• Bedtime Prayers with Children. Trevin Wax shares some good thoughts on praying with your children.
• Christian High School Courses Rejected. A federal judge’s ruling upheld the right of the University of California to reject certain high school courses offered at some Christian schools.
• Solar System is Special. “The researchers ran more than a hundred simulations, and the results show that the average planetary system’s origin was full of violence and drama but that the formation of something like our solar system required conditions to be ‘just right.'”
• Church Rejects Donation from Lottery Winner. A Florida man who won $6 million in the lottery tried to give a tithe to First Baptist Church of Orange Park, but First Baptist declined the gift of $600,000. That’s what I call sticking to your principles!
• Beijing House Church Pastors Forced to Cease Activity for Olympics. House church pastors in Beijing were forced by officials to sign a document vowing to cease religious activities during the Olympic Games.

• How to Save Money at the State Fair. Some frugal tips at the Simple Dollar on saving money at the fair.
• California Court OKs Homeschooling. A state appeals court ruled Friday that parents have the right to homeschool their children even without a teaching credential.
• U.S. Men’s 4x100m Free Relay. Watch the video of this spectacular swim relay. This will easily be one of the most memorable moments of the whole 2008 Olympics.
• New Museum of Biblical Archaeology. Check out the new Woodland Museum of Biblical Archaeology where you can find sling stones, swords from 2000 BC, a sacrificial knife from the time of Abraham, and a battle-axe that dates at least 500 years before the time of Abraham.
• Scientists Create Stem Cells for 10 Disorders. Harvard scientists used ordinary skin cells and bone marrow from people with a variety of diseases, including Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Down syndrome to produce the stem cells. Researchers said they plan to make the cell lines readily available to other scientists.

OLYMPIC EDITION.

• No more perfect 10’s. The scoring rules have changed. There will be no perfect 10’s for gymnastics at the Olympics this year.
• Olympians to Watch. Christianity Today highlights several Christian athletes participating in this year’s Olympics.
• The TOP TEN Greatest Olympic Moments. (Summer Olympic moments only.)

• Oil dropped below $120 a barrel briefly yesterday.
• Billy: The Early Years. The trailer for the new film on Billy Graham is now available online.
• Speed up Vista. Microsoft has released a PDF guide on improving the performance of Windows Vista.
• Rolling Stone tomb. Ever wondered what Jesus’ tomb may have looked like? Todd Bolen has some great photos of the Khirbet Midras rolling stone tomb in Israel.
• Mary Winkler gets custody. Mary Winkler, the woman convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the 2006 shooting death of her minister husband, has taken custody of her three daughters.
• Art * Music * Justice Tour. Sara Groves, Brandon Heath, Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken and Charlie Peacock are joining forces for the Art * Music * Justice Tour. You can find more information and a schedule of concerts at the Art * Music * Justice Myspace page.

• Build your own WALL•E out of paper!
• 25 negative body language habits to avoid.
• Church-Hopping with a Purpose. Linda McCullough Moore reviews Suzanne Shea’s Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith. Shea visited fifty-two churches in a year and wrote a chapter about each one.
• Well-dying courses. South Korean workers are being sent on “well-dying” courses as a suicide prevention measure. The country has the highest rate of self-inflicted death in the developed world, with 24.7 cases per 100,000 people.
• ‘Godspell’ Returns to Broadway this Fall. “The pop musical, which has a score by Stephen Schwartz, opens Oct. 23 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, producer Adam Epstein announced Tuesday. It will feature Gavin Creel as Jesus and Joshua Henry as Judas. Also in the cast will be Diana DeGarmo of “American Idol” fame. Preview performances begin Sept. 29.”

• Pastor and Family For Sale on eBay. The auction ends July 17. I have my own thoughts on this, but what do you think? (HT: MMI)
• The Berenstain Bears Say their Prayers. Zonderkidz is publishing a new series of faith-based Berenstain Bears books.
• Water Found on the Moon. New findings point to the existence of water deep beneath the moon’s surface.  And in other water news:
• Water Crisis in Israel. Israel is having its worst water crisis since records started being kept 80 years ago.
• What would happen if you answered all your spam? Would you believe — a stuffed mailbox at home, a computer clogged up with spyware, and an exponential increase of 20,000 spam messages in just one month?

• Gabriel’s Vision (Messiah Stone). Todd Bolen provides a good overview of the latest archaeological discovery that is supposed to “shake our basic view of Christianity.” (Does anyone even remember last year’s “faith-shaking” discovery? I’m just surprised this didn’t come out at Easter.)
• Who Really Profits the Most from the Price of Gasoline? “Once State and Federal excise taxes are paid, anywhere from 30-60 cents (approximately) of every gallon of gasoline goes to the government in taxes. The profit oil companies make on a gallon of gas? About 10 cents.”
• China to Provide Free Bibles during Olympic Games. “About 10,000 bilingual copies of the Bible will be distributed and another 30,000 copies of the New Testament will also be available during the games, but none will be provided in public hotels. The cover of the Gospels will sport an Olympics logo.”
• Worst. Congress. Ever. “The congressional job approval is 9%. Disapproval, 52%. Among independents, only 3% approve of Congress. That’s within the margin of error, which means there is a chance no independent approves.” Ouch!
• Free Online Animated Greek Course. Presented by Professor Ted Hildebrandt of Gordon College. (You will need Adobe Flash Player – free download here.)

• Pagan Christianity. Ben Witherington critiques George Barna and Frank Viola’s critique of the institutional church. (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
• How To Write an Effective Thank You Note. This is an area where we could probably all show some improvement.
• Creating a Life Plan. Michael Hyatt (President/CEO of Thomas Nelson) shares his plan for creating a life plan.
• We Can Lower Oil Prices Now. Martin Feldstein argues that the best way to lower oil prices right now is to lower projected future oil prices.
• The Dying Art of the Knuckleball. Read about the pitch that trying to hit is like “trying to catch a butterfly with tweezers.”

• Ask Calvin’s Dad. Calvin’s Dad from Calvin and Hobbes explains how life works.
• Christianity Today Interviews WALL•E Director. “Pixar’s Andrew Stanton first thought of WALL•E in 1994, and now it’s hitting theaters. We caught up with Stanton to discuss his faith, creativity, and that lonely little ‘bot.”
• People God Killed. Adrian Warnock shares a C. J. Mahaney sermon that changed his life.
• Credit-Card Reporting. This sounds like a bad idea. “Payment-card reporting would require banks and other providers of merchant account services to report credit- and debit-card payments to the IRS.”
• Academia and Religion. “Academics have a highly negative view of Evangelical Christians and very little hostility to Jews.”

• World population to hit 7 billion by 2012.
• Update from the Chapman Family. Steven Curtis Chapman’s manager provides an update on how the family is doing after Maria’s death last month.
• Church Scammers Take $80 Million. “With an investment of just pennies on the dollar, they promised an end to credit card debt, mortgages and hefty car loans.”
• The O’Reilly Factor in One Minute. Whether you love him or hate him, this is pretty funny: The Factor for Tuesday June 17, condensed to sixty seconds.
• Barack Obama and Bible Interpretation. A quick lesson on how the Old Testament relates to the New.