Bono honored

Today, on his Leave it Behind blog, Brian Bailey (author of The Blogging Church) posts about an award given to U2's Bono for work done on Project One.

Check out the post, which highlights the speech as well as the speech itself.

"Pause and think of that"

As I mentioned a couple of months ago, I have been listening to the Daily Audio Bible. Last week's version was the Amplified Version. The hook with the Amplified it to take words that are somewhat poorly defined and give several alternative meanings.

Hearing the Amplified read out loud annoys me as often as not because you get several definitions run together as when reading. One example is Romans 12:3 (read it aloud and all the words, even the ones in parentheses for effect)...

For by the grace (unmerited favor of God) given to me I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought [not to have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance], but to rate his ability with sober judgment, each according to the degree of faith apportioned by God to him.

One such word, as you go through Psalms is the word Selah. The effect was not annoying but inspiring when I heard over and over....

Selah [pause, and think of that]

Christus Victor Ministries and Practicing the Presence

I ran across the Greg Boyd's blog tonight. Greg is a pastor, and author. He has a tendency to be somewhat controversial (this might be an understatement). On the other hand, as time goes by, he is helping to answer a question I have had for some time... How much has America's "version" of Christianity diverged from what Christ intended?

One of the most interesting posts that I looked at, however was More "Practicing the Presence". The introductory paragraph really stuck out to me...

One major problem many American Christians face is that we tend to embrace a magical view of the Christian faith. We assume that if a person “prays the sinners prayer,” “surrenders their life to Christ,” and “accepts Jesus as Lord of their life,” this somehow magically “saves” them and will sooner or later magically transform them – if not in this life, then in the next. This is why most evangelical churches place so much emphasis on the “conversion experience.” The trouble is, this magical view of faith doesn’t work. Research shows that, in terms of their core values and behaviors, Christians differ very little from their non-Christian neighbors. We don’t consistently experience, and therefore don’t consistently manifest, abundant kingdom LIFE.

Go read it and let me know what you think.

Home...

Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thoughts escaping
Home, where my musics playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me
-- from Simon & Garfunkle's "Homeward Bound"

It is always somewhat bitter-sweet coming back home from a long vacation (more than a couple of days), especially when that vacation is truly relaxing.

It is good to be back but there is all the "around the house" chores that need to be done. At the same time, there is the realizaton that I need to go back to work on Monday. (if I had only bought that winning lottery ticket).

It was good to see family and spend some time together. Due to distances, we haven't really gotten to spend much time with Catherine and her family (Pete, Ryan and Rachael) so it was nice to do that. It was great to meet Mario's wife Wanda and see his daughter Jewel as she has grown since we saw her last.

Now... Back to the chores!

Vacation day 8

Day 7 was recovery from day 6. It included internet and grilling.

Day 8, Kyle went with the cousins to Disney's Animal Kingdom. Marj and I went for a drive which included eating at Joe's Crab Shack (the Florida Grouper was quite good), a swamp boat ride and a visit to the medical clinic which diagnosed Marj's outer ear infection.

The swamp boat ride was fun. They seem to like showing people the local 'gator population. We also saw sand hill cranes, raccoons and a turtle.

Vacation day 6

On Saturday morning, we checked out of our temporary spot at Westgate and headed off to meet Marj's brother Mario who had flown in the night before from Georgia.

My joy of having internet access turned to mild disappointment when I found our new room (here) didn't have the wireless working in my room.

Marj's sister Catherine and her family checked in on Saturday night.

At this point we had two missing pieces of luggage.

Mario took off on Monday but we had a great time meeting his wife Wanda and getting re-acquainted with his daughter Jewel. Later, we headed to Downtown Disney for a bit of ice cream at the Ghiradelli Chocolate Soda Fountain.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we all ended up at Disney's Magic Kingdom. Not my favorite place but we have 2 seven year-old's and an 11 year old who love it.

Today, we are recovering from being all Mouse House'd out. We grilled by the pool and while most everyone is relaxing by or in the pool, your's truely found the internet connection does work next door and is free to owners so I am taking advantage of the situation to keep things updated!

A Lethal Weapon?

When Marj and Kyle got me an iPod Nano for Christmas, I don't think they realized how lethal a weapon it was.

I saw a link to "8 Ways to Kill Someone with the Nano" at iPod Hacks.

Hmmm...

Ides of March

Yesterday, March 15 was the Ides of March. My first exposure to the term was a band with that name and their "hit" song Vehicle (iTunes link).

I do find it odd that it odd that something we usually associate with the assassination of Julius Ceaser is usually found somewhere within the whole season of lent.

From Blogcation to Vacation

We are on vacation now... This is something Kyle has been looking forward to for some time. Not because of where we are but the fact he is not in school.

The place we are staying has wireless (for a cost) so I can keep up with everyone!

A Blogcation

A what? I have been missing in action for a bit. I took a Blog Vacation -- a blogcation. One blog writer I know of has quit blogging for lent. I didn't quite go that far, I have been busy.

Between helping Kyle and a friend with a project, work, etc. it has been quite an experience.

We found out over a week ago that my parents were without power due to an ice storm. Within a couple of days of asking for prayer, the power was back on through a temporary fix. (yea!). It took the power company 6 days to do just the temporary fix and a permenent one would have taken longer. Had it not been for the out of area repair people.....

I have also been working at getting a new computer set up... God (and Qwest) were quite generous so I took the plunge. I had been wanting to switch to a Mac (you have seen those commercials) for a couple of years now but other things have taken priority. Finally, the time came! The commercials are right! The only issue I have is that I can't run e-sword on this machine. There are other bible study programs out there but the challenge I am finding is that with copyrights, it is hard to get the versions you want all together. Some of the programs I have found are either too expensive or just not what I am looking for.

On the other hand, I could actually load Windows XP on here and be done with it.