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Andrée Seu explains why more miracles are never the answer. “The solution to stubborn unbelief is not miracles. There are never enough miracles; there is always another request. Another objection. … I have often asked God for miracles to prove his love. But nowadays I ask for spiritual eyes to see what He has already made clear.”

Chris Rice eulogizes the Cartoon song which he retired from concerts in 2004. “I want to do excellent work. I want my work, my REAL work, to reach a wide range of people. This song purposely has no excellence — it was intended as a joke. I never meant for it to be popular, or to be taken seriously. I have heard all sides of the reasoning for and against the Cartoon song — literally thousands of times — and it is a song not worthy of this much attention.” (HT: FilmChat)

Rick Moran remembers why the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb. “How could we have done it? Much of the world to this day asks the question, ‘Wasn’t there another, less cruel way to end the war?’ The decision to drop the bomb will always be controversial because the answer to that question is yes, there were other ways we could have ended the war with Japan. Some would almost certainly have cost more lives than were lost at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

Josh Etter quotes A.W. Tozer on the problem of tinkering with your soul. “While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves – blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ, the very thing he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him.” (A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God)

Mark Shead recommends taking a memory nap to increase productivity. (You may want to check with your boss first.) “Studies suggest that your memories are solidified while you sleep. Your brain does a lot of work during your rest–almost like it is busy filing and making sense of everything you’ve discovered while you were awake. When you’ve learned a new concept or information that you want to retain, consider taking a nap or reviewing it right before going to bed. This will give your brain the best chance to assimilate the new information.”

Skye Jethani from Leadership Journal warns pastors against the danger of rooting our identity in ministry rather than in Christ. “Something’s wrong. We pastors are the stewards, the spokespeople, the advocates of a message of hope, life, and peace. And yet so few of us seem to be experiencing these qualities in our own lives. Something’s wrong. In a world saturated with fear, insecurity, and stress, we are to show a different way. And yet those at the center of the church are burning out and leaving ministry at a rate of 1,500 per month. If that’s what’s occurring at the heart of the church, why would anyone on the fringe want to move in closer?”

Nancy Beach is still marveling over the Olympics Opening Ceremony. “Anyone who has produced any event at any scale had to marvel at what the Chinese director and his cast of 15,000 pulled off. I’m still scratching my head that those rectangular tubes, so perfectly choreographed to music, culminating in the lovely wave of pink lotus flowers, were actually activated by humans! HOW DID THEY DO THAT????? … The next time any of us has to orchestrate 10 people or 100 people or even 300 people to craft an experience, we should learn something from the Chinese about aiming high, about the power of beauty, about the pay-off for excellence and how inspiring it is to the human heart.”

Pastor Rick Warren will host Presidential Candidates Barack Obama and John McCain this Saturday at the Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency.

Saturday, August 16, 2008 ● 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. (PST)

At the candidates’ request, this two-hour event will be held in a non-debate format, and will be open to all media. Both candidates also requested that questions be posed exclusively by Warren rather than by a panel or members of the audience. Each candidate will converse separately with Warren for approximately an hour, beginning with Sen. Obama, as determined by a coin toss.

This historic forum will be the only joint event for the two, and the last public appearance for either candidate prior to the two-week hiatus during each party’s national convention.

Due to Secret Service mandate, tickets will be required for the event in the main auditorium, but the program will be broadcast live in multiple venues on the Saddleback campus, as well as on several national broadcast networks and online. It will also be streamed live on www.SaddlebackCivilForum.com. For basic information call (949) 609-8778.

• 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.

17th century theologian Francis Turretin wrote eloquently about the beauty and order of the universe long before the Intelligent Design movement:

[He] is blind who does not see the most beautiful order everywhere and most wicked who does not acknowledge it. There is a suitable disposition of parts, so constant a concord of things so discordant, so harmonious an agreement and consent of creatures the most diverse, so swift and at the same time equable motion of the heavenly bodies and so immutable a stability and constancy of the order once established. So not only do the heavens declare the glory of God, but every blade of grass and flower in the field, every pebble on the shore and every shell in the ocean proclaim not only his power and goodness, but also his manifold wisdom, so near each one that even by feeling, God can be found.

Source: Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, vol. 1, trans. George Musgrave Geiger, ed. James T. Dennison, Jr. (Philipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1994), 171-172. (HT: Kairos Journal)

If you enjoy listening to audiobooks, you might want to check out this deal. Each month, ChristianAudio.com offers a free audiobook download. This month’s free selection is The Confessions of Saint Augustine, by Augustine of Hippo (run time 12 hours, 48 minutes; normally $26.98). Use the coupon code AUG2008 to download the book for free this month only.

Here is a description from the site:

Saint Augustine’s contributions to Christian theology are second to no other post-apostolic author in the whole sweep of church history. Yet along side his doctrinal treatises, Augustine tells a story of his life devoted to Christ as his only satisfaction. The Confessions is at once the autobiographical account of Augustine’s life of Christian faith and at the same time a compelling theology of Christian spirituality for everyone. Among the most important classics in Western literature, it continues to engage modern readers through Augustine’s timeless illustrations and beautiful prose. Augustine’s Confessions is a book to relish the first time through and then profoundly enjoy over a lifetime of revisiting.

You can listen to a free audio sample from Augustine’s Confessions here.

                      (Photo from BiblePlaces.com)

The new ESV Study Bible Blog has a helpful article on the Gamla Synagogue which was built during the first century B.C and destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 67. The synagogue was never rebuilt which gives us a glimpse of what the synagogue would have looked like in the first century A.D. The structure measures 84 x 56 feet (26 x 17 m) and could have held a few hundred people sitting on rows of stone benches which lined the walls.

Here is a typical order of service for synagogue worship during the first century A.D. (from Luke, New American Commentary, by Robert H. Stein):

• Singing of a psalm
• Reading of the Shema (Deut. 6:4-9; 11:13-21)
• Prayers (including set prayers, like the Eighteen Blessings [the Shemoneh Esreh)
• Reading of the Law in Hebrew (then translated into Aramaic for those who didn’t know Hebrew)
• Reading of the Prophets in Hebrew (and in Aramaic)
• Sermon/teaching on the Scripture passages
• Concluding blessing/benediction by the ruler of the synagogue

Flying low. Pilots complain that airlines are forcing them to fly uncomfortably low on fuel. Less fuel means less weight, which reduces costs for the airlines but may increase safety risks for passengers and flight crew.

iPhone scam. German software developer Armin Heinrich created a program for the iPhone called “I Am Rich” which does nothing except display a large ruby on your iPhone’s screen. The product description reads: “The red icon on your iPhone always reminds you (and others when you show it to them) that you were able to afford this. It’s a work of art with no hidden function at all.” The program cost $999.99, and eight people actually purchased it before Apple removed it from their site. Now Heinrich can say, “I am rich.”

Lip synching at the Olympics. Remember the pretty Chinese girl in the red dress who sang so beautifully during the opening ceremony of the Olympics? Turns out it wasn’t her voice after all. “Miaoke, a third grader, was judged cute and appealing but ‘not suitable’ as a singer. Another girl, Yang Peiyi, 7, was judged the best singer but not as cute. So when Miaoke opened her mouth to sing, the voice that was actually heard was a recording of Peiyi. And it is unclear if Miaoke even knew.”

You never know what might follow your dog through the doggie door. The owners of this beagle came home to find their dog’s new friend all curled up on the couch.

From the Deep Creek (Maryland) Times; Photo of the Month for July

Update: Look what followed the cat through the pet door!
(Video length: 0:26)

HT: Neatorama

“He’s baaaaacccck!” As you may have gathered from yesterday’s post (Classic Definition of Vacation), I am back to work after several weeks of vacation. I enjoyed some quiet time at home with my family as well as visiting with relatives. I would like to thank my wonderful church family for granting me vacation time, the church elders who preached in my absence, and everyone who pitched in to “fill in the gaps” while I was gone. It’s good to be back! (And no, I have not shaved off my vacation beard yet.)

• 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.

A vacation consists of:

Two weeks that are
too short, after which you are
too tired
to go back
to work, but
too broke
to afford not
to.  (Source unknown)

2 true. What say you?

NBC has been very protective of any online video of the Olympics this year. As fast as people can post the videos on YouTube, NBC keeps pulling them down. But you can see the official video of the lighting of the torch at NBC’s site. You will have to give them your zip code and cable provider in order to view the video, but no other personal information is required. If you like fireworks, you will definitely enjoy this video. (Remember, the Chinese invented fireworks!)

After you view the video, come on back here and leave a comment! Here is the link (opens in new window): Video of 2008 Olympic Torch Lighting at Opening Ceremony in Beijing