article. Killed in a burglary.
Ballistics tests on a gun and bullets found with the man in Gastonia, N.C., match those used in a weeklong killing spree in and around Gaffney, said State Law Enforcement Deputy Director Neil Dolan.
Dolan said the physical evidence leaves no doubt the slain suspect was the person who shot five people to death over six days. But investigators still have no idea why he started the killing spree June 27.
It goes against my grain to be heartless, but I’m glad they got him even if he ended up dead in the process.
800 pages of it can be found at www.codexsinaiticus.org
The British Library is marking the online launch of the manuscript with an exhibition – which includes a range of historic items and artefacts linked to the document.
For 1,500 years, the Codex Sinaiticus lay undisturbed in a Sinai monastery until it was found in 1844 and split between Egypt, Russia, Germany and Britain.
It’s a little slow loading. I’ve been waiting for a page to come up while I’ve written this post. There are several display options for viewing besides the actual page. You can get Transcription, Translation, and physical description. Nice maneuverability. Kind of like using Google Maps.
Second Temple Stone Quarry Discovered
Sixty people worked on this dig in Jerusalem.They also discovered pottery shards, coins and metal plates that were used in the block process.
From Dr. Sion (the excavation director):
It is clear that Herod began quarrying closest to the Temple and worked away from it: first he exploited the stone on the nearby ridges and subsequently he moved on to quarry in more distant regions.
You never know when you’ll need a paper star. Here are a set of easy instructions from Go Make Something.
Thanks to the author, Dr. Mel Lawrenz, for the review copy of I Want To Believe!
The scoop on the book from Amazon:
Product Details
- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Regal Books (January 2, 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0830744525
- ISBN-13: 978-0830744527
- Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1 inches
About the Author
MEL LAWRENZ (M. Div., Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Ph.D., historical theology, Marquette University) has been a pastor at Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin for the past twenty-five years and is currently the senior pastor, succeeding Stuart Briscoe. Mel has a passion for the ministry of the Word in writing for effective outreach both nationally and internationally, is author or coauthor of seven books and has been developing a multidimensional media ministry network, which includes his radio interview program, Faith Conversations, through which he has had contact with many well-known Christian authors today.
If you want to get this book to use in a discussion group, there is a discussion guide available for download.
This book is reminiscent of Ravi Zacharias’s Jesus Among the Other gods – but just reminiscent. Dr. Zacharias’s goal was to tell us about other religions and how Jesus as the Savior provided a difference in stark comparison. In I Want to Believe, Dr. Lawrenz touches on other religions in some chapters, but not in great detail. That touch is cursory and perhaps enough if the goal is to know Jesus and not understand in detail how He is different. That Jesus is necessary is clear.
The fifteen chapters in this small book do examine some world religions, but mainly the book addresses why we should believe in Jesus. Specific topics range from human longing to believe to doubt to how we know for certain that belief is real.
I Want to Believe is very conversational and begins with reasons why people seek God and ends with the plan of salvation clearly laid out. That the plan of salvation runs through the book and is explicit in places is this book’s major strength. Lawrenz makes good use of Scripture and anecdotes. The anecdotes are at least an enjoyable part of the book. Jesus, Paul, C.S. Lewis, Polycarp and Johnny Cash are among the many, many central to each chapter. Some stories I’d heard and some I’d not.
I wanted to like this book because of it’s emphasis, but I found it too busy with too many detours and too many stories. I kept wanting Lawrenz to clearly lay out what he had to say. I wanted it to be deeper than one anecdote after another. I can recommend this work because it is sound theologically even if too wordy and slow to get to the point.
Well, I am a math teacher 
These are from Shodor so they should be good. Click on the pix.
That’s amazing! The talk in NC is that we’ve hurt ourselves federally with a cap of 100.
Looks like things could possibly change . . .
Charter Schools in Virginia
What will the next governor do to get more of them established?
MI6 boss in Facebook entry row
Personal details about the life of the next head of MI6, Sir John Sawers, have been removed from social networking site Facebook amid security concerns.
The Mail on Sunday said his wife had put details about their children and the location of their flat on the site.
The details were removed after the paper contacted the Foreign Office.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband denied claims security had been compromised, saying: “You know he wears a Speedo swimsuit. That’s not a state secret.”
It’s just so easy to tell everything online, isn’t it!
WOW! What a giveaway!
Logos Bible Software is celebrating the launch of their new online Bible by giving away 72 ultra-premium print Bibles at a rate of 12 per month for six months. The Bible giveaway is being held at Bible.Logos.com and you can get up to five different entries each month! After you enter, be sure to check out Logos and see how it can revolutionize your Bible study.
The Bible pictured to the right is just one of many available.
Thanks to Brian Fulthorp for the head’s up.
Gay row minister to be inducted
Snippets:
Hundreds of ministers and thousands of Church of Scotland members signed an online petition opposing the move.
Some sections of the Church of Scotland feared Mr Rennie’s appointment could cause the greatest divide since the Disruption of 1843, when part of the Kirk broke away to form the Free Kirk.
As the assembly met to debate the issue, Mr Rennie said other instructions in the Bible – such as those about stoning adulterers – were no longer followed, adding “we’ve moved on from that”.
The Church of Scotland is allowing this because . . .? It was good to see that 400 clergy and 5000 members openly opposed this move, but apparently enough believe with Mr. Rennie that we’ve moved on from biblical concepts.
Washington Times has an editorial today by Gustav Neibuhr about religious language slipping off the tongues of philandering Southern pols. I’ve always lived in the south, so I am NOT a good judge of this. It is what I know.
The novelist Flannery O’Connor famously wrote that the South, while not necessarily Christ-centered, was clearly “Christ-haunted.” The region’s politics naturally reflects its larger culture. There are many things that one can reasonably call Mark Sanford. Whether he is pandering or penitent we can’t know. But what’s clear is he has a certain facility with the “language of Zion,” as its called, and that’s a quality he shares with many of his Southern brethren and sister-en.
Attendance at churches and synagogues is higher down there than elsewhere; the Southeast is probably the last remaining part of the country where people actually expect you to have a religious affiliation. God-talk comes pretty naturally to many, so it shouldn’t be surprising that scandal-enmeshed politicians–Bill Clinton, David Vitter, John Edwards–should use it. At the very least, they’re trying to make a connection with their native audience.
So, is this really just a Southern thing?
SBC Impact has quotes from all three of the gentlemen pictured (Mohler, Aken and Stetzer), but it’s Stetzer’s that is best IMO.
Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research: “I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly. I’m not impressed with the Southern Baptist Convention. I’m not seeking to get my identity from it.”
We would do well to remember that we are not SBC (or anything else) first. It is not the hill on which to die. We are first and foremost subjects of The Kingdom, submissive to Christ our Savior – bound by the words of the Bible, not the SBC.
School collects books to start library
Just this spring I weeded out the books I was selling and gave bag after bag away. How I wish I’d known about this! I’m sure I can still find some to donate to Carter G. Woodson School of Challenge (charter school) trying to build it’s library.
If you can help, here’s the info about the school:
The Carter G. Woodson School of Challenge
Grade Span: K-12
Best One of Two: 450
Year Approved: 1997
Year Open: 1997
Lead Administrator: Ruth Hopkins
Address: 437 Gold Floss St
Winston-Salem, NC 27127
336.723.6838 (phone)
336.723.6425 (fax)
Consultant: Jackie Jenkins
Consultant Phone: 919.807.3493
Consultant Visits: October 16, 2007
Commentary: Let’s end disposable marriage
Great piece by Leah Ward Sears – personal reflection about her brother who took his own life with tie-ins to marriage, divorce and fatherhood.
snippet:
Tommy’s loss has catapulted me even farther down a path I was already on. This may sound like heresy, but I believe the United States and a host of Western democracies are engaged in an unintended campaign to diminish the importance of marriage and fatherhood. By refusing to do everything we can to stem the rising rate of divorce and unwed childbearing, our country often isolates fathers (and sometimes mothers) from their children and their families.
Of course, there are occasions when divorce is necessary. And not everyone should marry. But it has become too easy for people to walk away from their families and commitments without a real regard for the gravity of their decision and the consequences for other people, particularly children.
Faith Comes By Hearing has a Military Bible Project. What a great idea. You can sponsor a Bible Stick for $25.
AT first I thought it was a press release, but further reading showed it wasn’t. Mixed bag review.
New ‘American Patriot’s Bible’ sees USA’s ‘godly roots’
Evangelical author and pastor Greg Boyd’s lengthy critique, posted on Christianity Today’s website, calls Lee’s Bible “idolatrous,” saying, “There’s not a single commentary in this Bible that even attempts to shed light on what the biblical text actually means.”
Today, both red- and blue-state Christians crave God’s endorsement, said Larry Eskridge of Wheaton College’s Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals.
“The problem for those who read The American Patriot’s Bible is that their contemporary Christian peers on the left cite the same source to justify their view that America has much to repent for in its economic, cultural, and military relationships to the rest of the world,” Eskridge said.
“Maybe, just maybe, the unadorned text of the Bible has something to say to both sides of the equation.”
June’s Top 50 is out and a good number of these blogs are on my regular reads. What is it that makes us chose some and not others? Well, I’ve already confessed to liking blogs that have a chatability factor and not only an intellectual one. There are also topics that are simply more interesting to me as a reader. Common interests. I should analyze this more when it’s earlier and I haven’t been traveling . . .
The ones in bold are the ones in the top 50 that I check regularly.
| Rank | Prev. | + / - | Blogger | Blog Name |
| 1 | 1 | - | Jim West | Jim West |
| 2 | 2 | - | Joel L. Watts | The Church of Jesus Christ |
| 3 | 15 | 12 | Neil Godfrey | Vridar |
| 4 | 6 | 2 | Scott Bailey | Scotteriology |
| 5 | 39 | 34 | Mandy and Calvin Park | The Floppy Hat |
| 6 | 7 | 1 | Daniel and Tonya | Hebrew and Greek Reader |
| 7 | 8 | 1 | John Hobbins | Ancient Hebrew Poetry |
| 8 | 3 | -5 | Ben Witherington | Ben Witherington on the Bible and Culture |
| 9 | 9 | - | Thomas Verenna | The Musings of Thomas Verenna |
| 10 | 5 | -5 | Airton José da Silva | Observatório Bíblico |
| 11 | 124 | 113 | V. Henry T. Nguyen | Punctuated Life |
| 12 | 4 | -8 | James McGrath | Exploring Our Matrix |
| 13 | 12 | -1 | Mark Goodacre | NT Blog |
| 14 | 23 | 9 | Jim Getz | Ketuvim |
| 15 | 10 | -5 | Peter M. Lopez | Beauty of the Bible |
| 16 | 13 | -3 | Various | Biblioblog Top 50 |
| 17 | 22 | 5 | Chris Heard | Higgaion |
| 18 | 21 | 3 | Nick Norelli | Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth |
| 19 | 27 | 8 | Tyler F. Williams | Codex |
| 20 | 16 | -4 | Claude Mariottini | Claude Mariottini |
| 21 | 101 | 80 | Douglas Mangum | Biblia Hebraica |
| 22 | 139 | 117 | Doug Chaplin | Clay Boy |
| 23 | 17 | -6 | Chris Tilling | Chrisendom |
| 24 | 33 | 9 | Andy Naselli | Thoughts on Exegetical, Biblical, Historical, Systematic, and Practical Theology |
| 25 | 20 | -5 | Tommy Wasserman, et al | Evangelical Textual Criticism |
| 26 | 11 | -15 | Michael S. Heiser | The Naked Bible, PaleoBabble, UFO Religions, Scribal Practices, Two Powers in Heaven |
| 27 | 52 | 25 | Rod Decker | NT Resources Blog |
| 28 | 24 | -4 | Chris Brady | Targuman |
| 29 | 125 | 96 | Rachel Barenblat | Velveteen Rabbi |
| 30 | 28 | -2 | Roland Boer | Stalin’s Moustache |
| 31 | 30 | -1 | Mike Aubrey | ἐν ἐφέσῳ / In Ephesus |
| 32 | 31 | -1 | April DeConick | Forbidden Gospels Blog |
| 33 | 77 | 44 | John Anderson | Hesed we ‘emet |
| 34 | 42 | 8 | J. K. Gayle | Aristotle’s Feminist Subject |
| 35 | 35 | - | Ken Brown | C. Orthodoxy |
| 36 | 54 | 18 | David Ker, et al | Better Bibles Blog |
| 37 | - | - | Peter J. Leithart | Leithart.com |
| 38 | 14 | -24 | Dave Black | Dave Black Online |
| 39 | 72 | 33 | Brian Fulthrop | συνεσταυρωμαι: Living The Crucified Life |
| 40 | 56 | 16 | T.C. Robinson | New Leaven |
| 41 | 47 | 6 | Andreas Kostenberger | Biblical Foundations |
| 42 | 65 | 23 | Mark Stevens | Scripture, Ministry, and the People of God |
| 43 | 50 | 7 | Art Boulet | Finitum Non Capax Infiniti |
| 44 | 63 | 19 | Antonio Lombatti | Pseudoscienze cristiane antiche e medievali |
| 45 | 60 | 15 | Adam Couturier | Mishlei Adam / משלי אדם |
| 46 | 67 | 21 | Mike Whitenton | Ecce Homo |
| 47 | 51 | 4 | Michael F. Bird, Joel Willitts | ΕΥΑΓΓΕΛΙΟΝ / Evangelion |
| 48 | 40 | -8 | Peter Enns | Peter Enns |
| 49 | 41 | -8 | Jim Davila | PaleoJudaica |
| 50 | 36 | -14 | ElShaddai Edwards | He Is Sufficient |
I took a course a couple of years ago at ECU in tech writing and one of the gals I was teamed with used Camtasia. I’ve wanted it ever since, but it’s got a pricey tag on it.
For my self-driven professional development, I wanted to add me talking through the many lessons that I have provided online for students. So I found CamStudio (freeware) and am going to give it a try.
It’s such an infringement on the old schedule.
It’s even harder when you are dead though . . .
Man Called For Jury Duty Twice Since His Death
A North Carolina man has been called for jury duty twice since he died in 1995.
He’s been interim pastor at his church and they have a candidate coming in view of a call. This will leave him with a few sermons left to share. He’s asking for comments, and there are some really good pictures of his church. Here’s the end of the post:
That will leave me with three or four messages after he accepts that call but before he comes and starts as pastor. I need time to pack up those books, after all.
So, my question for you is this: what should I preach on for this Sunday and then for the next several? Any suggestions? I can work through a text or share a series of texts, but I am very open to suggestions and believe that in many counselors there is wisdom.
First, what should I speak on NEXT week, July 5– the week before he comes in view of a call. (I am out on July 12th and my friend and co-author Philip Nation is speaking that day.)
Second, what should I preach on after (and assuming) the church calls and he accepts on July 19th. The congregation votes that evening and, assuming the vote is positive, he is then to start his transition and i will bring several more messages. So, what can I preach on pointing to the new pastor.
Jump into the comments and share your thoughts.
Read the rest at A Little Education, A Little Advice
Largest in the world. Wish there were more pix . . .
I haven’t thought about The Seven Wonders of the World in ages, but there is a contest for the New 7 Wonders of Nature. The Palestinian Authority won’t be nominating the Dead Sea even though Israel and Jordan already have. That doesn’t mean it won’t make the list – apparently that’s guaranteed because it’s on the current list. The Dead Sea just can’t advance.
The Dead Sea is currently ranked number six in voting in the “Lakes, Rivers and Waterfalls” category, which would guarantee it a spot in the next round of the New Seven Wonder contest. However, in order to advance according to the contest rules, the PA must join Israel and Jordan in forming a committee of support for the lake’s nomination, which it refuses to do.
What do you think? What wonder of the world would you vote for? You can view the locations and vote yourself. First round ends July 7th. For my teacher friends, do click on the Kids and Schools in the top navbar. There are some pretty interesting finds there.
This shows up in the Charlotte Observer:
School system gets $35.8 million but loses $36 million
Good news: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will get $35.8 million in “stabilization” money from the federal stimulus package. Bad news: The state will cut more than $36 million from the money it sends to CMS, freeing up the money to narrow a yawning state budget deficit.
Superintendent Peter Gorman said last week that’s why he held off on penciling stimulus money into his early budget plans: What sounds like a jackpot that could save hundreds of jobs is basically “a wash.”
Well, it’s better than going in the hole. Wondering what will happen with the other counties (like the ones I can drive too) now.
I ran across an article about making the library entertaining in the summer for kids. Actually, I see a lot of these usually with programs from the small to gigantic and some specific plans for how to make them work. They look fun for the kids and range from little work to tons of work for the staff.
It got me to thinking though about my own youth trips to the library and I don’t remember any except the school library and the bookmobile, but I always had books to read – lots and lots of books. I think I bought quite a few from scholastic (or its ancient equivalent). My own foray into the public library didn’t happen until after I could drive there myself. I’ve also been thinking about all the teens I’ve worked with that don’t like to read, resent school trips to the library, have no clue how to pick out a book for pleasure reading.
Do these programs work for their intended purpose? Probably if the purpose is to increase summertime library attendance. But if the goal is to entice life-long reading, I’m not sure that they do.
Maybe the best summer program is to just read together.
Worship legal if library OKs religious meeting From the San Francisco Chronicle
County officials who let a church hold religious discussions in a meeting room of the Antioch library can’t stop the church from using the sessions for prayer services, a federal judge has ruled.
Drawing the line between religious education and worship is none of the government’s business and interferes with constitutional freedom of religion, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White of San Francisco said Friday.
snip . . .
Faith Center held a general meeting and a prayer service at the library in May 2004, but library officials vetoed another service two months later. White first ruled on the case in May 2005, issuing an injunction against the county’s policy on free-speech grounds, but he was overruled in 2006 by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
snip . . .
The judge said the county can’t enforce that distinction without creating an “excessive government entanglement with religion,” which the Constitution forbids.
I like the reasoning. If you rent out the room, you don’t have control over the content.
hallelujah -
It is nice to have the current license in your hands when you are job hunting. So now I have CURRENT proof of being highly qualified to teach Elementary K-6 and Math/English 6-9 in the state of North Carolina for another five years.
I accidentally clicked on Your Stuff on Google Reader this morning. I’d never noticed it before.
Does anyone use it? And if you do, how do you use it?
Joel over at The Church of Jesus Christ tagged me so long ago that I can’t find the post anymore. I haven’t been ignoring it, but it’s been harder to pull together than I thought it would be. I think there are two reasons. 1) There are just so many books over the years that have been meaningful. I don’t even have some of them anymore because of moves and floods and age (their age – not mine ), and 2) I’ve always been on the educational side of church – not the theological side. Not that theology isn’t educational, but I’ve been one of the organizers, planners, “let’s start a program and pull a conference together” people and those are the types of books I”ve found more useful.
There are some authors I thought of – who no one would classify as scholars, and whose work is so unremarkable in single volumes that I’d be hard pressed to pull a title – but some of these really did change the way I think biblically. Max Lucado is one because he could (I assume he still can) take a story from the Bible and put it in such a way that made it seem enchanted, exciting, passionate. I could get the visual picture of the place, the people, the situation – not just distant, stuffy, and historical – but living and breathing. Really a story for the ages. Why did I need that help? I’ve got some clues, but that is fodder for another post. I will say that it was very nice to get shoved in the right direction.
Now back to thinking about that meme . . .
No, it’s not a country’s debt – but Michael Jackson’s. What an utterly amazing number! With only 19 mil coming in annually, it’s not hard to do the math as to the length of time it will take to pay that off, plus there are ongoing expenses even with him gone.
Thanks to Bethany House for this review copy.
A Bride in the Bargain by Deeanne Gist.
From Amazon:
- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Bethany House (July 1, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0764204076
- ISBN-13: 978-0764204074
Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
First, this book was a very easy, smooth read. Read it in two evenings. Story line was easy to follow.
Some real history is included. Setting is Seattle in the late 1800’s. Men are without wives. Asa Mercer comes up with the idea to charge the men to go back east and procure them some brides from amongst the orphans and widows left behind in the war. Contracts with the men say one thing. Contracts with the women say another. The main character needs a bride to hold on to his entire allotment of land. The story is mainly about how he will hold on to the land.
Characters are fairly well developed. There is more sexual tension than I care for. I did learn some things about logging that were interesting. Also, the Christian aspects I felt were a bit forced.
If you need a nice relaxing book to read and like it in a historical setting, then pick this one up.
