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Richard Mouw reflects on hymns as compacted theology. “The hymns of the past are the shorthand poetic records of the spiritual and theological memories of the Christian church.”

Matthew Cornell identifies three indecisive phrases that mean the opposite of what they say, weaken your mind and hurt productivity. He explains why they are unhelpful and also shares the few times they are okay to use. Do you use any of these three phrases?

1. “Let me think about it.”
2. “Let’s get together sometime.”
3. “Interesting.”

Justin Taylor shares some ideas from Old Testament scholar Gordon Wenham on picturing the sacrifices from the Old Testament. “It is very difficult for modern readers to picture the sacrifices described in Leviticus, because they, unlike ancient Israelites, have never seen, let alone participated in a sacrifice. What we really need is a video showing all the different kinds of sacrifices, the burnt offerings, the peace offering, the sin offering, and so on! Just as the stories in the Old Testament are designed for reading aloud, not silently, so these ritual texts are meant for people who already have a good idea of how to sacrifice. They are just underlining important or controversial points, so that anyone offering a sacrifice would do it in a way acceptable to God.”

“The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians says when you discover you’re riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, in modern business and ministry, because of the heavy investment factors, other strategies are often tried with dead horses, including:

1. buying a stronger whip;
2. changing riders;
3. threatening the horse with termination;
4. appointing a committee to study the horse;
5. arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses;
6. reclassifying the dead horse as “living-impaired”;
7. hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse;
8. harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed;
9. donating the dead horse to a recognized charity and deducting its full original cost;
10. doing a time management study to see if lighter riders would improve productivity;
11. declaring a dead horse has lower overhead and therefore performs better; and
12. promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.”

My favorites are numbers 4, 5, 8 and 12. Which are yours?

HT: Dr. Sam Lamerson.

My parents emailed me this neat little valentine this morning, so I thought I would pass it along to you.

For God so loVed the world
      That He gAve
            His onLy
            BegottEn
                  SoN
                      That whoever
        Believes In Him
              Shall Not perish,
        But have Eternal life. (John 3:16)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Related post: What Is Love?

I know — two Hillary Godmother posts in the same week. But after I posted the original Cinderella Meets Hillary Godmother, I thought it is was a little too long, so I posted this shorter, snappier version here.

I like the shorter version better, but I thought it would be fun to see which one you, the readers, prefer. So, please go ahead and place your vote in the Hillary Godmother Reader Poll.

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Feel free to leave a comment explaining your choice if you want to.

P.S. By the way, I am just having some fun with Hillary this week. I have said nice things about her in the past — like here! Hillary Clinton In-Flight Announcements

Related posts:

• Hillary Godmother (shorter version)
• Cinderella Meets Hillary Godmother (longer version)
• The Hillary Clinton Cookie Attack Ad
• Hillary Clinton In-Flight Announcements
• The MPR Select a Candidate Quiz

In a rare candid moment, Senator Hillary Clinton responded to the following question at a costume party late last night:

With the recent setbacks to your campaign, some people are saying that the hope for a Clinton presidency in 2008 is now only a wish and a dream. What do you say about this?

Here is Senator Clinton’s videotaped response:

(Video length: 0:49)

Related posts:

• Cinderella Meets Hillary Godmother (longer version)
• Hillary Godmother Reader Poll
• The Hillary Clinton Cookie Attack Ad
• Hillary Clinton In-Flight Announcements
• The MPR Select a Candidate Quiz

Hillary: Well, the sensible people of the world will say: “Fal-de-rol and fiddle-dee-dee and fiddle-dee-faddle-dee-foddle, all the wishes in the world are poppycock and twaddle!”

Cinderella: Aren’t they?

Hillary: Not always. The sensible people will also say: “Fal-de-rol and fiddle-dee-dee and fiddle-dee-faddle-dee-foodle, all the dreamers in the world are dizzy in the noodle!”

Cinderella: And aren’t they?

Hillary: Not always. Especially if there’s someone who loves you to help you.

Cinderella: Dear, dear Fairy Godmother, is that you?

Hillary: What’s a Fairy Godmother for?

“BOOKENDS” – by Ray Fowler

On frosty winter mornings when I rise
And venture forth to meet the stillborn dawn,
The prickly air pokes sharply at the flesh
And sweeps the dust of slumber from my eyes.

When winter falls with force upon my home
And icy fists rap sharp on window panes,
I draw my blanket snug about my heart
And let the warmth of sleep invade my bones.

________________________________________
Click here for more poems by Ray Fowler.

NarniaWeb received the following message from Douglas Gresham about the recent test screening for the Prince Caspian movie:

Taking a break from working on Dawn Treader and other projects, I attended the test screening and I think that the team has done a fabulous job on Prince Caspian, starting with a less good story, our team has produced an even better movie than LWW. I must be perhaps the severest critic of all, and I like this movie very much!

There are other rumors and reviews from the test screening at NarniaWeb, but click at your own risk, because there are all sorts of potential plot spoilers over there!

Click here for more Narnia and Caspian related posts.
Click here for Narnia sermon series.

Cinderella sits in the corner thinking about the 2008 presidential election:

“Hillary Clinton says if she’s elected she will bring the troops home and provide alternative energy and universal health care and universal pre-k and middle-class tax breaks all at the same time. It all seems so impossible! But oh how I wish it were true. I wish Hillary could be president and do all these wonderful things for me without raising my taxes!”

Suddenly, to Cinderella’s great surprise, Hillary magically appears.

(Video length: 2:03)

Related posts:

• Hillary Godmother (shorter version)
• Hillary Godmother Reader Poll
• The Hillary Clinton Cookie Attack Ad
• Hillary Clinton In-Flight Announcements
• The MPR Select a Candidate Quiz

Cinderella: Who are you?

Hillary: I’m your Fairy Godmother.

Cinderella: Oh, how beautiful you are.

Hillary: I am made of all your most beautiful dreams and hopes and wishes.

Cinderella: Oh Fairy Godmother. I have only one wish just now.

Hillary: And that’s why you were weeping?

Cinderella: Yes. Because I know it is impossible.

Hillary: Impossible? Bah, what’s a Fairy Godmother for?

Cinderella: To make my wish come true?

Hillary: If you wish it hard enough.

Cinderella: Oh, Fairy Godmother I am wishing it so very, very hard that if all the wishes of all the girls turned into one big wish it would not be any harder than my wish.

Hillary: That’s hard enough. Now …

Cinderella: But is it possible to get those things by wishing for them?

Hillary: Well, the sensible people of the world will say: “Fal-de-rol and fiddle-dee-dee and fiddle-dee-faddle-dee-foddle, all the wishes in the world are poppycock and twaddle!”

Cinderella: Aren’t they?

Hillary: Not always. The sensible people will also say: “Fal-de-rol and fiddle-dee-dee and fiddle-dee-faddle-dee-foodle, all the dreamers in the world are dizzy in the noodle!”

Cinderella: And aren’t they?

Hillary: Not always. Especially if there’s someone who loves you to help you.

Cinderella: Dear, dear Fairy Godmother, is that you?

Hillary: What’s a Fairy Godmother for?

Behold, Jeremy Kipnis’ $6 million home theater system. Powered by 35 amplifiers with a combined 11,315 watts, the Kipnis system has 3 center-channel speakers, 8 reference towers, 10 super tweeters and 16 subwoofers. The video is projected onto a giant 18-by-10-foot laboratory-grade motion picture screen.

If King Solomon were alive today, he would definitely have one of these. And after three months of watching movies in it, he would write up the following review for Popular Mechanics:

“All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing … I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 1:8,14)

I know, negative take. But as much as I love movies and technology, this just seems way over the top to me.

HT: Neatorama

Earlier I posted the funniest attack ad of the political season. Here is the funniest defensive moment of the season.

Update: Whoops, the YouTube video is no longer available. Here is a different link to the same video: Comedy Central: Colbert and Huckabee. And here is a link to a shorter version: Click here for ‘Huckabee Ices Colbert – in Air Hockey’

Video length (3:35)

Mike Huckabee and Steven Colbert play air hockey with the primaries.

HT: God and Culture

Here is the funniest attack ad of the political season.

(Video length: 0:58)

Related posts:

• Hillary Godmother (shorter version)
• Cinderella Meets Hillary Godmother (longer version)
• Hillary Godmother Reader Poll
• Hillary Clinton In-Flight Announcements
• The MPR Select a Candidate Quiz

“I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies.”
 - Senator Hillary Clinton

“Hillary Clinton disparaged the act of baking cookies.”

“I eat cookies all the time. My mom bakes cookies. Does baking cookies for me make my mom a bad person? Hillary Clinton thinks so.”

“Why put down cookies, then offer up a recipe for cookies?”

“Oh, I thought you didn’t care about baking cookies.”

“Which is it? Huh? Huh?”

“Why the double standard?”

“Double standard … flip-flop.”

“Whitewater.”

“Miss Clinton? I don’t like your recipe.”

“My mother baked me this cookie.”

(Crunch) “Mmm, that’s good.”

“This message is sponsored by Swift Kids for Truth.”

HT: World on the Web

You know it’s Monday when …

your valentine comes addressed to occupant.

_________________________________________________________

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