the journey

Prayer for the swine flu victims

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
~ Luke 18:1

Everyone's talking about the swine flu.

But I don't hear a lot of talk about people praying

Maybe it's time for people of faith to pray for those who have been touched by this virus.

Maybe it's time for people of faith to pray for the future. Pray for God's healing hand to stave off this scourge; pray for the regions affected by the H1N1 swine virus. Pray for the doctors, nurses and others who will help the sick and injured.

Pray that virologists, epidemiologists and other environmental health professionals, the world over, can work together to contain and minimize the effects of this virus.

Pray for the little children who will lose sleep over this; and for the teachers, parents and other care-givers who will help calm their fears.

Pray that panic and disorder won't override common sense.

Prayer changes things. Let's get busy.

ht: T.M.Cart for the idea

Technorati Tags: swine flu,prayer

Jesus license plates

There are religions mints, Jesus bobble-head dolls, Jesus action figures, and, of course, the Jesus license plates seen here.

At what point do the (tacky) Jesus trinkets and paraphernalia become an embarrassment to Christianity (maybe even blasphemous) instead of innocent light-hearted fun or, in some cases, a tool for evangelism?

Tags: Jesus, Jesus Christ

the conversation in motion

I'm really enjoying the ooze.tv.  Here's another sample:

Tags: theooze.tv, Spencer Burke

They love baseball, just not the ticket prices

A picture is worth a thousand words, but a dugout baseball seat is apparently not worth $500 (or more).

Welcome to New York Yankees baseball & the ongoing saga of the price for professional sporting events gone amuck.

ht: jordon cooper
Source: PaulKatcher.com

Tags: New York Yankees

The Good Samaritan

Superb!

Source: CartoonChurch.com

Tags: Good Samaritan

Furious longing

Looks good... put it on my Amazon wish list...

Furious Longing

Tags: Brennan Manning

A day with Leah

I spent a good portion of the day in Burleson with my daughter Leah.  I don't get to see her nearly enough, so today was a refreshing time.

We ate at a favorite Mexican restaurant, and saw the "Monsters" at the Hollywood Cinema.  It was an homage to a variety of monster movies and all things sci-fi including The Fly, Mothra, Star Wars, Star Trek, The Blob, ad infinitum.  Overall, I'd give it a B-.  It just didn't have the "oompf" I was looking for today.  Rather dry....

The day was energizing and refreshing all in all.  I need to find a way to see her more often.

Powerful Good Friday ending

Powerful stuff...

Good Friday 2009 - Ending from buckheadchurch on Vimeo.

ht: collide

Tags: Good Friday

A lesson we all need to learn

1 Samuel 16:7 says:

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things human beings look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

and “The Message” makes it even clearer:

But God told Samuel, “Looks aren’t everything. Don’t be impressed with his looks and stature. I’ve already eliminated him. God judges persons differently than humans do. Men and women look at the face; God looks into the heart.”

I wish I could embed the YouTube video, but they've disabled it.

So, here's 47-year-old Susan Boyle as she appeared on Britans Got Tallent 2009 (the UK's version of American Idol).

Amazing, simply amazing!  Bravo!

Technorati Tags: Britan's Got Tallent,Susan Boyles

The challenge of Easter

I'm reading Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy for the very first time. I've had it on my shelf for quite awhile (not unlike a few other books) & I'm just now getting to it.  I'm trying to read it devotionally; we'll see how that goes.

While reflecting on the chapter entitled "Gospels of Sin Management," which, incidentally, is very good, I was struck with the following thoughts:

• Some only focus on life after death, to the exclusion of life before death,
• Some only focus on professing Christ, to the exclusion of living for Christ,
• Some only focus on loving God, to the exclusion of loving others-in-need,
• And some only focus on spiritual experiences, to the exclusion of character transformation.

I suppose the challenge of Easter-- living in the wake of the resurrection-- is to help people discover that one-dimensional Christianity just doesn't cut it. 

It leaves you-- it left me-- feeling like I was missing something.

And I think I was. 

Technorati Tags: Christianity, Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy