Ray Fowler .org

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I am currently seeking God’s will for his next place of ministry for us as a family. If you know of a church that is looking for a pastor, please pass this information on to them. Thank you! Click here for my Pastoral Profile page.

Related posts:
    • Yes, we are all in Florida now!
    • Update on the Fowler Move
    • Big Change for the Fowler Family
    • Questions and Answers about Our Upcoming Move

Here is an amazing photo of a rare aurora australis over the Southern Indian Ocean captured from the International Space Station (ISS) on May 29, 2010.

Many people are familiar with the auroroa borealis which takes place near the North Pole (also known as the northern lights), but the Southern Hemisphere has its own version of the atmospheric light show called the aurora australis.

From PopSci: The auroras — aurora borealis near the North Pole, aurora australis near the South Pole — are one of the atmosphere’s most beautiful phenomena, occurring when energetic ions from the sun collide with oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere, temporarily exciting those particles such that they emit light as they return to their normal states. This particular ribbon of ion activity appears green, the result of excited oxygen atoms at wavelengths near 0.558 millionths of a meter. Other wavelengths produce red, blue, or purple hues (you can see a little bit of red left of center).

Check out the new trailer for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, coming to theaters December 10, 2010. I can’t wait!

Dawn Treader Trailer (Video length: 2:10)

Click here for Narnia products at Amazon.

Related posts:
    • C. S. Lewis’ Homeschool Schedule
    • Click here for more Narnia related posts.

Here’s a good reminder from Jerry Bridges:

Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.

– Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace, p. 19

Today is the 235th birthday of the United States Army. Take a moment and pray for our troops today. (And while we’re at it, happy Flag Day as well!)
 

Vote Early and Often. The city of Port Chester, New York, is trying out a new system of cumulative voting, in which each voter gets six votes to cast any way he likes (for example, one vote each for six candidates or six votes for only one candidate). The system is designed to give Port Chester’s large Latino population a better chance of electing one of its own to the village’s Board of Trustees.

Ouch. A hen in Eastwood, UK lay this record-breaking egg with a diameter of 9.1 inches. The hen is only six months old and only just started laying eggs.

Volume Conversions. Have trouble remembering how to convert gallons, quarts, pints and cups? Print out this neat conversion graphic and put it on your refrigerator. (Click here to download a Word document with the graphic.)

Christian musician, Dana Key, died yesterday (June 6, 2010) from a ruptured blood clot (CT). He was 56 years old. Dana Key was the guitarist and main vocalist for DeGarmo & Key, an early Christian rock band that Dana formed with keyboardist Ed DeGarmo. More recently Dana was senior pastor for TLC Community Church in Memphis, TN where he and Ed grew up.

I first saw Degarmo & Key back in 1979. They were performing in a local Jr. High School. I had never heard of them before, but went with a friend to check them out. What a concert! They had the two albums pictured above for sale, and I purchased them both during intermission. Later albums didn’t grab me as much, but I always loved Dana’s bold guitar playing, his clear witness for Christ, and his gritty, authentic voice.

(Here’s the first track from Degarmo & Key’s first album, This Time Thru.)
“Emmanuel”
[audio:DegarmoKey_Emmanuel.mp3]
Click “►” button to play | Length: 3:08

So many of those early Christian musicans have now gone on to be with the Lord: Keith Green, Mark Heard, Larry Norman, Tom Howard, and now Dana Key as well. These musicians all had a positive impact on my growth as a young Christian. I appreciate their ministry, and I still enjoy their music after all these years, too!

Related posts:
    • Tom Howard Passes Away (1950-2010)
    • Larry Norman Passes Away (1947-2008)

“Nobody’s perfect!” – Detroit Tigers’ pitcher Armando Galarraga commenting on umpire Jim Joyce’s wrong call which cost Galaragga a perfect game yesterday.

From The New York Times:

“I just cost that kid a perfect game,” Joyce told reporters in Detroit. “I thought he beat the throw. I was convinced he beat the throw, until I saw the replay. It was the biggest call of my career.”

Galarraga told reporters that Joyce apologized to him after the game, adding that he had no instinct to argue the call. “He probably felt more bad than me,” Galarraga said. Smiling, he added, “Nobody’s perfect.”

Related articles:
    • Galarraga Loses Perfect Game With 2 Outs in Ninth
    • Two Amazing Baseball Plays in 2010

The Celtics-Lakers 2010 Finals begin tonight. The Celtics and the Lakers are the two most successful basketball teams in NBA history. There have been a total of 63 NBA Finals. The Celtics and Lakers have won over half of them with the Celtics winning 17 and the Lakers 15. (The Chicago Bulls are the next closest team with “only” 6 championships.)

The Celtics and Lakers have met each other 11 times in the finals, the last time just two years ago. The Celtics won the first 8 contests, the Lakers won the next 2, and then the Celtics won again in 2008. The Lakers beat Orlando in the finals last year and are looking to repeat. If they win this year, they will only be one championship way from tying Boston’s record. If Boston wins, they will increase the gap to three. As a long-time Boston Celtics fan, I am really looking forward to this one. This should be a great series.

Any predictions? Share them in the comments!

Update: The Lakers win it, 4 games to 3.

Here is a table showing all the Celtics-Lakers finals match-ups:

Related links:

• Top 20 Celtic-Lakers Moments in Finals History
• NBA Finals: Year-by-year results

Click here for more Sports related posts.

I pulled out an old message and preached it to myself this morning. I am in between churches and waiting on the Lord, and I really needed this word today. I pray it will be encouraging to you, too.
______________________________________________________________

                        View from the Cave (1 Samuel 22:1-5)

One of the things we learn from Scripture, as well as from life experience, is that God’s timetable is usually different from ours. We want things to happen, and we want them to happen now. But God is often more interested in what we are doing and learning in the meantime.

There is a pattern we see repeated in Scripture where God gives someone a promise, a vision or a task, but he then delays in fulfilling it, at least according to our timetable. For example, God promised Abraham and Sarah a son, but then they waited years for Isaac to be born. When Moses tried to stand up for his people in Egypt, he ended up tending sheep in the wilderness for 40 years. God gave Joseph prophetic dreams about ruling even over the members of his own family. But then Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, and he spent years in prison before the dream was eventually fulfilled.

Something similar happened to David. God had promised David great things. He had David anointed as the future king over Israel (1 Samuel 16:13), and everything seemed to be unfolding according to plan. David was brought into King Saul’s service. (16:21) He defeated Goliath, the great Philistine warrior. (17) He forged a friendship with Saul’s son Jonathan. (18:1-4) Saul gave David a high rank in the army. (18:5) We are told the Lord was with him in everything he did (18:14), and that all the people of Israel and Judah loved him. (18:16). David had even married the king’s daughter, Michal. (18:27) Everything was falling into place for him to become the next king of Israel.

But then suddenly everything ground to a halt. Saul grew jealous of David’s successes and determined to kill him, and David found himself running for his life. He was a fugitive – hiding from Saul and his soldiers, sneaking food and weapons from the priests at Nob (21:1-9), even having to act like a madman in the land of Gath in order to save his life. (21:10-15) And that brings us to our text this morning in 1 Samuel 22. All of God’s promises had been put on hold, and David was now hiding out in the cave at Adullam.

So what do you do when life doesn’t turn out the way you thought it would, the way God seemed to be leading? What do you do when you suddenly find yourself in the cave instead of the palace? How do you deal with God’s delays in life? (Click here to continue reading.)
 

Dallas Willard, commenting on the request, “Give us today our daily bread,” from the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13):

The emphasis is on provision today of what we need for today … So we do not ask him to provide today what we will need for tomorrow. To have it in hand today does not guarantee that we will have it tomorrow when we need it. Today I have God, and he has the provisions. Tomorrow it will be the same. So I simply ask today for what I need for today or ask now for what I need now.

This is how children do it, of course. A mother who discovers that her child is saving up oatmeal, pieces of toast, or strips of bacon for fear of not having food tomorrow has cause to be alarmed. The world being what it is, we can all too easily imagine situations in which the child’s action would be reasonable. But in any normal situation parents will be astonished and pained that the child does not trust them to provide for it day by day …

Now, to make it clear about the teaching and the prayer, it is quite all right, as earlier noted, to have things now that we intend to use tomorrow and to work or even pray in a sensible way for them. What hinders or shuts down kingdom living is not the having of such provisions, but rather the trusting in them for future security. We have no real security for the future in them, but only in the God who is present with us each day. (Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p. 261, Kindle location 4991)

I am in between jobs right now, and so I found this a very encouraging word. Today I have God, and that is enough.

      (Note: For ebook and audiobook conversions, see Fowler Digital Services.)

Privacy

Check out The Bible Memory Version for the Kindle here.

Yesterday when I posted the Kindle’s most popular highlights for the Bible, someone suggested I do the same for The Koran. There were two Kindle versions of The Koran that had a sufficient number of highlights for Amazon to list them: the Ali and the Haleem translations. In both versions the most highlighted sections all came from Chapter 2: The Cow. The only other chapter with a significant amount of highlighting was Chapter 5: The Dinner Table. So, here are the most popular passages in the Koran as highlighted by Kindle users around the world:

[2.62] “Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last day and does good, they shall have their reward from their Lord, and there is no fear for them, nor shall they grieve.” (41 highlights: 31 Ali + 10 Haleem)

[2.190-191] “And fight in the way of Allah with those who fight with you, and do not exceed the limits, surely Allah does not love those who exceed the limits. And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers.” (22 highlights: 13 Ali + 9 Haleem)

[2.113] “And the Jews say: The Christians do not follow anything (good) and the Christians say: The Jews do not follow anything (good) while they recite the (same) Book. Even thus say those who have no knowledge, like to what they say; so Allah shall judge between them on the day of resurrection in what they differ.” (20 highlights: 12 Ali + 8 Haleem)

[2.87] “And most certainly We gave Moses the Book and We sent apostles after him one after another; and We gave Jesus, the son of Mary, clear arguments and strengthened him with the holy spirit, What! whenever then an apostle came to you with that which your souls did not desire, you were insolent so you called some liars and some you slew.” (16 highlights: 11 Ali + 5 Haleem)

[2.24-25] “Be on your guard against the fire of which men and stones are the fuel; it is prepared for the unbelievers.” (13 highlights: all from Ali)

[2.136] “Say: We believe in Allah and (in) that which had been revealed to us, and (in) that which was revealed to Abraham and Isma’il and Isaac and Jacob and and the tribes, and (in) that which was given to Moses and Jesus, and (in) that which was given to the prophets from their Lord, we do not make any distinction between any of them, and to Him do we submit.” (12 highlights: all from Ali)

[2.193] “And fight with them until there is no persecution, and religion should be only for Allah, but if they desist, then there should be no hostility except against the oppressors.” (12 highlights: all from Ali)

[2.256] “Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things.” (12 highlights: all from Ali)

In yesterday’s most popular Bible passages there was a clear theme of trusting God and not worrying. The main theme I could find here has to do with the relationship of Muslims with Christians and Jews.

Related posts:
    • Amazon Kindle’s Most Popular Bible Highlights
    • Top 10 Kindle Features
    • My Kindle Got Run Over by a Car

(Note: For ebook and audiobook conversions, see Fowler Digital Services.)