’t want to have abortions, and would do so only in the most extreme situations. Things didn’t turn out that way. As of last June, the number of abortions since Roe v. Wade was 53,600,000. (NRLC estimate of 49,551,703 through 2007, and 1 million /yr since then)

A number like that is hard to grasp. There’s a quote often attributed to Josef Stalin: “A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.” So people have tried to think of illustrations to make the numbers real. Many years ago, I heard a speaker say that, if the name of each child killed by abortion was inscribed on a monument like the Vietnam War memorial, the wall would stretch for 50 miles. That was a long time ago, and the wall by now would be several times longer; but of course no such wall could be built, because those children had no names.

Read the rest, please.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

My Messiah - A Celebration of Jesus Christ

2012-01-22T08:14:00.001-05:00

Click to Hear Some Whole Samples

28

Welcome!

Recently I fell in love with Handel's Messiah. The music of course is phenomenal, but what really captured me were the words. The entire text is taken from the Bible. For several weeks I found myself listening to the Messiah over and over again. It was a deeply edifying experience. Before long I started singing some of the words on my own. One day I was singing to myself, "the trumpet will sound..." and reflecting on this verse when the thought came to me to take this particular passage and the basic melody line and to write my own version that I could play on guitar and sing along with. Well, what followed that thought over the course of the next 3 and a half weeks was the coming together of the following 17 songs.

Together these songs contain the complete Scriptural text used by Handel and I've even held to the classic King James Version as a further tie in to his work. Occasionally I've added my own words to connect the biblical texts together or by way of offering a brief reflection, but these are relatively few. The text begins with the prophesies of Isaiah and then flow into the passages of the incarnation, nativity, life, death, resurrection, and final glorification of Jesus the Messiah. To sing and meditate on these texts is to meditate on the great rescue mission of God. We were drowning. God dove in to save us. The text of these songs tells that story.

via mymessiah.org

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Megadeth bassist studying for Lutheran ordination at Concordia

2012-01-22T07:43:00.001-05:00

via stltoday.com

A very interesting read.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

The Pietist Impulse in Christianity Conference -What a nice surprise! We can now listen to four of the talks for free. iTunes

2012-01-21T16:06:00.001-05:00

iTunes

iTunes is the world's easiest way to organize and add to your digital media collection.

We are unable to find iTunes on your computer. To download and subscribe to The Pietist Impulse in Christianity - Conference by Bethel University, get iTunes now.

Already have iTunes? Click I Have iTunes to open it now.

iTunes for Mac + PC

via itunes.apple.com

Donald Dayton's talk ought to be an eye-opener in reference to the "Anglo-American neglect of Pietism".

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Former Obama Staffer (2008 Iowa New Media Director) Busted for Stealing Iowa Secretary of State’s Identity | The Iowa Republican via @moelane @CFHeather

2012-01-21T11:18:00.001-05:00

via theiowarepublican.com

Reports are coming in (via @CFHeather) that a former Obama ’08 staffer – one Zach Edwards, formerly with the 2008 Obama campaign in Iowa and currently up until the arrest working for Link Strategies*, a company affiliated with Sen. Tom Harken (D, IA) – has been arrested for identity theft. The Iowa Department of Public Safety puts it fairly succinctly: “According to the Criminal Complaint, on June 24, 2011, Edwards fraudulently used, or attempted to use, the identity of Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz and/or Secretary Schultz’s brother, Thomas Schultz, with the intent to obtain a benefit, in an alleged scheme to falsely implicate Secretary Schultz in perceived illegal or unethical behavior while in office.” In other words: Edwards is accused of trying to pretend to be Schultz in order to get Schultz in trouble. The crime is listed as an ‘Aggravated Misdemeanor,’ but if convicted Edwards could face jail time.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Frank Viola's Blog - How to Read Long Blog Posts

2012-01-21T09:14:00.001-05:00

by Frank Viola

Perhaps a more accurate title for this post would be, “How I Read Long Blog Posts.”

It’s very simple. Perhaps so simple that maybe taking up bandwidth to address it isn’t worth the effort. However, I somehow feel that this post is going to help a few people. If it does, let me know in the comments, would you? I’d be curious.

For starters, I never read long posts online. While some people “scan” long blog posts, I don’t like doing that. There are two reasons:

(1) I don’t want to miss anything that’s of value in a post. If I scan something online, I’ll undoubtedly miss something. Perhaps a lot.

(2) If I comment on the post, I want to accurately understand what the author wrote before I make a remark. I’ve noticed that some people have missed important points in some of my posts because they scanned them. Their comments made this evident. I don’t want to make the same mistake.

So how do I read long posts?

Simple. I print them out and put the printed sheets in a special folder entitled “To Read.” I then read them offline later with a highlighter in hand. If I really like the post, I’ll spread it via Twitter, Facebook, and StumbleUpon (the latter can make a post visible to thousands of people). I usually spread the post after I skim it online, before printing it out. I can tell if a post is worth spreading by skimming it. But I’ll read every word later carefully when its printed.

I have several loose-leaf notebooks full of highlighted blog posts, essays, and articles that I’ve printed out. I keep them for future reference.

Note that I only follow this procedure for lengthy online posts. Examples of what I would consider “long posts” of my own would be:

Advice for Bloggers

Advice for Authors

Beyond Evangelical: Part I

Beyond Evangelical: Part II

So these would be marked for printing.

If a post is short (300 to 800 words), I’ll read it online. But if it’s long, I’ll print it out for later reading.

How do you process long posts?

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

"Are You Jesus?" (seen at @asacredrebel)

2012-01-20T14:51:00.001-05:00

Got this in an email and had to share…

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago . They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night’s dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding…
ALL BUT ONE !!!
He paused, took a deep breath, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.. He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor. He was glad he did. The 16year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.
The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket. When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, ‘Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?’
She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, ‘I hope we didn’t spoil your day too badly.’
As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, ‘Mister…….’ He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes.
She continued, ‘Are you Jesus?’
He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: ‘Are you Jesus?’
Do people mistake you for Jesus? That’s our Destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace. If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It’s actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day. You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.

via asacredrebel.wordpress.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

SETH GODIN: If You're An Average Worker, You're Going Straight To The Bottom by Vivian Giang by Business Insider

2012-01-20T14:45:00.001-05:00

via businessinsider.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Stuffed With Junk

2012-01-20T14:20:00.001-05:00

by Ron Hutchcraft

The other day one of our team members shared a discovery she made during the remodeling of her kitchen. The counter top had been removed, and as she looked into this little 6"x8" drawer by the sink, she saw that it was completely stuffed – with "stuff"! She realized that for 24 years she had been sticking things into that drawer – twist ties, rubber bands ... you know, everything. There were some useful things in the back, but there were inaccessible because of all the "stuff." Now, it had been a long time since the drawer had been opened very much – our friend just crammed things into it and occasionally pulled it open an inch or two to use something out of it. But looking down on it all from above, she was surprised to see what was in there. Almost everything in that drawer could be thrown away – but it was accumulating for years. And that drawer was much more useful now that it was emptied out.

You've got to wonder what God sees when He looks down on the contents of our life. The "top" is always off as far as His view of us is concerned. He sees directly into our heart, our motives, our every thought. And all too often, our life and our heart are cluttered with "stuff"... things we've filled our life with that are simply unnecessary to Him, useless to Him – actually limiting our usefulness to Him.

Some of us won't realize how useless a lot of our life has been until it's too late to do anything about it – we'll wait until the Judgment Seat of Christ. Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians 3, beginning with verse 11, our word for today from the Word of God. He says, "No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones (that's filling your life with things that will last, that have eternal significance), wood, hay, or straw (things that are just "stuff"), his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light ... the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames." You get one life. You can fill it with things that really matter or with things that really don't. With things that will last forever or things that will be gone in a moment. And often what this world stresses as being important is really just "stuff" – and what Jesus says is important, our world thinks isn't much.

So when the Lord looks down inside your life, is it crammed with a lot of "stuff" that just doesn't mean much? A lot of time in front of a television, hours on the Internet, listening to music, talking on the phone, following sports, pouring yourself into causes and diversions that won't matter much in eternity at all? It's not that these things are necessarily bad. The problem is when "stuff" that should be peripheral becomes central in your life. That's when it's time to reevaluate your priorities. It's time to see your life through God's eyes, and clean out what's not useful – the trivial pursuits.

When you do, you become so much more useful to your Lord. And the more you fall in love with Him, the less you'll be stuffing your hours, your days, your mind and your heart with "stuff." You'll be about what Jesus is about. You'll be "seeking first the Kingdom of God." (Matthew 6:33)

As seen in Ron Hutchcraft's "A Word With You." Reprinted with permission. "A Word With You" is a radio outreach of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Institute of Lutheran Theology: Spring 2012 has Paul Hinlicky, Hans Hildebrand, Robert Benne, Mark Hillmer, Dennis Bielfeldt and more.

2012-01-20T10:43:00.001-05:00

via ilt.org

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Jonathan D. Fitzgerald: Can You Come to Jesus Without Church? Commentary on the video "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus."

2012-01-20T09:55:00.001-05:00

via online.wsj.com

"Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus" has been viewed more than 10 million times in the past 10 days.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Abortion is now America’s most common surgical procedure performed on adults.

2012-01-20T09:44:00.001-05:00

via albertmohler.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

This looks like fun >>====> Obama forgets | Americans for Prosperity | @AFPress: New campaign launching tomorrow: #ObamaForgets. Get ready! @AFPhq

2012-01-18T19:15:00.001-05:00

via americansforprosperity.org

"Check back every day as we unveil a new important issue of President Obama's administration that he's conveniently forgotten when discussing job creation, our economy, and other critical issues. Then on Tuesday, 2/24 we'll be hosting State of the Union "Watch Parties" all across the nation, featuring a live broadcast with AFP President Tim Phillips along with special guests! Find the watch party nearest you, or tune in here to watch live streaming coverage."

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

House approves resolution opposing Obama's debt limit hike

2012-01-18T16:58:00.001-05:00

via thehill.com

" Ron Paul deadpanned that the federal government's overspending is at least be limited to two places. "Where do we spend too much money? In two places: overseas and domestically."

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Liturgical Worship Slides by George Erdner

2012-01-18T11:03:00.001-05:00

I make clear, simple, no-gimmick, Power Point slide sets for Lutheran Churches to use during liturgical worship. My services are reasonably priced. Lutheran congregations that use projection screens for hymns and other liturgical information need someone to prepare their slides. If you don't have staff or volunteers to handle making your slides, then you need to contact me.
Projected slides are a useful tool for liturgical worship!
We Lutheran Christians sometimes find ourselves caught between two conflicting aspects of our traditions. On the one hand, we have a reputation for being slow to accept change. Consider the joke about how many Lutherans it takes to change a light bulb. On the other hand, we were among the first to embrace new technology for worship and Christian education. Luther put Gutenberg’s printing press to good use printing the first mass-produced Bible. Lutheran composer Johann Sebastian Bach helped make the pipe organ the voice of Lutheran worship music.
Today, one of the new technologies that is increasingly being used for worship is projection screens. As with other innovations, there are some problems and objections to overcome.

One of the biggest objections to using projection screens is that often all that is projected are the words. If the congregation isn’t totally familiar with the hymn or liturgical music, having only the lyrics without the music makes worship a little more difficult, not a little easier. However, just because most church projection screens are only used to show the lyrics, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t possible to project the music.

Another objection is that what’s on the screens often distracts from worship. When each slide of hymn lyrics has a gorgeous scenic panorama behind it, that objection can have merit. But that doesn't mean that slides can’t be created that provide the information that the worshipper needs, but does so without distractions.

And a third objection is that quite often, worshippers encounter projection screens at worship services that leave out much of the rich liturgical traditions of Lutheran worship practices. There will always be some disagreement between those who favor traditional Lutheran liturgical worship and those who prefer the less liturgical “contemporary” worship styles. However, just because there are more contemporary worship services that use projection screens, that doesn't mean that projection screens can’t be a useful tool for use in traditional, liturgical worship.

There are some real advantages to using projection screens instead of the alternatives. Those of us with long histories of participating in Lutheran worship know all too well about the challenges of the “Lutheran Shuffle”. I can remember as a boy having to prepare my hymnal for worship. I had to look up the hymns, and mark them with pieces of paper. I had to have the bulletin insert ready with the Prayer of the Day. I had to have marks in for the places where we had to flip to in order to find the Creed or the Order for Public Confession. And, if a congregation used two hymnals, such as the Lutheran Book of Worship and With One Voice, the confusion was increased. For an experienced Lutheran, mastering the Lutheran Shuffle wasn’t all that difficult. To first-time visitors, it was daunting. One has to wonder how many first-time visitors didn’t become second-time visitors because the liturgy was too confusing to follow.

That’s why the “bulletin” service became popular. Congregations would print the entire service in the bulletin. Services like “Sundays and Seasons” from the ELCA’s Augsburg-Fortress or “Lutheran Service Builder” from the LCMS publishing arm, Concordia, made the resources needed for printing the entire service in bulletins available for easy use.

Though bulletin services are easier to use than juggling a hymnal (or hymnals) and bulletin, they do use up a lot of paper. And, they still keep the worshippers’ eyes down reading from something in their hands instead of looking up and forward, towards the Cross and the Altar.

The church I’m a member of, Amazing Grace Lutheran Church, in Lawrenceville, Georgia, has figured out how to use projection screens to their best effect for traditional, liturgical Lutheran worship. I was blessed to have been able to take over the job of preparing the weekly slides for our worship. I’ve been preparing the weekly worship slides for almost a year now, as well as special slide sets for seasons like Lent.

I’ve also been looking for a way to earn a living, when I learned that many congregations didn’t have anyone who could prepare their worship slides for them. As I was taught many years ago, when God gives you a talent and shows you that people need that talent, that’s a call. I remembered Luke 10:7, “the laborer deserves to be paid”, so I decided to offer my services to any congregation that needs someone to prepare their slides for them.
ShareThis!! | Bookmark

via ourchurch.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Possible Change in Lebanon's Electoral System Is Move to Address Sectarianism

2012-01-17T20:37:00.001-05:00

Lebanon’s peculiar brand of democracy, dysfunctional and widely unpopular, is a perennial source of national vexation, debated over Sunday lunches and in the press.
Bryan Denton for The New York TimesVoters in Beirut, Lebanon, in June 2009.
Since the end of the civil war in 1989, half of Parliament has been reserved for Christians, the other half for Muslims, with each half distributed among 11 of Lebanon’s 18 officially recognized sects (Maronite, Greek Orthodox, Protestant, Sunni, Shiite, Druze, Alawite, etc). Each of Parliament’s (pdf) 128 seats is sect-specific: only members of that sect can run for it. (Voters, however, can cast their ballot for every seat in their district regardless of their own religious affiliation.) The president must be a Maronite, the prime minister a Sunni and the speaker of Parliament a Shiite. Hundreds of bureaucratic appointments are also subject to sectarian apportionment under the Constitution.
The imposition of religious representativeness in politics is a scourge. In the best of circumstances, it is vulnerable to the demagoguery of religious leaders; in the worst, it breeds civil violence and paralyzes the government. But others fear that a more open system would not provide the guarantees of power-sharing among religious minorities that the current model entails.
In recent months, the focus of these long-standing divergences has centered on the intricacies of Lebanon’s electoral law. The next parliamentary elections are less than a year and a half away, and a loose coalition of civil society groups, independent politicians and Lebanon’s president – the former army general Michel Suleiman — has recently proposed implementing a system of proportional representation to replace the current majoritarian, or “winner-take-all,” model.
Under the existing system, a fledgling party with a small but dedicated following stands no chance of getting its candidates elected in a district where a more established party holds sway. Under proportional representation — in which seats are allocated in keeping with the share of votes collected — a small party could win some seats with a minority of votes. In addition to ensuring multiparty representation in each district, proportional representation would empower lesser-known independent candidates. Over time the newcomers could coalesce to form a bulwark against the traditional political mainstream and advance a more liberal agenda.
Predictably, most major parties have conspired to protect the status quo; they want to maintain their primacy within it. The Future Movement, the main Sunni party, worries that the Sunni allies of its Shiite archrival, Hezbollah, might encroach on its turf. Walid Jumblatt, the country’s main Druze leader, fears that he would lose votes to other Druze figures with small-time followings in his traditional stronghold, the Chouf mountains.
In a rare show of unity, the leaders of Lebanon’s main Christian parties have come together to oppose the president’s draft law. The proposed law would combine Lebanon’s small electoral districts into fewer and larger ones, which is necessary for proportional representation to work effectively. (Imagine an election between 10 different parties in a 10-seat district: if each party wins 10 percent of the overall vote, each one gets its own seat. In a two-seat district, only the top two lists win seats.) But an electoral map with larger districts also means larger constituencies, which in turn means that substantial numbers of Christian candidates could be voted in on the lists of non-Christian parties (like the Future Movement and Hezbollah). And that would erode the influence of the traditional Christian political elite.
And so the Christian political establishment has offered a radical counter-proposal: a law that would institute proportional representation but also require citizens to vote only for members of their own sect (Sunnis would elect Sunnis; Greek Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, etc.)
One of the many problems with this idea is that it would generate considerable inequalities of suffrage between Christians and Muslims. As is, Christians already have greater voting power than Muslims because they still occupy half of Parliament even though they now represent less than half of Lebanon’s population. Under the new proposal, this disparity in representation would be further exacerbated.
Worse is the vision of Lebanon’s political future at the heart of the Christian plan. The president’s proposal envisages a country whose citizens vote for candidates on the basis of party affiliation and political platform, not sect. The Christians’ counter-proposal imagines Lebanon as a collection of 18 insular religious communities jealously nominating their own nobility and eyeing one another with suspicion. The first model is a bold step toward dismantling political sectarianism; the second is an enormous step backward, toward greater divisiveness.
Because of its inexpediency, a substantive revision of the electoral law in time for the 2013 elections seems unlikely — despite the fact that a solid majority of Lebanese say they would prefer proportional representation to the current system. Yet if Lebanon is ever to establish a new social contract — one based on true citizenship rather than begrudging coexistence — it will need to change its electoral arithmetic.
Elias Muhanna is a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Program on Arab Reform & Democracy. He writes about Lebanese political affairs on the blog Qifa Nabki.

via latitude.blogs.nytimes.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

When 'Effectiveness' Is Not Effective. In Haiti, we have to trust that our labor is not in vain. by Richard Stearns

2012-01-17T14:55:00.001-05:00

Speaking Out

When 'Effectiveness' Is Not Effective

In Haiti, we have to trust that our labor is not in vain.

Richard Stearns | posted 1/13/2012 10:36AM

Two years ago, Port au Prince, Haiti, shook from an earthquake that would kill nearly a quarter of a million people, leave a million more homeless, and set the country's development back decades. When World Vision and a host of other relief agencies and governments initially responded, we sensed an opportunity to not only supply immediate care but to assist Haiti onto a permanent path to prosperity.

Helping people lift themselves out of poverty is a complex task, involving technical issues in agriculture, infrastructure, and health; social issues like the treatment of women and education for children; as well as spiritual, moral, and political concerns. NGOs and governments understand well these complexities, and yet, in Haiti, even our best practices have been put to the test. The work has been daunting, often with modest accomplishments. Even the most stalwart among us have sometimes wondered whether we could show the kind of success in Haiti that we hoped for.

To be sure, the problems in Haiti are tremendous. Even before the earthquake, the country had the poorest economy in the Western hemisphere, with 4 of every 10 household unable to access basic nutritional needs. Only one in every 50 Haitians has a steady, wage-earning job. Today, a half-million people are still living in tents. A cholera epidemic has infected nearly 500,000 people, and in an ironic twist the disease's presence in the country is being blamed on UN peacekeepers.

Many also blame development organizations for creating dependency among Haitians. It takes a deep understanding of the culture and the people's needs, as well as a long-term presence to help without creating problems. Yet even after 30 years in the country, World Vision has experienced its own challenges following the quake. We struggled to build shelters for the homeless as we had difficulty finding staff with the necessary language and skill qualifications. And the lack of clarity about land ownership made it further difficult to identify sites for transitional shelters.

Meanwhile, Haiti has almost no functioning and trustworthy civil institutions. The government has a corruption rating of 175 out of 183 countries. It takes almost two years to obtain the permits necessary just to build a warehouse. Aid workers face an uphill battle as they care for immediate physical needs, engage culturally, and work within government systems that are foundationally broken.

Looking strictly through the lens of effectiveness and bang for the 'humanitarian dollar', Haiti has not been the best investment. But the lens of the Gospel compels us to see the world through eyes that look beyond measures of effectiveness and efficiency. Certainly, we must strive for efficacy as stewards of God's own possessions. As in the parable of the talents, we will be held responsible for how we have used the resources God has given us. Coming to work at World Vision, I brought business practices of accountability and rigor that I think are essential to running an effective organization. I believe that God doesn't value ineffectiveness and waste any more than we do.

Yet God does not coolly calculate returns on his investments without regard to human suffering either. World Vision has a formula for where we direct money and what we seek to raise money for. That formula tries to balance efficiency and cost effectiveness with our belief that some activities are worth doing simply because they a demonstrate God's love. After all, sometimes hurting people just need someone to walk alongside them—even when it may be inefficient to do so based on a strict assessment of "ROI."

share this page
|
]]>-->
January (Web-Only) 2012, Vol. 56

via christianitytoday.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

To Find Happiness, Forget About Passion - Oliver Segovia - Harvard Business Review

2012-01-17T14:39:00.001-05:00

Several years ago, a friend decided she wanted to follow her passion. She loved the liberal arts and academe. She was a talented graphic designer, a great writer, and was the president of a student club. But the prospect of working a nine-to-five job was never interesting. I can't blame her. After all, ours is a millennial generation proselytized to pursue our dreams. So she spent seven years getting a PhD, writing an award-winning dissertation in the process. It was a wonderful ride while it lasted, and she was among the happiest people I knew.

Then the recession hit. The value of university endowments crashed. Teaching and research positions were cut. She moved back in with her family, stopped paying off her student loans, and waited two years before getting a minor teaching role in a small research center. Throughout this time, she suffered the anguish of an uncertain future, became socially withdrawn, and felt a sense of betrayal.

It's a poster tale for our times. Was following her passion worth it?

Like myself, today's twentysomethings were raised to find our dreams and follow them. But it's a different world. And as the jobless generation grows up, we realize the grand betrayal of the false idols of passion. This philosophy no longer works for us, or at most, feels incomplete. So what do we do? I propose a different frame of reference: Forget about finding your passion. Instead, focus on finding big problems.

Putting problems at the center of our decision-making changes everything. It's not about the self anymore. It's about what you can do and how you can be a valuable contributor. People working on the biggest problems are compensated in the biggest ways. I don't mean this in a strict financial sense, but in a deeply human sense. For one, it shifts your attention from you to others and the wider world. You stop dwelling. You become less self-absorbed. Ironically, we become happier if we worry less about what makes us happy.

The good thing is that there are a lot of big problems to go by: climate change, sustainability, poverty, education, health care, technology, and urbanization in emerging markets. What big problem serves as your compass? If you're a young leader and you haven't articulated this yet, here are some things you can do.

Develop situational awareness. There's too much focus on knowing the self. Balance this with knowing the world. Stay in touch. Be sensitive to the problems faced by the unfortunate and marginalized. Get out of the office and volunteer. If you're in school, get out of the classroom. It's been a long time coming, but business schools are finally instituting changes that put the real world at the center of their programs.

Look into problems that affect you in a very personal way. We're more likely to be motivated by problems we can relate to on a personal level. In Passion & Purpose, Umaimah Mendhro recounts her story fleeing a war-torn Pakistan with her family and how the experience of dodging bullets to escape helped her summon the wherewithal to found thedreamfly.org, an initiative that helps create connections across communities in conflict.

Connect with people working on big problems. In a world where problems are by their very nature interdisciplinary, just getting to know people who are passionate about one problem leads to discussions on how other problems can be solved. When Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala helped reinvent Manila Water to better provide for the Philippines' capital, he had to deal not only with the typical issues a public utility had to face, but also with problems related to climate change, technology, and community development.

Take time off and travel. Forget about traveling as a tourist. Instead, structure a trip that takes you off the beaten path. Go to an unconventional place. Backpack and get lost. The broader and richer experience pays dividends down the line. Steve Jobs described his time living in India as one of the most enriching and mind-opening phases of his life, and this undoubtedly helped him develop the intuition to solve the big problem of making lives simpler through technology.

We don't find happiness by looking within. We go outside and immerse in the world. We are called to a higher purpose by the inescapable circumstances that are laid out on our path. It's our daily struggles that define us and bring out the best in us, and this lays down the foundation to continuously find fulfillment in what we do even when times get tough.

Happiness comes from the intersection of what you love, what you're good at, and what the world needs. We've been told time and again to keep finding the first. Our schools helped developed the second. It's time we put more thought on the third.

What big problems are you trying to solve?

This post is part of a series of blog posts by and about the new generation of purpose-driven leaders.

via blogs.hbr.org

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

News from Lutheran CORE

2012-01-16T10:59:00.002-05:00
Go here.

The Associated Press: Social media widens scope of Nigeria fuel protests

2012-01-14T19:20:00.001-05:00

Social media widens scope of Nigeria fuel protests

By YINKA IBUKUN, Associated Press – 12 hours ago

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — A nationwide strike and demonstrations have unleashed years of pent-up frustrations in Nigeria over its kleptocratic leaders, and the rage has grown even stronger across social media this week.
Twitter users shared pictures of dead protesters while others broke down the oil-rich nation's 2012 budget figures, comparing funds allocated to the president and vice president's offices with the cost of living of the average Nigerian. Hackers have targeted government websites, while others criticized local news coverage of demonstrations in nation where journalists often accept bribes from those they cover.
"I think the government has opened a can of worms and we are now picking each one at a time," said Kola Oyeneyin, 31, an entrepreneur who uses Twitter to give protest updates.
Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets across Africa's most populous nation to protest the government's removal on Jan. 1 of a subsidy that had kept gasoline prices low for more than two decades. Overnight, prices at the pump more than doubled, from $1.70 per gallon (45 cents per liter) to at least $3.50 per gallon (94 cents per liter). The costs of food and transportation also doubled in a nation where most live on less than $2 a day.
President Goodluck Jonathan insists the move was necessary to save the country an estimated $8 billion a year, which he promises will go toward badly needed roads and public projects. But the president, who used Facebook to announce he would run in the nation's presidential elections last year, has faced increasingly angry comments on his own profile where most offered praise in the past.
Protesters — who joined the current nationwide labor strike under the hash-tagged slogan of "Occupy Nigeria" — say the government is in no position to ask people to sacrifice in a nation with extravagant government spending and a history of widespread theft of billions by military rulers and politicians.
Nigeria, an OPEC member nation producing about 2.4 million barrels of crude oil a day, is a top supplier to the U.S., but virtually all of its petroleum products are imported after years of graft, mismanagement and violence at its refineries.
"They (the government) are saying that they need to save. OK, but do you need to save by making us pay for your waste?" Oyeneyin asked.
The country only recently passed a Freedom of Information bill granting, in theory, public access to documents. But the nation's budgeting remains opaque at best in a nation that operated for years under an official secrets act that made unauthorized release of government information an imprisonable offense.
"People are now more informed about what's going on and it won't be long before we have an open and transparent government," said Ngozi Sulaiman, a businesswoman who was sending photos to her Blackberry contacts from a protest in a posh Lagos neighborhood.
However, social media also has spread false information about government resignations in recent days as well. Text messages circulating the country also fed a rumor that a radical Islamist sect planned to infiltrate and bomb demonstrations.
A group of hackers also have attacked a series of government websites over several days, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Friday.
Eager to calm public anger, government-aligned groups have published front-page newspaper advertisements for days trying to sell Nigeria's more than 160 million people on the idea that money saved by removing fuel subsidies will go toward needed projects. While Nigeria has an unruly free press, underpaid journalists often accept so-called "brown envelope" bribes slipped into briefing documents at news conferences. And at least one private news channel in the country has gotten calls from government officials asking it not to broadcast live images of a daily demonstration in Lagos that drew more than 20,000 people on Friday alone.
Criticism of news on the state-run Nigerian Television Authority also sparked a protest outside its Lagos headquarters by more than a thousand people Thursday. The channel aired a short story on the protest 43 minutes into its nightly broadcast, after a host of pro-subsidy removal stories and commercials.
The protests will continue to be swayed by social media, despite low incomes, as Nigeria has the continent's top mobile phone market and is estimated to have the largest online audience in Africa.

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

via google.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Kinderbeten by Eric J. Swensson at Wipf and Stock Publishers

2012-01-14T16:11:00.001-05:00

Check out this website I found at wipfandstock.com

Kinderbeten
The Origin, Unfolding, and Interpretations of the Silesian Children's Prayer Revival
By Eric Jonas Swensson
- Book Description
Research in the roots of evangelicalism and revivalism uncovers its share of peculiarities, but nothing is more unusual than what follows. What we have here is a compelling story touching on the exercise of free religion, the religious wars in Europe, the roots of Evangelicalism, the supernatural, and more, all wrapped up in a religious revival which began not through a charismatic revivalist or any adult at all, but rather found it's origin with children aged four to fourteen. The children became pawns in a controversy between political and religious opponents. Indulge your curiosity and read the remarkable story about the King of Sweden and the 1707-08 Children's Revival in Silesia, a tale of hope and prayer.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

A Year in Tyr

2012-01-14T16:09:00.001-05:00

Check out this website I found at createspace.com

A Year in Tyr
Authored by Eric Jonas Swensson
Lebanon may not receive the most news coverage, but this book will make you think it should. It was written by an American during the year 2009-2010, when his wife took a job working for an NGO near the border with Israel. Become an armchair expat as he shares his experiences of anti-American bias and the chances of a war with Israel constantly looming. You will be fascinated to walk through Tyr vicariously, and troubled as you realize what lurks below the surface there also lurks here and everywhere.
Since his wife had the job, and his son went to school, the American would take lengthy walks daily through the nearby city of Tyr, observing and experiencing the locals, the expatriot international community, Hizbullah, historic sites, and the Mediterranean Sea in ways he had never encountered before.
His memoir, A Year in Tyr, is the result. It is a fascinating yet troubling record of one American's sojourn from the good life, to anxiety over anti-American bias, to dread of war with Israel, which seems to loom as a very real possibility at all times among those who live in southern Lebanon. Told with warmth and humor at times and very tough talk at others, A Year in Tyr is sure to get people talking about something Margaret Atwood raised when she said, "There is just one race -- the human race -- and we are all members of it." This book is a wake-up call on that very subject.
This is the second release by the author, Eric Jonas Swensson. His first book was Kinderbeten, an historical work. He had planned to use the year in Tyr to do more historical research in his field, but he found the subject of Lebanon and its present-day politics right in his face and very compelling. So will you.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Parable of the Pencil

2012-01-13T14:46:00.001-05:00

The Pencil Maker took the pencil aside, just before putting him into the box. "There are 5 things you need to know,"
he told the pencil, "before I send you out into the world. Always remember them and you'll become the best pencil you can be.

One: You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in someone's hand.
Two: You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, but you'll need it to become a better pencil.

Three: You will be able to correct mistakes you will make.
Four: The most important part of you will always be what's inside.
And Five: On every surface you are used on, you must leave your mark. No matter what the condition, you must continue to write."

The pencil understood and promised to remember, and went into the box with purpose in its heart.

Now replacing the place of the pencil with you; always remember them and never forget, and you will become the best person you can be.

One: You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in God's hand. Do allow other human beings to access you for the many gifts you possess.
Two: You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, by going through various problems, but you'll need it to become a stronger person.

Three: You will be able to correct mistakes you might make or grow through them.
Four: The most important part of you will always be what's on the inside.
And Five: On every surface you walk, you must leave your mark. No matter what the situation, you must continue to serve God in everything.

By understanding and remembering, let us proceed with our life on this earth having a meaningful purpose in our heart and a relationship with God daily.

Hat tip to Timothy Satryan,

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

During his Birmingham civil rights campaign, Dr. King required every participant to sign a pledge committing to do 10 things. 1st was to "meditate daily on the teachings and life of Jesus." Martin Luther King Day by Chuck Colson

2012-01-13T13:34:00.001-05:00

Monday, January 16, is Martin Luther King Day. Most schools recognize the day – as they should – but will they teach students about Dr. King's Christian faith, which motivated and guided his campaign for civil rights?

During his Birmingham civil rights campaign, Dr. King required every participant to sign a pledge committing to do 10 things. The first was to "meditate daily on the teachings and life of Jesus." Others included the expectation that all participants would "walk and talk in the manner of love, for God is love" and "pray daily to be used by God in order that all men might be free."

To truly understand Martin Luther King, students must learn about his Christian faith. It was at the heart of what he did.
as seen in Chuck Colson's "BreakPoint" commentary, on January 6, 2012

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Trust God to Use Your Problems for Good by Rock Warren

2012-01-13T13:31:00.001-05:00

by Rick Warren
"We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead." (2 Corinthians 1:8-9, NLT, 2nd edition)

Did Jesus suffer? Was Jesus sometimes lonely? Was he tempted to be discouraged? Was he misunderstood, maligned, and criticized unjustly?
Of course! None of us are exempt from suffering, loneliness, discouragement, or unjust criticism, because God is developing within us the character of Christ, and, in order to do this, he must take us through all of the circumstances in life through which he took Christ.

Does this mean God causes tragedies? No. God is good, and he will not cause evil or do evil. But God can use dark and stressful times for good. He'll use them to teach us to trust him (2 Corinthians 1:8-9), to show us how to help others (2 Corinthians 1:4-6), and to draw us closer to other believers (2 Corinthians 1:11).

So, what should you do when you're going through difficult times?
Refuse to be discouraged.
Remember God is with you.
Rely on God's protection and guidance.
We all go through difficult times. The difference for those who believe in Jesus is not the absence of the shadow but the presence of the Light.

as seen in Rick Warren's "The Purpose Driven Connection Daily Devotional" for January 11, 2012

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

SoulWork Why the Bible is Not a Book of Moral Laws: Contrary to popular belief, it's the startling gift book. by Mark Galli

2012-01-12T14:30:00.001-05:00

SoulWork

Why the Bible is Not a Book of Moral Laws

Contrary to popular belief, it's the startling gift book.

Mark Galli | posted 1/12/2012 10:23AM

It has often been said that our culture has lost its moorings. Like many times and places in history, ours is an era when everyone does what is right in his own eyes (cf. Judges 17:6). So this is just the sort of time God loves best, when he can demonstrate once more that he came in Christ to call not the righteous, but those who have lost their moorings.

But that is not our instinct at such times. When morals go awry, when people behave badly, our first thought is to hammer them with law: "Stop doing that. Start doing this." In the home and in church, that is certainly my instinct. And I'm often tempted to bring God in as an ally: "The Bible teaches … so you should …"

Thus I perfectly understand the drive of those Christians who call this morally unmoored culture to return to "biblical values." But too often, the call to return to biblical values is tethered to an attempt to manipulate people into correct behavior. Note the recent kerfuffle raised by the Florida Family Association—whose goal is to "defend, protect, and promote traditional biblical values"—when they pressured Lowe's to pull ads from the TV show All American Muslim.

This use of "biblical values" corresponds mostly to the agenda of political conservatives. But conservatives do not have a corner on biblical values. So periodically, we hear calls from moderates and liberals to make political decisions based on "biblical values," which in this context means concern for the poor and peacemaking, among other concerns.

Every once in a while, political leaders join the chorus, though they have to be careful. In December, British prime minister David Cameron got into hot water when he suggested, at a ceremony honoring the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible at Westminster Abbey, that "the Bible has helped to give Britain a set of values and morals which make Britain what it is today." He suggested that adhering to biblical values would counter "the absence of any real accountability or moral code" which recently allowed "some bankers and politicians to behave with scant regard for the rest of society." He also noted the British riots of last summer and "the ongoing terrorist threat from Islamist extremists." He said "moral neutrality and passive tolerance just isn't going to cut it anymore."

One can certainly understand British frustration, given all they've endured this past year. Again, when things go awry morally, we instinctively want to bring the weight of moral law, in this case "biblical values," to bear.

But this strategy never seems to work. First, it is no longer persuasive in religiously pluralistic cultures or officially secular states. People in such societies are deeply suspicious of values that might arise from one religious tradition. Second, there is human nature. The more you tell someone to submit to biblical values, the more likely they are to rebel against them. Biblical values outside of the context of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are heard as nothing more than oppressive law.

In the church, things can be a different. Grounded first in the forgiveness of Christ, talk of biblical values can be salutary. The Bible's ethical teachings then are seen for what they are: guidelines for living a life of love. They are not law, but concrete ways to live as people redeemed by grace.

But again, our natural instinct is to turn even these salutary teachings into mere law even in the church. I have seen signs of this in my own tradition, Anglicanism. We conservatives in the Episcopal Church kept insisting on the need for the bishops to "submit to the authority of the Bible" on the issue of sexual ethics, and when the Episcopal Church refused, a few years ago we took our Bibles and started our own church.

share this page
|
]]>-->
January (Web-Only) 2012, Vol. 56

via christianitytoday.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Equipping Christians to Evangelize Muslims - Gospel Fellowship Association

2012-01-12T14:26:00.001-05:00

Pamphlets

These pamphlets may be obtained in quantity by contacting GFA.

For My Muslim Friend

            American Tract Society
            PO Box 462008
            Garland, TX 75046-2008
            www.atstracts.org

Who is Jesus? (Available in English, Arabic, Urdu, and many other languages.)

            End Time Handmaidens, Inc.
            PO Box 447
            Jasper, AR 72641

Websites and Contact Information

Friends of Muslims
PO Box 6585
Wyomissing, PA 19610
www.answering-islam.org

Arabic Bible Outreach Ministry
PO Box 486
Dracut, MA 01826
http://www.arabicbible.com/

Multi-Language Media
PO Box 301
Ephrata, PA 17522
www.multilanguage.com

Fellowship of Faith for Muslims
PO Box 65214
Toronto, ON M4K 3Z2
CANADA

Books

These books are available from www.christianbook.com or 1-800-247-4784.

Reasoning from the Scriptures with Muslims by Ron Rhodes
More Than A Prophet by Emir Fethi Caner and Ergun Mehmet Caner

DVD

Light in the Shadows (12 minute DVD)

Light in the Shadows is a DVD presentation about reaching Muslims who are immigrating to Western cities in unprecedented numbers. Discover what draws unbelieving Muslims to the Savior. Learn the Five Pillars of Islam and what a Muslim believes about the Bible.

You may order a copy of this DVD by calling the GFA home office at 864-609-5500, or by going to the Online Giving page of this web site. The suggested donation for the DVD is $20.00. Please include your mailing address and indicate that your donation is for the Light in the Shadows DVD.

The Muslim Community

Muslims are growing in number not only in their traditional power base, the Middle East, but also around the world.

India alone has 100 million Muslims

China has 100 million Muslims

Indonesia has more than 180 million

Muslims constitute a majority in 45 African and Asian countries.

England - Muslim Mosques number over 1,000 today compared to one in 1945.

France - Islam is now the second largest religion with thousands of Mosques now in existence.

Spain, Germany, Italy, and Denmark have growing Muslim communities

In 1990, there were only 30 mosques in the U.S. -- now there are over 3,000.

via gfamissions.org

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Behind The Wall - Year of the Dragon woes for China-U.S. ties?

2012-01-12T13:09:00.001-05:00

via behindthewall.msnbc.msn.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Bach: Magnificat BWV 243 - YouTube

2012-01-12T11:39:00.001-05:00

via youtube.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Astronomers think planets in Milky Way outnumber galaxy's 100 billion stars | LoHud.com

2012-01-12T06:56:00.001-05:00

via lohud.com

Interesting.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

"You can only know and think about it by actually doing it. It is no use asking questions; for it is only through obedience that you come to learn the truth." -Bonhoeffer

2012-01-12T06:46:00.001-05:00

Every moment and every situation challenges us to action and to obedience. We have literally no time to sit down and ask ourselves whether so-and-so is our neighbour or not. We must get into action and obey—we must behave like a neighbour to him. But perhaps this shocks you. Perhaps you still think you ought to think out beforehand and know what you ought to do. To that, there is only one answer. You can only know and think about it by actually doing it. It is no use asking questions; for it is only through obedience that you come to learn the truth.

... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), The Cost of Discipleship, Simon and Schuster, 1959, p. 77  (see the book; see also Heb. 5:8; more at Neighbor, Obedience, Truth)

http://www.cqod.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Reflections on the Gift of the Holy Spirit in Baptism and the Relation of Our Baptism with the Baptism of Our Lord

2012-01-11T10:40:00.001-05:00

Liturgical congregations follow a schedule of readings and there are many “festivals” beyond Christmas and Easter. One is the Baptism of Our Lord, which is used on the Sunday after Epiphany. I have noticed that the scriptures seem to be more about our baptism and that of Jesus in the Jordan, and they are so very much about His gift of the Holy Spirit. The Gospel lesson speaks of Jesus as a conduit of the Holy Spirit. The second lessons tell of how believers are filled with the Holy Spirit when they come to believe in Jesus as their Savior.

Because liturgical churches practice infant baptism and (like ours) rightly call baptism a “Sacrament,” we tend to think whatever is said about baptism in the New Testament is about the sacrament of baptism. That is, we assume that any and all mysterious words and events about baptism that are related to the reader of the New Testament are somehow related to the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, and this includes what the Bible calls the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

For example, John the Baptist says "After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." Jesus came to baptize with the Holy Spirit. This sounds rather important, doesn’t it? I have to wonder why we don’t hear more about that. Is it because we aren’t sure what that means? Imagine a non-Christian coming up and asking you about it. “Excuse me, what is that all about, Jesus baptizing with the Holy Spirit? Does that happen often? Have you actually ever seen it?” Most people probably wouldn’t appreciate being put on the spot like that. What would you say? “Well, it usually takes place after the sermon, a small group gathers around the baptismal font and the pastor reads some prayers and sprinkles some water on the baby’s forehead.”

Do you see the problem? We have a ritual which may not appear to be more than a few polite gestures and words. However, more than a ritual, our faith tradition believes that God is in fact the actor here and much more is happening than what we can physically see. It is a life-altering event with eternal consequences. Believers are being translated from one story into another. Before it they were as the world was before the birth of Jesus, not knowing with any specificity where help comes from. Paul talks about the new life that the baptized encounters as the difference between night and day.

Romans 6:4 says, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Baptism is a whole new life. In mortal life we are destined to die. In baptism we are destined to live. Before we are ruled by sin.

Therefore churches like ours need to teach on the spiritual significance and what is actually going here. We do that for example quoting the Small Catechism. Jesus commanded his followers be baptized and taught and the Catechism tries to do that. It tells us that Baptism works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare and the Baptized shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever. This is wonderful stuff indeed.

The catechism tells us plainly that belief in the promises of God is necessary, but we of course already have been told that this too comes from God, as a free and unmerited gift. Wonderful stuff indeed.

It is indeed so wonderful that many have gone like miners into the deep shafts to uncover precious bits that they hold up to declare you can have the same spiritual benefits that they have at their disposal.

Here’s the rub. I have a scholar friend, a man who is no mere academic but a practitioner, a pastor, who wrote me asking what I thought of the idea of “storming heaven”. My first reaction was, “Doesn’t he know I am Lutheran?” that is, first of all, we believe that it is God who acts and we receive, but second, we have a rather awesome picture of God, so “storming heaven” sounds rather like “breaking and entering” and I don’t think we are going to get away with it. Of course, more importantly, as a Lutheran, I am quite happy with our emphasis on Christ as a revelation of how good and gracious God is, and for our own good, we are meant to know the God who is knowable, and this good and gracious God, would he withhold good things?

No, the spiritual life, including the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, can be explained many ways, but perhaps the best is like the loving father Jesus taught his disciples about. This loving parent is wise and knows what is best, and when it comes to the spiritual life, the Holy Spirit is often like the first line of the Bible, “…darkness was on the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was moving gently over the water.”

Human consciousness, that is, when a person thinks about their own humanity, they might as well be staring into a deep abyss. And when we think about God, it is much the same. God is only knowable as God chooses to make Himself known. How are we to describe then the mechanics of the Holy Spirit? With trepidation surely. Yet, many are the pioneers who are going to tell us exactly what steps need to be taken.

Moving gently over the water is a literal translation. Most texts say the Spirit was hovering over the water. Same thing. I think God is gentle when it comes to His coming. I’m not saying that God does not move in our lives at times with swiftness and using at times even violent events to get our attention. I am saying that the presence of the Holy Spirit emerges in our spiritual life, gifts are released, and not out of boxes with bows and bright wrapping paper but out of the soil a green shoot appears.

“And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they said, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism." And Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus." On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. There were about twelve men in all.”

“We had not even heard there was a Holy Spirit.” Sadly, that is still the case. However, there is also an equally sad situation where people fight over what the Holy Spirit does when people are blessed into a deeper spiritual life.

So, isn’t it sort of funny that when we come to church and we see that the focus of the day is the baptism of Jesus, what we are really hearing about is what His baptism means in relation to ours, how it affects those who believe, in short, how we benefit? But isn’t that the way it always is? On Good Friday, the message is what he won for us on the cross. On Easter it is because He lives we shall live also. Such it is with the Selfless Giver.

I believe that without the witness of the Holy Spirit I would not know that Jesus is my savior. The Scriptures tell me that He poured out His Spirit on His Church on Pentecost. He commanded his apostles to go to all the world and baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit and teach them the things he had taught.

We need to be taught about baptism, and as Acts 19 shows, there is more, there is more. Perhaps we should take our little boats out into the deeper waters. Even now, the Spirit of God is moving gently over your waters, waiting to give another lesson, and so it will be, God willing, until we see Him face-to-face. He is here, and the Spirit is there whenever we pray, bearing testimony to our gentle, selfless friend, making Him more and more real to us as we need Him in our pilgrim way.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Let all who have learnt they are Christian recognize what they are, and be certain that we are all equally priests, that is, we have the same power in the word and in any sacrament.

2012-01-11T06:45:00.001-05:00

Let every man then who has learnt that he is a Christian recognize what he is, and be certain that we are all equally priests, that is, we have the same power in the word and in any sacrament whatever.

... Martin Luther (1483-1546), The Babylonian Captivity of the Church [1520], par. 7.16 (see the book; see also 1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 1:4-6; more at Church)

http://www.cqod.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Kinderbeten The Origin, Unfolding, and Interpretations of the Silesian Children's Prayer Revival By Eric Jonas Swensson, Wipf and Stock Publishers

2012-01-10T17:09:00.001-05:00

Check out this website I found at wipfandstock.com

Research in the roots of evangelicalism and revivalism uncovers its share of peculiarities, but nothing is more unusual than what follows. What we have here is a compelling story touching on the exercise of free religion, the religious wars in Europe, the roots of Evangelicalism, the supernatural, and more, all wrapped up in a religious revival which began not through a charismatic revivalist or any adult at all, but rather found it's origin with children aged four to fourteen. The children became pawns in a controversy between political and religious opponents. Indulge your curiosity and read the remarkable story about the King of Sweden and the 1707-08 Children's Revival in Silesia, a tale of hope and prayer.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Service Is Not Scandal: Responding Mark Noll's *Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind*

2012-01-10T14:27:00.001-05:00

Service Is Not Scandal: Responding to Mark Noll

Why it's good that evangelicals have not, and likely will not, develop an "evangelical mind."

Jenell Williams Paris | posted 1/10/2012 10:33AM

My copy of The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind is scuffed, highlighted, dog-eared, and underlined; it was my young adult equivalent of a well-loved teddy bear. Its 1994 release coincided with my beginning a doctoral program in cultural anthropology at American University. With lifelong roots in conservative evangelicalism, part of me worried that evangelicals were right: I'd contribute more to God's kingdom as a wife and mother, or maybe a missionary, than as a professor. Arriving at just the right time, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind strengthened my inner conviction that a scholarly vocation was valid for an evangelical, even a female one.

I hesitated, however, at the very notion of "the life of the mind" (I still do today). Evangelicalism had taught me that faith ought to matter in the world, and that Christians ought to address urgent needs through evangelism and interpersonal care. Does any believer have the right to live the life of the mind, I wondered, in a world where people are suffering? Additionally, I wanted a family someday, and I didn't see a way to be the mother I wanted to be—or even a mother at all—if I spent my 20s and 30s working my way up the academic prestige ladder. In elite research universities today, the life of the mind often seems like no life at all. Competition for tenure is cutthroat and may last well over a decade. People work around the clock and around the week to produce peer-reviewed or university press publications that are read by few, understood by fewer, and applied by fewer still. The highest demands of academic careers often coincide with women's reproductive window, so choices about parenting become extremely difficult for women, and for men who wish to be engaged fathers. Not many can succeed on these terms and preserve spiritual and personal well-being.

I did pursue an academic career; I've been teaching college students for 15 years now, and I work as a tenured professor at a Christian college. I love it so much that, God willing, I'll still be at it 20 years from now. Nonetheless, I have always paired my sense of intellectual calling with a second, more practical, vocation: first urban ministry, then applied anthropology, now parenting. I've also seen graduate school friends, Christian and not, succeed in many of the myriad niches of higher education. Some—just a few—even thrive at research universities. Most graduate-educated Americans, especially in social sciences and humanities, peel off the research track at various points to invest instead in teaching, industry, government, or other applied venues.

Noll's Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind, which just received an award of merit in Christianity Today's annual book awards, graces the middle season of my career. The postscript, "How Fares the 'Evangelical Mind'?" is worth the entire read. (Much of it appeared in a 2004 First Things article.) Here, Noll compares and contrasts today's evangelical intellectual scene with that of his original inquiry. Reasons for despair are holding steady or advancing:

quick and reactionary approaches to cultural engagement,

emphasizing concern for the immediate needs of individuals over more long-term political or social change,

simplistic Bible reading and worship,

the rapid speed of technological change, and

a growing desire for selfish material gain.

Instead of indulging in negativity or berating evangelicals for being stupid, however, Noll points to many hopeful signs. Among them are the presence of Christians in pluralist research universities, innovations at seminaries, and partnerships between evangelicals and Roman Catholics. But first among Noll's points of light is the health of Christian colleges and universities.

share this page
|
]]>-->
January (Web-Only) 2012, Vol. 56

via christianitytoday.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Where Are the Liberals? David Brooks, NYTimes Opinion. [Interesting]

2012-01-10T09:16:00.001-05:00

Why aren’t there more liberals in America?

It’s not because liberalism lacks cultural power. Many polls suggest that a majority of college professors and national journalists vote Democratic. The movie, TV, music and publishing industries are dominated by liberals.

It’s not because recent events have disproved the liberal worldview. On the contrary, we’re still recovering from a financial crisis caused, in large measure, by Wall Street excess. Corporate profits are zooming while worker salaries are flat.

It’s not because liberalism’s opponents are going from strength to strength. The Republican Party is unpopular and sometimes embarrassing.

Given the circumstances, this should be a golden age of liberalism. Yet the percentage of Americans who call themselves liberals is either flat or in decline. There are now two conservatives in this country for every liberal. Over the past 40 years, liberalism has been astonishingly incapable at expanding its market share.

The most important explanation is what you might call the Instrument Problem. Americans may agree with liberal diagnoses, but they don’t trust the instrument the Democrats use to solve problems. They don’t trust the federal government.

A few decades ago they did, but now they don’t. Roughly 10 percent of Americans trust government to do the right thing most of the time, according to an October New York Times, CBS News poll.

Why don’t Americans trust their government? It’s not because they dislike individual programs like Medicare. It’s more likely because they think the whole system is rigged. Or to put it in the economists’ language, they believe the government has been captured by rent-seekers.

This is the disease that corrodes government at all times and in all places. As George F. Will wrote in a column in Sunday’s Washington Post, as government grows, interest groups accumulate, seeking to capture its power and money.

Some of these rent-seeking groups are corporate types. Will notes that the federal government delivers sugar subsidies that benefit a few rich providers while imposing costs on millions of consumers.

Other rent-seeking groups are dispersed across the political spectrum. The tax code has been tweaked 4,428 times in the past 10 years, to the benefit of interests of left, right and center.

Others exercise their power transparently and democratically. As Will notes, in 2009, the net worth of households headed by senior citizens was 47 times the net worth of households led by people under 35. Yet seniors use their voting power to protect programs that redistribute even more money from the young to the old and affluent.

You would think that liberals would have a special incentive to root out rent-seeking. Yet this has not been a major priority. There is no Steve Jobs figure in American liberalism insisting that the designers keep government simple, elegant and user-friendly. Sailors scrub their ships. Farmers clear weeds. Democrats have not spent a lot of time scraping barnacles off the state.

Worse, in an attempt to match Republican rhetoric, Democratic politicians are perpetually soiling the name of government for the sake of short-term gain. How many times have you heard Democrats from Carter to Obama running against Washington, accusing it of being insular, shortsighted, corrupt and petty? If the surgeon himself thinks his tools are rancid, why shouldn’t you?

In the past few weeks, the Obama administration has begun his presidential campaign by picking a series of small fights with the Republican-led House over things like recess appointments. These vicious squabbles may help Obama in the short term by making him look better than Republicans in Congress. But they will only further discredit Washington over the long run.

Life is unfair. Republican venality unintentionally reinforces the conservative argument that government is corrupt. Democratic venality undermines the Democratic argument that Washington can be trusted to do good.

Liberalism has not expanded because it has not had a Martin Luther, a leader committed to stripping away the corruptions, complexities and indulgences that have grown up over the years.

If you’ll forgive some outside advice, President Obama might consider running for re-election as Luther. It’s not enough to pick a series of small squabbles and then win as the least ugly man in the room. He might run as someone who believes in government but sees how much it needs to be cleansed and purified.

Make the tax code simple. Make job training simple. Make Medicare simple. Every week choose a rent-seeker to hold up for ridicule and renunciation. Change the Congressional rules. Simplify the legal thickets that undermine responsibility.

If Democrats can’t restore Americans’ trust in government, it really doesn’t matter what problems they identify and what plans they propose. No one will believe in the instrument they rely on for solutions.

via nytimes.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

"Prayer" by George Herbert

2012-01-08T06:06:00.001-05:00

                                    Prayer (I)

Prayer the church's banquet, angel's age,
                    God's breath in man returning to his birth,
                    The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth ;

Engine against th' Almighty, sinner's tow'r,
                    Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
                    The six-days world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;

Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
                 Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
                  Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,

Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,
The land of spices; something understood.

-George Herbert (1593-1633)

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Will anti-fat bias affect the 2012 election? - Washington Times

2012-01-07T12:22:00.001-05:00

via washingtontimes.com

"President William Howard Taft was the heaviest of American presidents and had a 54-inch waist, but he was elected in 1908 and subsequently installed an extra-large bathtub in the White House to little fanfare. More than a century later, can a heavy-set candidate win?"

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT THE EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD

2012-01-07T07:46:00.001-05:00

Check out this website I found at stpaulskingsville.org

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Relationships and listening: key to conversion :: Digital Evangelism Issues

2012-01-06T16:18:00.001-05:00

Please share widely: To paraphrase the 1990′s election slogan (in response to the unspoken question “What’s the priority?”), we might respond to “What’s the key to effective evangelism?” with the answer: “It’s the relationships, silly.”

Most lasting conversions are the result of an ongoing relationship with one or more believers (see research study). And around 50% of people start their spiritual journey at least in part due to a serious life problem, such as relationship problems, illness/bereavement or debt. Any online outreach must be geared to offering ongoing email support to all those who want advice and help at any level.

Canada’s TruthMedia online outreach team uses hundreds of volunteer e-mentors to build email relationships with inquirers or those with life problems. (Learn about volunteering here. TruthMedia can also now share their follow-up software system with other ministries – read more about the Mentor Center.)

Karen writes…

Karen Schenk, TruthMedia’s National Director of Media Strategies, shares some insights from their ministry:

‘In the past few months, TruthMedia has seen incredible growth in both ministry impact and reach.

I’m becoming more convinced than ever that the key to sharing the Gospel in our culture is addressing relationship needs. No matter who they are or what they do for a living, people all around the globe have relational issues and want help and insight into how to address them.

One of our websites had 400,000 visits this past month alone and of those visits, more than 50% of the content that was viewed and the messages we received were about relationship issues. People want help and perspective for their families, kids, marriages, dating, and workplace. As we connect with people about their relationship issues, we are in a position where we can share the hope of Christ. The mentors who share with these people are also being directly impacted. Here are some of their stories:

A father asks for help: “I don’t know what to do with myself anymore. I’m failing, I’m hurting myself, I’m becoming more violent, more judgmental of myself, and I’m pretty much giving up on having any future. What can I do to change myself? I have no goals in life other than to raise a child and be a father.”

A lonely person who found hope through a mentor now helps others: “First of all thank you for that wonderful message. I think this is an awesome ministry. It was a life saver for me, and now I hope I can help it be for others. When I came to this site over a year ago, it helped change my life forever. I felt so alone, had sunk to the bottom of the sea. Since I found this site and my wonderful mentor and friend, my life just continues to get more and more blessed. I have recovered the joy and happiness I didn’t ever think I would find again. You got me through one of the most devastating times in my life. And now the blessings continue as now I can be a mentor and understand how some of these people are feeling. They not only acquire a friend, but I also. For me, just having someone I can be honest with, vent to, and know they are listening is the best therapy I have had. I am so thankful I could be part of this. Thank you.”

A believer learns to share her faith: “I feel I’m really growing in my faith also and it is mostly because of Power to Change, Truth Media and all you guys helping me to get started as a mentor. This is such a great ministry, and I’m sharing my small part in it every chance I get. Last week I spent 30 minutes in our local supermarket sharing with a lady about Jesus and what we all are doing to carry His word around the world. Happiness is bubbling over in my life right now.”

Share & re-use . . .

Please also share this post on Facebook, Twitter and Google +1 using the one-click links below. You can also automatically syndicate our blog posts to your Facebook Wall (and/or your Twitter stream) in three easy steps.

You are welcome to use this item on your own blog as a guest blog post, or republish in any online or print newsletter. We also offer other free articles.

GET UPDATES BY EMAIL Get our blog posts by email, two or three times a week: subscribe here or on Twitter
LATEST BULLETIN Latest issue of Web Evangelism Bulletin is now online.
FREE e-book downloads – a range of free PDF books and other downloadable resources.

Please CLICK BELOW NOW to like THIS post, on Google +1 and Facebook:

Please share this post on Facebook with your own comments

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Before 'Transforming' Your Neighborhood, Talk to Your Neighbors

2012-01-06T16:05:00.001-05:00

via christianitytoday.com

"For my failed megachurch, renewing the Near Eastside of Indianapolis meant stopping long enough to listen." Read more?

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Register for a Word at Work course at the Institute of Lutheran Theology

2012-01-06T15:58:00.001-05:00

Having trouble viewing this? Click here

Institute of Lutheran Theology
January 6, 2012

There is still time to register for our upcoming Word at Work Lay Education Series Courses!

Discipleship Delivered: Disguised and Daring

Rev. Randy Freund, Mondays, 7-8 PM, January 30 - March 5

What if "discipleship" was the reason you and I were born? What if there was nothing more urgent or pressing than the Great Commission? Given the fact that both are true, in this course, Rev. Randy Freund, Pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Hutchinson, Minnesota, challenges our modern, pluralistic mindset in favor of discipleship "disguised" as we live out our vocations and more "daring" as we "name the name" in bold ways.

Cults, Sects, and New Religious Movements

Dr. Mark Granquist, Tuesdays, 7-8 PM, January 31 - March 6

America is like a giant religious supermarket - all the world's religions can be found here, and if you don't like your choices, you can always invent your own religion. This has always been true in America, and this course will show the histories of these religious groups, down to the present. In this course, Dr. Mark Granquist will lead participants in an exploration at the common elements of these new religions, and try to differentiate between the ordinary, the weird, and the dangerous. We will also think about a Christian response to these groups.

Courses cost $50 for individuals, and $250 for congregations. DTC Members are free.

To register, just go to http://www.ilt.org and select Word at Work: Spring 2012 Registration from the Course Registration Menu and fill out the form (or give call at (605) 692-9337 if you would like some assistance).

Sincerely,

Pr. David R. Patterson
Director of Information Services

Institute of Lutheran Theology
Phone: (605) 692-9337

Fax: (605) 692-0884
Email:
dpatterson@ilt.org
Skype: dpatterson.ilt.org

Institute of Lutheran Theology |
910 4th Street | Brookings | SD | 57006

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

The Cure for Election Madness How to be political without losing your soul. -CT

2012-01-06T15:55:00.001-05:00

Cover Story

The Cure for Election Madness

How to be political without losing your soul.

Amy E. Black | posted 1/06/2012 10:25AM

Mark DeMoss, concerned about the increasingly harsh tone of public discourse, launched the Civility Project in January 2009. The Republican businessman and political adviser enlisted Democratic lobbyist and former Clinton aide Lanny Davis to help him. Together the two friends wrote to all 100 United States Senators, all 435 members of the House of Representatives, and all 50 state governors, asking each to sign a pledge promising, "I will be civil in my public discourse and behavior. I will be respectful of others whether or not I agree with them. I will stand against incivility when I see it."

How many of the 585 recipients agreed?

Three.

Two years later, DeMoss wrote to the legislators who had signed the pledge, Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman and Republican Representatives Frank Wolf and Sue Myrick, informing them he was closing the project. "You three were alone in pledging to be civil," DeMoss wrote. "I must admit to scratching my head as to why only three members of Congress, and no governors, would agree to what I believe is a rather low bar."

Thousands of private citizens showed their support by signing the pledge, but others attacked the project. In an interview, DeMoss described his surprise and dismay at the hostile response he received from fellow conservatives: Some of the e-mails contained "unbelievable language about communists, and some words I wouldn't use in this phone call," he explained. "This political divide has become so sharp that everything is black and white, and too many conservatives can see no redeeming value in any liberal or Democrat."

Why were so few of the nation's leaders willing to take such a simple and seemingly uncontroversial public stand? Why did so many web users respond to a call for civility and respect with vulgarity and vicious attacks? What might these events reveal about contemporary American politics?

Today's hyperpartisan and meanspirited political climate makes it difficult to engage in civil and meaningful dialogues. Indeed, the temperature of the political conversation seems to rise as elections draw near. In recent months, presidential candidates have maligned their opponents for their "finger-in-the-wind politics," "ignorance of basic economics," and "frugal socialism." In the 2008 campaign, one candidate said George W. Bush was "brain-dead." Conservative radio host Bill Bennett rallied the crowd at the 2010 Values Voters Summit with the call, "If you voted for [Obama] last time to prove you are not a racist, you must vote against him this time to prove you are not an idiot." Simple differences in perspective can quickly turn into fiery battles and over-the-top attacks.

Heated rhetoric can escalate beyond wars of words. When political opponents spend more time hurling insults and accusations at one another than gathering together to hammer out solutions to complicated problems, stalemates result. Politicians focus on pointing fingers and attributing blame instead of sincerely trying to accomplish the work that voters elected them to do. At its worst, bitter rancor can turn to violence.

Today's hyperpartisan and meanspirited political climate makes it very difficult to engage in civil and meaningful dialogues.

If we are to seek peaceful solutions and honor God in politics, we Christians of all people must avoid such hateful talk. James 4:11 commands us to "not slander one another," an exhortation that should extend beyond how we treat other believers. Whether talking with friends or campaigning for our favorite candidate or cause, we should engage our political opponents and their ideas with respect, welcome the opportunity to learn from other perspectives, and find ways to disagree charitably as a natural part of the political process.

share this page
|
]]>-->
The Cure for Election Madness, January 2012, Vol. 56, No. 1, Page 18

via christianitytoday.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Rick Santorum and the return of compassionate conservatism - The Washington Post

2012-01-06T15:03:00.001-05:00

Every four years, Republicans eventually realize that they need a hopeful domestic policy agenda — some vision of the common good — that appeals beyond their base.

via washingtonpost.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Being Part of the Christian Presence on Twitter | tips on becoming a Twitter-evangelist for your local congregation | Sound Shore Media

2012-01-06T14:13:00.001-05:00

via soundshoremedia.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users « Clay Shirky via @cshirky @ThisIsSethsBlog

2012-01-06T13:36:00.001-05:00

This may be the year where newspapers finally drop the idea of treating all news as a product, and all readers as customers.

One early sign of this shift was the 2010 launch of paywalls for the London Times and Sunday Times. These involved no new strategy; however, the newspaper world was finally willing to regard them as real test of whether general-interest papers could induce a critical mass of readers to pay. (Nope.) Then, in March, the New York Times introduced a charge for readers who crossed a certain threshold of article views (a pattern copied from the financial press, and especially the Financial Times.) Finally, and most recently, were a pair of announcements last month: The Chicago Sun-Times was adopting a new threshold charge, and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune said that their existing one was working well. Taken together, these events are a blow to the idea that online news can be treated as a simple product for sale, as the physical newspaper was.

For some time now, newspaper people have been insisting, sometimes angrily, that we readers will soon have to pay for content (an assertion that had already appeared, in just that form, by 1996.) During that same period, freely available content grew ten-thousand-fold, while buyers didn’t. In fact, as Paul Graham has pointed out, “Consumers never really were paying for content, and publishers weren’t really selling it either…Almost every form of publishing has been organized as if the medium was what they were selling, and the content was irrelevant.”

Commercial radio is ad-supported because no one could figure out a way to restrict access to radio waves; cable TV collects revenues because someone figured out a way to restrict access to co-axial cables. The logic of the internet is that everyone pays for the infrastructure, then everyone gets to use it. This is obviously incompatible with print economics, but oddly, the industry’s faith in ‘every reader a customer’ has been largely unshaken by newspapers’ own lived experience of the move to the web.

A printed paper was a bundle. A reader who wanted only sports and stock tables bought the same paper as a reader who wanted local and national politics, or recipes and horoscopes. Online, though, that bundle is torn apart, every day, by users who forward each other individual URLs, without regard to front pages or named sections or intended navigation. This unbundling leads to the odd math of web readership — if you rank readers by pages viewed in a month, the largest group by far, between a third and half of them, will visit only a single page. A smaller group will read two pages in a month, a still smaller group will read three, and so on, up to the most active reader, in a group by herself, who will read dozens of pages a day, hundreds in a month.

Against this hugely variable audience behavior, a paywall was all-or-nothing: “If you won’t give us any money, we won’t show you any ads!” Offered this all-or-nothing choice, most readers opted for ‘nothing’; the day they launched their paywall, the Times of London shrank its digital audience from a large multiple of its print circulation to a small fraction of it. This isn’t a problem with general-interest paywalls — it is the problem, widely understood before the turn of the century, and one to which there has never been a convincing answer. The easy part of treating digital news as a product is getting money from 2% of your audience. The hard part is losing 98% of your advertising base.

* * *

To understand newspapers’ 15-year attachment to paywalls, you have to understand “Everyone must pay!” not just as an economic assertion, but as a cultural one. Though the journalists all knew readership would plummet if their paper dropped imported content like Dear Abby or the funny pages, they never really had to know just how few people were reading about the City Council or the water main break. Part of the appeal of paywalls, even in the face of their economic ineffectiveness, was preserving this sense that a coupon-clipper and a news junkie were both just customers, people whose motivations the paper could serve in general, without having to understand in particular.

The article threshold has often been discussed as if it was simply a new method of getting readers to pay, to which the reply has to be “Yes, except for most of them.” Calling article thresholds a “leaky” or “porous” paywall understates the enormity of the change; the metaphor of a leak suggests a mostly intact container that lets out a minority of its contents, but a paper that shares even two pages a month frees a majority of users from any fee at all. By the time the threshold is at 20 pages (a number fast becoming customary) a paper has given up on even trying to charge between 85% and 95% of its readers, and it will only convince a minority of that minority to pay.

Newspapers have two principal sources of revenue, readers and advertisers, and they can operate at mass or niche scale for each of those groups. A metro-area daily paper is a mass product for customers (many readers buy the paper) and for advertisers (many readers see their ads.) Newsletters and small-circulation magazines, by contrast, serve niche readers, and therefore niche advertisers — Fire Chief, Mother Earth News. (Some newsletters get by with no advertising at all, as with Cooks’ Illustrated, where part of what the user pays for is freedom from ads, or rather freedom from a publisher beholden to advertisers.)

Paywalls were an attempt to preserve the old mass+mass model after a transition to digital distribution. With so few readers willing to pay, and therefore so few readers to advertise to, paywalls instead turned newspapers into a niche+niche business. What the article threshold creates is an odd hybrid — a mass market for advertising, but a niche market for users. As David Cohn has pointed out, this is the commercial equivalent of the National Public Radio model, where sponsors reach all listeners, but direct suport only comes from donors. (Lest NPR seem like small ball, it’s worth noting that the Times ‘ has convinced something like one out of every hundred of its online readers to pay, while NPR affiliates’ success rate is something like one in twelve. Newspapers with thresholds now aspire to NPR’s persuasiveness.)

* * *

Threshold charges subject the logic of the print bundle — a bit of everything for everybody, slathered with ads — to two new questions: What do our most committed users want? And what will turn our most frequent readers into committed users? Here are some things that won’t: More ads. More gossip. More syndicated copy. This is new territory for mainstream papers, who have always had head count rather than engagement as their principal business metric.

Celebrities behaving badly always drive page-views through the roof, but those readers will be anything but committed. Meanwhile, the people who hit the threshold and then hand over money are, almost by definition, people who regard the paper not just as an occasional source of interesting articles, but as an essential institution, one whose continued existence is vital no matter what today’s offerings are.

In discussing why the most loyal subset of readers would pay for access to the Times, Felix Salmon described some of the motivations reported by users: “I like the product, understand the incentives involved, and want its production to continue” and “I feel that maintaining a quality NYT is immensely important to the country as a whole.” Now, and presumably from now on, the readers that matter most are disproportionately likely to score high on the God Forbid index (as in “God forbid the Sun-Times not be around to keep an eye on the politicians!”)

The people who feel this way have always been a minority of the readership, a fact obscured by print bundles, but made painfully visible by paywalls. When a paper abandons the standard paywall strategy, it gives up on selling news as a simple transaction. Instead, it must also appeal to its readers’ non-financial and non-transactional motivations: loyalty, gratitude, dedication to the mission, a sense of identification with the paper, an urge to preserve it as an institution rather than a business.

* * *

Thresholds are now mostly being tried at big-city papers — New York, Chicago, Minneapolis. Most papers, however, are not the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Most papers are the Springfield Reporter, papers with a circulation 20,000 or less, and mostly made up of content bought from the Associated Press and United Media. These papers may not do well on the God Forbid index, because they produce so little original content, and they may not find thresholds financially viable, because the most engaged hundredth of their audience will number in the dozens, not the thousands.

On the other hand, local reporting is almost the only form of content for which the local paper is the sole source, so it’s also possible to imagine a virtuous circle for at least some small papers, where a civically-minded core of citizens step in to fund the paper in return for an increase in local coverage, both of politics and community matters. (It’s hard to overstate how vital community coverage is for small-town papers, which have typically been as much village well as town crier.)

It’s too early to know what behaviors the newly core users will reward or demand from their papers. They may start asking to see fewer or less intrusive ads than non-paying readers do. They may reward papers that make their comments section more conversational (as the Times has just done.) The most dramatic change, though, is that the paying users are almost certain to be more political engaged than the median reader.

There has never been a mass market for good journalism in this country. What there used to be was a mass market for print ads, coupled with a mass market for a physical bundle of entertainment, opinion, and information; these were tied to an institutional agreement to subsidize a modicum of real journalism. In that mass market, the opinions of the politically engaged readers didn’t matter much, outnumbered as they were by people checking their horoscopes. This suited advertisers fine; they have always preferred a centrist and distanced political outlook, the better not to alienate potential customers. When the politically engaged readers are also the only paying readers, however, their opinion will come matter more, and in ways that will sometimes contradict the advertisers’ desires for anodyne coverage.

It will take time for the economic weight of those users to affect the organizational form of the paper, but slowly slowly, form follows funding. For the moment at least, the most promising experiment in user support means forgoing mass in favor of passion; this may be the year where we see how papers figure out how to reward the people most committed to their long-term survival.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 10:07 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

via shirky.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

"My brother’s valuable life" by Cal Thomas

2012-01-06T12:44:00.001-05:00

via online.worldmag.com

"I was 7 years old when Marshall was born. A year or two later when the diagnosis was made, I bought a popular book written by Dale Evans and gave it to our parents. It was called Angel Unaware. The title was taken from a verse in the New Testament that says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13:2) Evans’ book was about the Down syndrome child she had with her husband, Roy Rogers.
"Roy and Dale named their daughter Robin Elizabeth and their commitment to her (she died at the age of 2) strongly influenced our parents’ decision to take care of Marshall, rather than institutionalize him. While it was sometimes difficult for them and later after their death, for me, we never regretted that decision because of the joy Marshall brought to our lives."
Click and read it all.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Tibet house church members criminally detained, interrogated, beaten.

2012-01-06T09:59:00.001-05:00

via vomcblog.blogspot.com

Members of a house church in Lhasa, Tibet, were criminally detained by police in October, reports ChinaAid. Brother Song Kuanxin, from China’s Henan province, was one of 11 members who were held for almost a month before being released. The incident is believed to be the first time that authorities in Tibet have targeted house church Christians.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?" "A New Thing" by Tom Norvell

2012-01-06T08:21:00.001-05:00

A New Thing
by Tom Norvell
"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise." (Isaiah 43:18-21, NIV)

Good thoughts as we begin a new year. Good thoughts for anytime of the year. God has such wonderful things planned for your future that all the past ones will be forgotten. From the context it is obvious that the future restoration of Israel is the event to come, and the "former things" refers to the destruction of Sennacherib and the return from Babylon. The "past" likely means more ancient events like the deliverance from Egypt and at the Red Sea, and the entry into Canaan.

We would do well to apply these same thoughts of the goodness of God to our own circumstances as we make our way through another year.
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. Did anything happen to you last year that you would like to forget? Did you do or say anything last year that you wish you could forget? Are there things that lurk in the dark places of your mind that you wish you could forget? Are there scars from injuries suffered long ago that continue to haunt you? You may have been carrying hurt, shame, and pain for years. Burdens that weary your soul, drain your spirit, and diminish your hope. It is time to forget the former things and stop dwelling on the past. It may not be easy. It may not happen over night. You may need someone or some place where it is safe for you unload and sort through the rubble. Seek such a person. Find the safe place.

These words serve as a reminder that your life is not over. God has not forgotten you. God has not deserted you. One of the beauties of a year is that we have an opportunity to forget the former things and stop dwelling on the past. This is a perfect time to start over. There is no reason to carry the past with you for another day. Forget the former things. Stop dwelling on the past.

"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?" God is doing a new thing in your midst. God is doing a new thing in your heart. God is doing a new thing in your faith. God is doing a new thing in your marriage. God is doing a new thing in your family. God is doing a new thing in your workplace. It springs up out of the desert places and wastelands of your world. God is doing a new thing in your relationships. Do you see it? Will you recognize it?

As you begin this year, throughout the year, and throughout your life remember that God is doing a new thing. See what He is doing. Never stop looking for what He is doing. Keep your eyes open. Pay attention. Listen with your heart as well as see with your eyes. Hear what He is saying. See what He is doing.

God said, "See I am doing a new thing." May you be blessed with peace and joy as you experience the new thing God is doing in your life.
as seen in Tom Norvell's email devotional, "A Norvell Note" – http://www.anorvellnote.com Hat tip to Timothy Satryan.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Pope Benedict's Homily for the Feast of the Epiphany :: Vatican Radio

2012-01-06T08:06:00.001-05:00

via oecumene.radiovaticana.org

Here is the full translation in English of Pope Benedict's homily at the Mass for the Epiphany of our Lord celebrated in St Peter's Basilica on Friday January 6th:
"Dear Brothers and Sisters!
The Epiphany is a feast of light. “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you” (Is 60:1). With these words of the prophet Isaiah, the Church describes the content of the feast. He who is the true light, and by whom we too are made to be light, has indeed come into the world. He gives us the power to become children of God (cf. Jn 1:9,12). The journey of the wise men from the East is, for the liturgy, just the beginning of a great procession that continues throughout history. With the Magi, humanity’s pilgrimage to Jesus Christ begins – to the God who was born in a stable, who died on the Cross and who, having risen from the dead, remains with us always, until the consummation of the world (cf. Mt 28:20). The Church reads this account from Matthew’s Gospel alongside the vision of the prophet Isaiah that we heard in the first reading: the journey of these men is just the beginning. Before them came the shepherds – simple souls, who dwelt closer to the God who became a child, and could more easily “go over” to him (Lk 2:15) and recognize him as Lord. But now the wise of this world are also coming. Great and small, kings and slaves, men of all cultures and all peoples are coming. The men from the East are the first, followed by many more throughout the centuries. After the great vision of Isaiah, the reading from the Letter to the Ephesians expresses the same idea in rather sober and simple terms: the Gentiles share the same heritage (cf. Eph 3:6). Psalm 2 puts it like this: “I shall bequeath you the nations, put the ends of the earth in your possession” (v. 8).
The wise men from the East lead the way. They open up the path of the Gentiles to Christ. During this holy Mass, I will ordain two priests to the episcopate, I will consecrate them as shepherds of God’s people. According to the words of Jesus, part of a shepherd’s task is to go ahead of the flock (cf. Jn 10:4). So, allowing for all the differences in vocation and mission, we may well look to these figures, the first Gentiles to find the pathway to Christ, for indications concerning the task of bishops. What kind of people were they? The experts tell us that they belonged to the great astronomical tradition that had developed in Mesopotamia over the centuries and continued to flourish. But this information of itself is not enough. No doubt there were many astronomers in ancient Babylon, but only these few set off to follow the star that they recognized as the star of the promise, pointing them along the path towards the true King and Saviour. They were, as we might say, men of science, but not simply in the sense that they were searching for a wide range of knowledge: they wanted something more. They wanted to understand what being human is all about. They had doubtless heard of the prophecy of the Gentile prophet Balaam: “A star shall come forth out of Jacob and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel” (Num 24:17). They explored this promise. They were men with restless hearts, not satisfied with the superficial and the ordinary.
They were men in search of the promise, in search of God. And they were watchful men, capable of reading God’s signs, his soft and penetrating language. But they were also courageous, yet humble: we can imagine them having to endure a certain amount of mockery for setting off to find the King of the Jews, at the cost of so much effort. For them it mattered little what this or that person, what even influential and clever people thought and said about them. For them it was a question of truth itself, not human opinion. Hence they took upon themselves the sacrifices and the effort of a long and uncertain journey. Their humble courage was what enabled them to bend down before the child of poor people and to recognize in him the promised King, the one they had set out, on both their outward and their inward journey, to seek and to know.
Dear friends, how can we fail to recognize in all this certain essential elements of episcopal ministry? The bishop too must be a man of restless heart, not satisfied with the ordinary things of this world, but inwardly driven by his heart’s unrest to draw ever closer to God, to seek his face, to recognize him more and more, to be able to love him more and more. The bishop too must be a man of watchful heart, who recognizes the gentle language of God and understands how to distinguish truth from mere appearance. The bishop too must be filled with the courage of humility, not asking what prevailing opinion says about him, but following the criterion of God’s truth and taking his stand accordingly – “opportune – importune”. He must be able to go ahead and mark out the path. He must go ahead, in the footsteps of him who went ahead of us all because he is the true shepherd, the true star of the promise: Jesus Christ. And he must have the humility to bend down before the God who made himself so tangible and so simple that he contradicts our foolish pride in its reluctance to see God so close and so small. He must devote his life to adoration of the incarnate Son of God, which constantly points him towards the path.
The liturgy of episcopal ordination interprets the essential features of this ministry in eight questions addressed to the candidates, each beginning with the word “Vultis? – Do you want?” These questions direct the will and mark out the path to be followed. Here I shall briefly cite just a few of the most important words of this presentation, where we find explicit mention of the elements we have just considered in connection with the wise men of today’s feast. The bishops’ task is praedicare Evangelium Christi, it is custodire et dirigere, it is pauperibus se misericordes praebere, it is indesinenter orare. Preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, going ahead and leading, guarding the sacred heritage of our faith, showing mercy and charity to the needy and the poor, thus mirroring God’s merciful love for us, and finally, praying without ceasing: these are the fundamental features of the episcopal ministry. Praying without ceasing means: never losing contact with God, letting ourselves be constantly touched by him in the depths of our hearts and, in this way, being penetrated by his light. Only someone who actually knows God can lead others to God. Only someone who leads people to God leads them along the path of life.
The restless heart of which we spoke earlier, echoing Saint Augustine, is the heart that is ultimately satisfied with nothing less than God, and in this way becomes a loving heart. Our heart is restless for God and remains so, even if every effort is made today, by means of most effective anaesthetizing methods, to deliver people from this unrest. But not only are we restless for God: God’s heart is restless for us. God is waiting for us. He is looking for us. He knows no rest either, until he finds us. God’s heart is restless, and that is why he set out on the path towards us – to Bethlehem, to Calvary, from Jerusalem to Galilee and on to the very ends of the earth. God is restless for us, he looks out for people willing to “catch” his unrest, his passion for us, people who carry within them the searching of their own hearts and at the same time open themselves to be touched by God’s search for us. Dear friends, this was the task of the Apostles: to receive God’s unrest for man and then to bring God himself to man. And this is your task as successors of the Apostles: let yourselves be touched by God’s unrest, so that God’s longing for man may be fulfilled.
The wise men followed the star. Through the language of creation, they discovered the God of history. To be sure – the language of creation alone is not enough. Only God’s word, which we encounter in sacred Scripture, was able to mark out their path definitively. Creation and Scripture, reason and faith, must come together, so as to lead us forward to the living God. There has been much discussion over what kind of star it was that the wise men were following. Some suggest a planetary constellation, or a supernova, that is to say one of those stars that is initially quite weak, in which an inner explosion releases a brilliant light for a certain time, or a comet, etc. This debate we may leave to the experts. The great star, the true supernova that leads us on, is Christ himself. He is as it were the explosion of God’s love, which causes the great white light of his heart to shine upon the world. And we may add: the wise men from the East, who feature in today’s Gospel, like all the saints, have themselves gradually become constellations of God that mark out the path. In all these people, being touched by God’s word has, as it were, released an explosion of light, through which God’s radiance shines upon our world and shows us the path. The saints are stars of God, by whom we let ourselves be led to him for whom our whole being longs. Dear friends: you followed the star Jesus Christ when you said “yes” to the priesthood and to the episcopacy. And no doubt smaller stars have enlightened and helped you not to lose your way. In the litany of saints we call upon all these stars of God, that they may continue to shine upon you and show you the path. As you are ordained bishops, you too are called to be stars of God for men, leading them along the path towards the true light, towards Christ. So let us pray to all the saints at this hour, asking them that you may always live up to this mission you have received, to show God’s light to mankind."

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Founders Define Reality (& Give Hope) - LAUNCH [worthwhile read, maybe it is even worth watching the full interview'

2012-01-05T17:12:00.001-05:00

via launch.is

By Jason Calacanis
I recently had author Warren Bennis on "This Week in Startups" and he said something that struck me deeply:
"Leaders define reality."
The interview was so long we broke it into two parts. It's a commitment, but if you watch it I think you'll get a lot our of it. Part one & two.
The origin of the quote seems to be Napoleon Bonaparte: "The leader's role is to define reality, then give hope."
The challenge is that as a founder, you're going to be faced with brutal reality after brutal reality.
Looking back at my three big startups I can recall each of these "reality defining" discussions, and there is some advice I can give on them.
1. Define reality as quickly as possible
When the Google Panda update crushed my current startup Mahalo last year, we had a management meeting that Sunday. We had to figure out what to do because Google, without warning, had destroyed more than half our revenue and traffic.
Of course, having seen this movie before at Silicon Alley Reporter and the dotcom crash that took 90% of our revenue, I knew the answer: cut costs quickly and deeply and don't be delusional.
When the cheddar gets moved, it almost never comes back.
In the Silicon Alley Reporter days, I moved too slowly and didn't define reality quick enough. I was in a bit of denial because I believed, correctly, that the internet was not a fad. Of course, it took five years for the "fad" label to get shaken off.
Here's the reality-defining conversation I gave when Panda kicked Mahalo in the nuts:
1. Google is not going to let any one site get too much traffic from search, and it is increasingly becoming a full-blown content company in competition with the people it is indexing. That's reality. You don't get to buy Zagat and say you're not a content company. Sorry, Google.
2. If Google is becoming a content company, we're not going to be able to beat it -- certainly not in its sandbox.
3. Google is under massive government scrutiny when it comes to search, so the chances of a resolution are very low. Add to that the fact that no one is "in charge" of anything at Google and getting a resolution is unlikely.
4. Since we can't make a search-driven business work, we need to find a new ecosystem. Let's test the three most vibrant ones: YouTube, Facebook and Apple.
So, we accepted how screwed we were and looked for a new sand box (more on that in a minute).
2. It's not one reality-defining conversation
You're not going to define reality once as a founder. You're going to do it multiple times a day. In a crisis it's critical that folks get to meditate on exactly how bad the reality is.
It's going to take a dozen discussions in the first week so that you're really, really clear on what reality is -- and just how fracked you are! Good times!
It's a process, and you'll see it play out in tragic events like 9/11. Rudy Giuliani did an amazing job of defining reality for New Yorkers, and over five to ten years we, as a society, moved from thinking that it was the end of days to today when folks think terrorism is a manageable issue.
As humans our greatest strength is our adaptability and our ability to find enough meaning in life to persevere.
As a founder you need to believe in your team's -- and your own -- ability to adapt your way to success. We actually have a word for this adaptivity: pivoting.
3. Hope needs to be authentic
If you don't actually believe the hope you're giving to your team, you are screwed because they smell your fear instantly.
Back to the Mahalo Panda issue, it was clear to me that our mission to "help people find information they could trust" could manifest itself in at least one of these three other ecosystems.
Turns out we figured out how to make our educational content work brilliantly in one ecosystem, well in another and not at all in the third.
Apple's app ecosystem is great because folks will pay for our educational content. It's a slam dunk.
In YouTube's ecosystem, traffic is mind-blowing and it is so close to figuring out a sustainable revenue model that I think we're a year or two away from it working. I'm 100% certain YouTube will get there, and we will be right there with them.
Facebook?
Well, Facebook is good at one thing: making Facebook money.
No one outside of casual games can really make Facebook work as a business (as a marketing tool? sure). If Facebook wants to be a true partner, it needs to shoot the lock off its enormous wallet and start *sharing* revenue like YouTube and Apple.
Why on earth should partners invest in developing their Facebook presence if all they get is marketing? Facebook would be bigger than Google search, Apple's Apps and YouTube's videos if it shared revenue.
Since Zuckerberg is so smart, I'm thinking the only reason he isn't sharing revenue on Pages is because he's saving another bullet for after the IPO. Can you imagine how much more content would be inside of Facebook if it gave page owners 70% of the revenue on their pages?
In conclusion...
The bottom line is that the truth will make you free. The more honestly you can define the reality of how f@#$ked you are, the quicker you can get to hope, and the quicker you can get to hope, the quicker you can get back to building stuff.
Truth is, all businesses are "totally fracked" at some point or another. If you're not fracked, you're not taking enough risks.
According to the Eeyores in your startup -- if you haven't fired them yet -- you're actually fracked right now and will be for all time. That's just what Eeyores do, but I'll save that for another editorial.
PS - If you know of a killer startup looking to launch on March 7 & 8 @ the LAUNCH Festival in San Francisco, tell me. :-) [ jason at calacanis dot com ]
PPS - Mark Cuban, Google and I invested in CRM company http://www.Nimble.com. It's awesome. It's by the guy who did GOLDMINE if you remember that desktop app from back in the day. More on the deal here -- Side note: Did I just say that I got to invest alongside Mark Cuban and Google?! Pinch me!
PPPS - Yes, I'm still angel investing. Looking for five killer ideas to invest in this year. Tip: Only suckers write or send business plans. Real founders send URLs, mockups and apps.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Amazon.com: Kinderbeten: The Origin, Unfolding, and Interpretations of the Silesian Children's Prayer Revival (9781606088647): Eric Jonas Swensson: Books

2012-01-05T12:57:00.001-05:00

via amazon.com

The origin of this revival came to be connected to the arrival of Swedish soldiers and their daily worship on the parade field because this was also seen providentially. Thus the prayer revival and the soldiers as an answer to prayers for liberation mutually informed one another in the minds of contemporaries. However, this was confused by the interpretation offered by Lutheran Orthodoxy. Pietists, on the other hand, warmly embraced the movement and sought to place it within an apocalyptic interpretation of history, coming closer to the original conflation of the two events. However, both interpretations failed to give appropriate significance to reports that the revival had begun in the mountains before the Swedes' arrival. It is suggested here that prayer is the key interpretive grid. Subsequent historians have missed this interpretation largely because of their own presuppositions against divine intervention.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Join with thousands of churches and "Seek God for the City" - Check out WayMakers - Prayer Tools.

2012-01-05T09:27:00.001-05:00

via waymakers.org

The forty days to Palm Sunday makes an ideal time to venture into a season of sustained, hope-filled prayer.
In 2012, the prayers have been revised and sharpened, making this year's edition even more practical as a way to stimulate your congregation to pray with confidence and clarity.
Pastors, mission leaders and positioned prayer leaders can call for a complimentary review copy. Call us now at (800) 264-5214 or (512) 419-7729.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

The Prospect of a Christian-Free Middle East – Tablet Magazine

2012-01-04T20:03:00.001-05:00

via tabletmag.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

130 staff from Doctors Without Borders clinic in Sudan have disappeared. Please pray!

2012-01-04T12:52:00.001-05:00

via doctorswithoutborders.org

Renewed intercommunal violence in Jonglei State, South Sudan, has forced thousands of families to flee into the bush, where they have no access to assistance, including medical care.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

If traditionalists are now "extreme," perhaps that is what the election should be about. Game On?

2012-01-04T09:50:00.001-05:00

"...a stumbling block..." -1 Corinthians 1:23
"For I am not ashamed..." -Romans 1:16

I told my wife this morning that Rick Santorum's stands on social issues are not so different than the other GOP candidates, but if Santorum becomes a contender, the left wing of the Democrats will go ballistic. Why? Santorum sounds like he really believes in traditional Christian values and the American ideal of liberty.

We were told half way through President Obama's term that we were in for the nastiest presidential race in memory. Game on. If you didn't hear it last night, you can today. Go onto the Internet and put his name into any search window and read about Santorum's "extreme" views.

How does holding onto traditional views makes one extreme? It doesn't. It means that a person remains a traditionalist.

If traditionalists are now "extreme," perhaps that is what the election should be about.
Here's a video of his speech, if you dare to risk the offense.

http://bit.ly/ycpPmU

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Egypt: Islam: One year after the massacre of Christians in Alexandria, Egypt seeks a way forward | EnerPub - Energy Publisher

2012-01-03T17:23:00.001-05:00

via energypublisher.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Has the Same-Sex Marriage Debate Helped Pro-Life Advocacy?

2012-01-03T13:12:00.001-05:00

Under Discussion

Has the Same-Sex Marriage Debate Helped Pro-Life Advocacy?

Observers weigh in.

Compiled by Ruth Moon | posted 1/03/2012 09:58AM

A recent Weekly Standard article argued that mainstream media can focus on only one social issue at a time. Thus, since the current hot-button issue is gay marriage, pro-life advocates today face less public criticism (but also have a more difficult time getting media coverage).

"Moral or social conservative candidates all want to talk about their conservative values. The homosexual movement is very aggressive and threatening; it's much easier for a politician who wants to prove they are conservative to jump in and say 'I'm pro-life.'"

Tamara Scott Iowa, campaign co-chair for Michele Bachmann

"Yes, because efforts to uphold the sanctity of marriage and of life are mutually reinforcing. We do not fully protect life if we deny children the right to be born and to have a father and a mother."

Galen Carey vice president, National Association of Evangelicals

"In some respects, it is easier today to advocate for pro-life causes under the radar since abortion is not the most controversial issue of the day. At the same time, we live in a culture that doesn't want to be judgmental about anything—whether gay marriage or abortion."

Janice Shaw Crouse, Concerned Women for America

"The public has protected marriage in every state where it has been on the ballot, yet declined to define pre-born human beings as 'persons.' By contrast, the courts have defied the people's will on marriage, but are increasingly protective of innocent life."

Steven Aden senior counsel, Alliance Defense Fund

"It's the other way around. Many leaders in the pro-marriage fight were first involved in fighting abortion. People who mobilized to protect life are organized to defend marriage. They learned a lot advocating for life and are applying that experience to marriage."

Wendy Wright, interim executive director, C-FAM

"No, the pro-life forces are winning because embryology makes it clear that we're dealing with human life. Also, pro-life parents have been more likely to have babies, so a demographic tidal wave undergirds the pro-life surge."

Richard Land president, SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission

Copyright © 2012 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:
Previous topics for Under Discussion include trademarking church names and logos, the liturgical calendar, pastors and marriage for cohabitating couples, church disruptions, politicians and infidelity, politicians and religious persecution, faith healing and legal protection, pastors' housing allowances, sacred spaces, stinginess, TSA screening, and Christmas carols with questionable theology.

share this page
|
]]>-->
Has same-sex marriage debate helped pro-life advocacy?, January 2012, Vol. 56, No. 1, Page 14

via christianitytoday.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

"compromise of principle, however specious, is immoral, and that however guarded it may be, it is perilous; and that there is no guarantee of peace in words where men do not agree in things." Charles Porterfield Krauth

2012-01-03T12:35:00.001-05:00

As for ourselves, we wish no one who feels any interest in our opinions, to doubt where we stand. ... We do not feel ashamed to confess that time and experience have modified our earlier views, or led us to abandon them, if we have so modified or so forsaken them. ... In Church and State the last years have wrought changes, deep and thorough, in every thinking man, and on no point more than this, that compromise of principle, however specious, is immoral, and that however guarded it may be, it is perilous; and that there is no guarantee of peace in words where men do not agree in things. So far, then, as under influences, for which we were not responsible, we once believed that there can be true unity in the Church, which does not rest on the acceptance of the doctrines of the Gospel, in one and the same sense, so far we acknowledge that time and the movement of God’s providence have led us to truer and juster views. To true unity of the Church is necessary an agreement in fundamentals, and a vital part of the necessity is an agreement as to what are fundamentals. The doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Confession are all articles of faith, and all articles of faith are fundamental. Our Church can never have genuine internal harmony, except in the confession, without reservation or ambiguity of these articles, one and all. This is our deep conviction, and we herewith retract, before God and His Church, formally, as we have already earnestly and repeatedly done indirectly, everything we have written or said in conflict with this our present conviction. This we are not ashamed to do. We thank God, who has led us to see the truth, and we thank Him for freeing us from the temptation of embarrassing ourselves with the pretense of a present absolute consistency with our earlier, very sincere, yet relatively very immature views.

- Krauth, quoted in Spaeth, Charles Porterfield Krauth, Vol. II, pp. 114-15.
From "Charles Porterfield Krauth: The American Chemnitz" by The Rev. Prof. David Jay Webber

http://www.angelfire.com/ny4/djw/krauthchemnitz.pdf

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

+ Charles Porterfield Krauth, Pastor and Theologian +

2012-01-03T12:33:00.001-05:00

via aardvarkalley.blogspot.com

Thank you, Aardvark Alley.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Iconic photos

2012-01-03T11:58:00.001-05:00

via cbsnews.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Remember you are in Christ, Who is Victory, complete, final victory. That remains true, whatever the enemy may say about it. -read a little from T. Austin-Sparks

2012-01-02T11:26:00.001-05:00

If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV)

The Word teaches us very clearly that Christ has been taken right out of this old creation and set at God's right hand in the heavenlies. On the other hand, it shows us that His being there, and our being in spiritual union with Him, means that for all spiritual purposes and resources, we also are in the heavenlies in Christ.... Let us ask the Lord to give us a real, spiritual, quick, living apprehension of this great truth concerning our Lord Jesus, the great realm of the new creation into which we are brought, and let us apply it, practice it, put it into operation from day to day.

You may have to go into a place where there is not much spiritual wealth on the outside, not much upon which to feed. Remember you have Christ, the whole Land, lying before you. You may have to go into scenes where there is anything but rest, spiritual rest; where all is fret, care, drive, strain. Remember that you are in the Land; you are in Christ; you have Him as your Rest. You may have to go into the conflict, into the battle, into the tremendous activities of the enemy to overthrow you. Remember you are in Christ, Who is Victory, complete, final victory. That remains true, whatever the enemy may say about it. Christ is all that we need for a life which is glorifying to Him. It is what Christ is, what we have in the new creation.

By T. Austin-Sparks from: The Essential Newness of the New Creation - Chapter 4

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Commemoration of Wilhelm Loehe: Pastor and Missionary | CyberBrethren - A Lutheran Blog

2012-01-02T10:11:00.001-05:00

via cyberbrethren.com

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

First Questions | Holy Trinity Brompton

2012-01-02T09:29:00.001-05:00

via htb.org.uk

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

For My Muslim Friend: Who is the Most Unique and Miraculous Person Who Ever Lived? (Please share this if you think Jesus has other sheep)

2012-01-02T09:03:00.001-05:00

Edit

Delete

Tags

Autopost

For My Muslim Friend

Who is the Most Unique and Miraculous Person
Who Ever Lived?
In order to find the answer to this question we need to consider the total: birth, life and end of life. Let us examine the prophet Jesus, (Isa)* the Messiah.

1. The prophet Jesus, the Son of Mary, had a virgin birth, and so His birth was unique and miraculous. He was the only one who ever lived who had a mother but no father. (Adam and Eve had no father and no mother.)

2. Jesus, the Word of God, had a unique and miraculous life. He performed many miracles of love, kindness, compassion and healing. He healed people who were born blind, people who were crippled from birth, and others who were lepers. The prophet Jesus was also sinless.

3. The Lord Jesus, the Messiah, ascended to Heaven, making the end of His life unique and miraculous. He has no grave where one can go and worship.

There are other people who performed miracles, or possessed one of these traits, but the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of Mary, was the only one who had ALL THREE—a unique and miraculous birth, a unique and miraculous life, and a unique and miraculous end to life. Wouldn’t that make him the most unique and miraculous person who ever lived?

What Do Christians Mean by “Son of God”?

Mecca is known as the Mother of Villages, a traveler is known as a Son of the Road, and the Mother of the Book is said to be in the mind of God, yet we do not believe this biologically or physically. We do not believe that villages did not exist before Mecca and that Mecca got married and produced all of the other villages of the world. We do not believe that the road got married and had baby travelers. And, we do not believe that the Mother of the Book got married and had baby books. We all use these kinds of concepts to convey ideas spiritually, not biologically or physically.

When Jesus is called the Son of God, it does not mean that God got married and produced a son. When the Bible says that Jesus is the Son of God, one of the things it means is that the prophet Jesus revealed what God is like, just as a son reveals what his father is like. Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of Mary, pulled back the veil to show us humans more clearly what God is like. So, what do we see?

What Did the Messiah Jesus Reveal About God?

1. The prophet Jesus revealed that God is love. God is full of love, and this was most clearly shown when God sent Jesus, the Messiah, to die on the cross to pay the price for our sins to be forgiven. (For 2,000 years authoritative history has known and recorded the historical fact of Christ’s death which was witnessed by numerous people. Any unbiased history text will point this out.) Scripture says: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

2. Jesus, the Messiah, revealed that God is very personal. He wants to bless you with real life, filled with joy and peace. God is interested in the details of your life—your joys and challenges. He wants a personal relationship with you. God is not simply sitting on a throne in Heaven, waiting for your death to add up your good and bad works. He is personally interested in your life today, with your needs and concerns. He wants to help you. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10b).

3. Jesus, the Word of God, has shown that God has provided assurance for the forgiveness of sins. When Jesus, the Messiah, died on the cross, He was the final “Qurban,” or sacrifice, paying the price for our sins to be forgiven by God. Therefore, when we accept this, we can know that we are forgiven. We do not earn God’s forgiveness through doing many good deeds. God freely forgives us because of the complete and perfect atonement of Christ on the cross.

If the forgiveness of our sins was based on our works, it is true that we would never know if we have done enough good works to earn forgiveness. Our good works cannot erase our sin. If some drops of poison are mixed in a cup of tea, adding more tea will not get rid of the poison. It is the same way with sin. Adding more good works will not get rid of sin. It cannot balance it out. We cannot enter into the presence of Almighty God with sin in our lives. Our sin has to be removed because God is pure and holy. Everything in His presence is pure and holy. There can be no sin in heaven.

4. When He rose from the grave, Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of Mary, showed that God gives assurance of eternal life. We can know that we are going to Heaven because Christ was victorious over death. He is unlike anyone who ever lived. He rose from the grave and ascended to Heaven. No one else has done this. The Word of God says, “And this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John17:3)

God is all-powerful, and we weak, little humans, who are here today and gone tomorrow, cannot tell God what He can do and cannot do. If God wanted to send the prophet Jesus to suffer the just punishment for our sins and to overcome death in the resurrection, He can do that. And we cannot tell Him that He can or cannot do that. God is all-powerful.

What Does the Prophet Jesus Say to us Today?

In Matthew 11:28-30, the prophet Jesus, who cannot lie, says “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”

Many believe that it is wise to read all of the books sent by God. If you would like to find out more about the prophet Jesus, please write and ask for a free copy of the biography of Jesus, or a copy of the Injil. Please specify what language you would like. You may also request a free copy of a video on the life of the prophet Jesus. Again, please specify the language that you would prefer.

For an excellent Internet resource you can visit: www.answering-islam.org.

Friends of Muslims
P.O. Box 6585 • Wyomissing, PA 19610 friends_of_Muslims@hotmail.com

* Jesus (Isa) has many titles, including the Son of Mary, Messiah, Word of God, Lord, Savior and Prophet. Jesus prophesied many things and He was a prophet, priest and king.

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Our Daily Bread: "Don't Laugh it Off"

2012-01-02T08:29:00.001-05:00

via odb.org

Doing good to those who hate us,
Lord, is difficult to do;
Help us by Your grace to love them,
Praying they will turn to You.
—Sper

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous

Bible In One Year | Holy Trinity Brompton

2012-01-01T12:26:00.001-05:00

via htb.org.uk

Posted via email from ejswensson's posterous