Now that is one happy-looking spider!

(Photograph by Darlyne Murawski)

Found only on the islands of Oahu, Molokai, Maui, and Hawaii, the happy face spider, such as this one guarding its eggs on a leaf in Maui, is known for the unique patterns that decorate its pale abdomen. Scientists believe Theridion grallator may have developed its distinctive markings to discourage birds from eating it.

I guess that means birds don’t like Happy Meals?

Source: National Geographic Photo of the Day (Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, “Deadly Silk: Spiderwebs,” August 2001, National Geographic magazine)

Yesterday’s message in The Ten Commandments for Today series was on the seventh commandment. The message was called You Shall Not Commit Adultery, taken from Exodus 20:14.

Exodus 20:14 – “You shall not commit adultery.” (NIV)

Here is the outline of the message:

I. The meaning of the commandment
    A. The definition of adultery
    B. The implications of the commandment

II. The prohibitions of the commandment
    A. Adultery (Exodus 20:14; Deuteronomy 5:18)
    B. Sexual immorality (Hebrews 13:4)
    C. Lust and immodesty (Matthew 5:27-28, 15:19; 1 Timothy 2:9)
    D. Unlawful divorce (Mark 10:11-12)

III. Reasons for the commandment
    A. Adultery is a sin against God. (Genesis 39:9)
    B. Adultery is a sin against your spouse and family. (Proverbs 2:16-17)
    C. Adultery defiles the marriage relationship. (Hebrews 13:4)
    D. Adultery defiles the persons involved. (Lev 18:20; 1 Cor 6:18-20)
    E. Adultery is a shameful, dishonorable act. (Job 24:15, 31:11; 1 Thess 4:4)
    F. Adultery demonstrates lack of character & self-control. (Prov 6:32)

IV. Consequences of adultery
    A. Death penalty under Israel’s law (Deuteronomy 22:22)
    B. God’s judgment (2 Samuel 12:14; Proverbs 6:27-29)
    C. Broken family (Matthew 19:9)
    D. Broken fellowship in the church (1 Corinthians 5:11)
    E. Destroyed reputation (Proverbs 6:32-33)
    F. Economic hardship (Proverbs 6:26, 29:3)
    G. Physical harm (Proverbs 6:32-35)

V. Prevention and forgiveness
    A. Preventing the sin of adultery
    B. Practicing forgiveness and reconciliation

Note: To read the complete message, go to the Sermons tab at the top of the blog.

“It is so dry in Georgia . . .”     “HOW DRY IS IT?”

Popular Mechanics writes about the future of Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP). “Space-based solar power may become an important energy source as fossil-fuel supplies dwindle in midcentury: A single 1-kilometer-wide solar array could collect enough power in a year to rival the entire world’s oil reserves.”

Wired reports on the proliferation of fake campaign websites. “A growing bag of tricks employed by tech-savvy amateur political operatives now includes a collection of spoofed online forums purporting to support top candidates, while damning them with praise for extreme positions they have never voiced. The operating principle: The best way to undermine a candidate’s supporters is to pretend to be one of them.”

Mark Roberts presented his 18 Theses on the Pastor as Godblogger at the GodBlogCon conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Here are the first five. “1. Some pastors should be bloggers. 2. Some pastors should not be bloggers. 3. Many pastors who are not bloggers today should become bloggers. 4. Some pastors who are bloggers today should stop, at least for a while. 5. Blogging can enrich a pastor’s ministry with the pastor’s own congregation, and this is sufficient reason for a pastor to blog.” (You can listen to the audio of Mark’s talk here.)

Ben Witherington warns parents about The Golden Compass, a new children’s movie coming out this Christmas season. The movie is based on the first book of the trilogy His Dark Materials, written by noted English atheist Phillip Pullman. Apparently the books have a stong anti-God and anti-Christian bent, alhtough that has been toned down for the first movie. “In short, avoid this movie like the plague this Christmas. It appears to be a Trojan horse for its sequels, and you will remember what happened to Troy when that horse was allowed entrance into the city and lives of the Trojans.”

Meteorologist John Coleman, founder of The Weather Channel, calls global warming the greatest scam in history.. “I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an illusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the ‘research’ to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus.” Come on, John, tell us how you really feel!

Nancy Beach shares about Bill Hybels’ “traffic light” invitation at the end of a service. “At the close of his message, Bill Hybels simply showed three lights on a flipchart – green, yellow, and red. He asked everyone to honestly decide which light represents where they currently are spiritually:

• Green: I’m a member of God’s family, trusting Him to be my Leader, Savior, and Friend.
• Yellow: I’m still in a searching place, and haven’t yet decided.
• Red: I am in a place of rebellion, or fighting God…

Bill invited anyone in the yellow or red categories who would like to come pray with us in Guest Central to show up right after the service.”

Lifehack has a great article on how to improve your spelling skills. Check out some of the following neat spelling mnemonics (i.e. memory helps):

• A piece of pie.
• You hear with your ear.
• There is a place just like here.
• The inheritance is theirs because they are the heirs.
• Pull apart to separate.
• Definite has 2 i’s in it.
• Because: Big elephants can always understand small elephants.
• Cemetery has three e’s – “eee!” – like a scream.
• In no century is murder an innocent crime.
• Slaughter is laughter with an “s” at the beginning.
• Br! It’s February in New England.
• Stationery: Remember “e” for envelope or “er” for letter.

And if you have trouble spelling “mnemonic,” just remember: There is an “m-n-em” at the beginning of mnemonic!

I don’t usually post beer commercials on my blog (I’m more of a root beer man myself), but this one is pretty amazing. If you have ever enjoyed setting up dominoes and watching them fall, you have got to check out this ad for Guinness Dark Stout. No special effects were used in making the ad. There is even a nice hat tip to the old Mousetrap game at around the -0.47 second mark.

(Video length: 1:30)

Shot in an Argentinian mountainside village, it features a game of dominoes which escalates to include suitcases, tires, oil drums, fridges, wardrobes and cars … The advert took a week to film, with some of the sequences having to be reshot up to 15 times. Setting the dominoes on the table at the start of the advert took a team of three experts two days, but it took just 14 seconds to topple.

Paul Cornell, the marketing manager for Guinness, said: “The ad is fundamentally a celebration of community. It shows an entire village coming together to create an awe-inspiring spectacle of toppling objects.”

HT: Neatorama

This is from today’s Townhall column by Hugh Hewitt. The column’s main topic is Pat Robertson’s endorsement of Rudy Guiliani as the Republican nominee for president, but I found the following tangent interesting.

In the middle of the article Hugh shares the following about a Christian publishing executive who called his show yesterday.

The exec cooly noted that when trying to sell books in the Christian market, the key “influencers” in terms of importance are:

1. the Southern Baptist Convention,
2. James Dobson,
3. the Willow Creek network,
4. Rick Warren and his network of 450,000 pastors, and
5. Pat Robertson.

I guess I never thought about it before, but (at least according to this executive) these are the most powerful groups or individuals that influence which books actually sell in the Chrsitian market. Of course, there is nothing wrong with having power or influence. It just means that these groups have an enormous responsibility in making sure that they recommend the best, most helpful, most Scriptural, most edifying, most God-honoring books available. And that is a huge responsibility to shoulder.

Side note: At the end of the article Hewitt says,

In a two man race — and it is a two man race between Giuliani and Romney — getting the fence sitters to break for you matters a great deal.

I wonder why Hewitt considers this a two man race at this point? I would say that Guiliani, Thompson, Romney, McCain and Huckabee (in that order) all still have a shot at the nomination. Personally, I would feel comfortable with any of these five as the Republican nominee – except for Guiliani.

Olympic Bible Ban. “Chinese officials have announced athletes who compete in the 2008 Beijing Games will be banned from having Bibles in their Olympic village housing, and even visitors are being warned not to bring more than a single Bible with them when they come to China.”

• Update: “The U.S. Olympic Committee received confirmation from Olympic officials Wednesday that there will be no restrictions on Bibles being brought into the Olympic village in Beijing next year.”

Google and gas on the go. Starting next month some gasoline stations will be offering Google Maps free of charge at the pump. The new Internet-enabled gas pumps will provide driving directions, local search and coupons for travelers on the go.

Larry, Darryl and Darryl. “Hi, I’m Larry, this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl.” That’s right, it looks like the Newhart show could finally be winding its way over to DVD. This was one of Rose’s and my favorite shows when we first got married.

Bob Newhart starred as “Dick Loudon,” a self-help book author who moved with his wife Joanna (Mary Frann) out to Vermont and ran a small inn. On the side, Dick also hosted a local TV show, too. Dick and Joanna were surrounded by locals who always acted strangely, including the aforementioned Larry, Darryl & Darryl, handyman George (played by Tom Poston), Dick’s TV producer Michael (played by Peter Scolari of Bosom Buddies), Minuteman Cafe owner Kirk Devane (played by Steven Kampmann) and spoiled-girl-type inn’s maid (“Leslie” in the first season, played by Jennifer Holmes, and then her cousin “Stephanie” afterward, played by Julia Duffy).

Today, November 7th, is Billy Graham’s birthday. He is 89 years old. This is from the press release at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association website.

As evangelist Billy Graham marks another birthday, turning 89 on Wednesday, he expressed gratitude for his health, his family and the ongoing hope of being reunited with his wife Ruth in Heaven.

Since the passing of his marriage and ministry partner of nearly 64 years on June 14 this year, Mr. Graham said he has been surprised at the depth of his grief, but simultaneously encouraged by the commensurate magnitude of God’s grace.

“At times, I feel as if part of me has been ripped out, and in a sense that’s what has happened, because Ruth was such an important part of my life,” he said. “But my faith gives me great comfort, and I can’t imagine going through something like this without strength that only the Lord can provide. It has been an added blessing that our five children have been so faithful in visiting and spending time with me – I am grateful for and proud of each of them.”

While Mr. Graham has stayed close to home most of this year, he was hospitalized for a couple of weeks at the end of August for diagnosis and treatment of intestinal bleeding. He has continued his recovery at home since being discharged on Aug. 30 from nearby Mission Health and Hospitals in Asheville, N.C.

“I am looking forward to spending the holidays with family,” Mr. Graham added. “I know in many ways this time of year will be especially difficult without Ruth, who maintained many of our family traditions. But I am thankful for the confidence we have in Heaven. It is for this reason I will rejoice most in Christ’s birth this Christmas.”

Happy birthday, Billy!

Note: that’s “church shopping,” not “church hopping,” although both seem to be frequent occurrences nowadays. USA Today reports:

Across the country, fall is high season for “church shopping,” as people in search of a new faith community to call home set about the task of finding one. But that doesn’t mean they’re showing up, singing hymns, shaking hands and sampling doughnuts at a different church each week. Instead, observers say, they’re visiting church websites and evaluating congregations — often without having actually met anyone at the church …

Church shoppers “used to have to go to the service, sit in the back row and watch,” says Tom Bandy, president of EasumBandy & Associates, a church consultancy. “The website has just replaced that. The color schemes, the formatting, the language, the music — those things powerfully reveal who they (in the church) want to come there and who’s going to be accepted there.”

Says Mark Sorensen, who oversees the site [at Community Church of Joy in Glendale, Arizona]: “Just like people do a lot of car shopping and major purchase shopping online, they see what they can find out about the church online before their decision to come for the first time.”

Large churches, especially evangelical ones, are most inclined to use the Web for outreach. Eighty-two percent of churches with more than 200 worship attendees have websites, compared with only 29% of those with fewer than 100, according to a 2006 Ellison Research survey of 871 Protestant congregations nationwide.

Church shopping in the fall? Who would have thunk it? I know a lot of people start their Christmas shopping in the fall. Perhaps people are looking for a church home in time for the holidays.

Have you been “church shopping” recently? If so, how big a role did the internet play in your search? Or, even if you haven’t been church shopping, how important are church websites to you? Does your church have a website? Do you use it? Feel free to share your thoughts on churches and websites in the comments section.

Note: Here is our church’s website: Agawam Church of the Bible
(HT: MMI)

Mark Galli’s 131 Christians Everyone Should Know is a great resource highlighting the lives and faith of 131 key people from Christian history. These brief profiles provide historical context, timelines, important quotes and main contributions for each person.

You can also access many of the profiles online at Christianity Today’s Christian History and Biography section. I am finding these profiles helpful as supplementary homeshooling material for our boys.

Kurt Gebhards warns parents and churches about the danger of raising Pharisees:

Hypocrisy is an imminent and evident threat to the church of Jesus Christ. Churched children are seldom given to outright defiance of authority; they are much more susceptible to the poison of Pharisaism. Hypocrisy in the heart is much more difficult to spot than disobedient behavior.

After describing what hypocrisy and legalism can look like in churched kids, Gebhards shares six ways for parents and churches to guard against raising Pharisees at home and in the church:

1. We should seize every opportunity to help children understand that it is their hearts that generate their actions (Mt. 15:19) . . . We should never equate occasions of good behavior (professions of love for Jesus, acts of compliance, et cetera) with saving faith in Jesus.
2. Emphasize the affections of NT religion. Make sure that we are not just aiming at a young person’s understanding, but that we reach for the heart and its affections.
3. Do not encourage children to exhibit their talents and gifts to impress others. They should be reminded that all that they are and have are gifts of grace from God (1 Cor. 4:7).
4. Teach the truth about integrity . . . For a child with integrity, whichever way you turn them, they look the same. Who they are at church, is who they are in school, is who they are at home.
5. Do not be afraid to share our spiritual and moral failures with children in instances where they can identify with our shortcomings. This allows us to be authentic with them. It also allows us to demonstrate our response to God when we have done wrong, and our reliance on Him to continue molding our hearts.
6. Be authentic in your love for Christ. Genuine desire for Christ is not easily faked. Let your zeal be a barometer by which they measure their own affection for Christ.

Gebhards ends the article with this great reminder from Psalm 78:4-6:

We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done. He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. (Psalm 78:4-6)

Could you be guilty of the sin of murder? Yesterday’s message in The Ten Commandments for Today series was on the sixth commandment. The message was called You Shall Not Murder, taken from Exodus 20:13.

Exodus 20:13 – “You shall not murder.” (NIV)

The message explored the meaning of the sixth commandment as taught in Scripture and how it applies to life today. Here is the outline of the message:

I. The meaning of murder (Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17)
    A. The taking of human life (Genesis 9:1-3)
    B. Pre-meditation or intention implied (Exodus 21:12-14; Numbers 35:16-21)
    C. A matter of private morality (Genesis 9:6; Romans 13:3-4)
        1) different issue from capital punishment
        2) different issue from war

II. The prohibitions of the commandment
    A. Directly murdering another person (many verses)
    B. Accessory to murder (2 Samuel 11:15, 12:9-10)
    C. Murder for financial gain (Deuteronomy 27:24-25)
    D. Any physical harm or injury to another (Leviticus 24:17-22)
    E. All sinful motivations leading towards murder (Matt 15:19)
    F. Positive corollary: We should lay down our lives for others (John 15:13;
        1 John 3:16)

III. Reasons for the commandment
    A. Human life is God’s gift to give and revoke (Job 12:10)
    B. Human life is sacred (Genesis 9:5-6)
    C. Human life has eternal value (Matthew 16:26)
    D. Loss of human life brings grief to others (Acts 8:2)
    E. Murder defiles the land (Genesis 4:9-11; Numbers 35:33-34)
    F. Murder is directly identified with Satan (John 8:44, 1 John 3:12)

IV. Consequences for murder
    A. Lifelong guilt and remorse (Genesis 4:13-14; Proverbs 28:17
    B. Shortened life (Psalm 55:23)
    C. Judgment of the court (Romans 13:3-4)
    D. Judgment of God (Isaiah 26:21; Revelation 21:8,15)

V. Contemporary social issues
    A. Abortion (Exodus 21:22-25; Jeremiah 19:4-5)
    B. Euthanasia (Leviticus 19:32; 1 Samuel 31:4-5)
    C. Suicide (Matthew 27:5; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17)
    D. Embryonic stem cell research (Scriptures relating to sanctity of human life)
    E. Human cloning (Scriptures relating to sanctity of human life)

Note: To read the complete message, go to the Sermons tab at the top of the blog.