Christian Carnival
The Christian Carnival is back at Wittenberg Gate a little sooner than we expected, however we are happy to share some fine writing with you all.
If anyone did not get notice of the switch in time, I will be happy to accept late entries just this once, and will update the Carnival accordingly. (I have marked late entries with a *, so folks checking back in can identify the posts they may have missed earlier.)
Even with only a few hours notice, thirty Christian bloggers responded with contributions to this edition of the Christian Carnival. Don't you people ever get away from those screens? (Update: Up to 44 now!)
Read on and enjoy a wide range of ideas from the Christian blogosphere.
UPDATE: I still haven't been able to communicate with our original hostess to figure out why we had gotten word that she couldn't host, but it appears she is, after all, posting the submissions she received at her site, Sharing Spirit. The parallel posts are not exact overlaps, (some are here and not there and vice versa) and many people have already linked here, so I will not take this post down, but I encourage you to visit Sharing Spirit and link to that site as well. I apologize for the confusion.
New Christian Blog Showcase #1
Nick Queen of Patriot Paradox has posted his first New Christian Blog Showcase, which features three new Christian blogs. Be sure to stop by and welcome these new bloggers!
Church
Sozo from Reasons Why tells us that we should Expect False Teaching and false teachers in the Church today.
In If You Belong to My Jesus, Then You Belong with Me, gentle Rebecca of Rebecca Writes, reminds us that while we ought to highly value correct doctrine, we also need to remember that belonging to Christ is not a matter of having all of our theological ducks lined up.
Wittenberg Gate asks us in Righteousness or Elitism? A Spiritual Bait and Switch, Do we sometimes fall for a spiritual bait and switch? Do we go out shopping for righteousness and come home with a prideful elitism?
* Catez of Allthings2all shares The People Who Sat in Great Darkness. What does the prophet Isaiah have in common with a homeless man who sleeps under a bridge? Catez Stevens and her street team go into the darkness of another world with the light that never dims. A reflection on how the homeless find their home, and the sunrise that appears in the night.
Culture
Wittingshire sends Thoughts on Christian Aesthetics.
We're sorry to hear that Sherry of Semicolon, was bedridden with the flu, but it gave her an opportunity to read A Couple of Books. She reviews The God I Love by Joni Eareckson Tada and The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning. She enjoyed one book better than the other; can you guess which one?
* TRUTH BE TOLD sends us Excuses, Excuses, and More Excuses.., about the recent unfortunate events in Los Angeles regarding the police shooting and alleged herrassment of black men in the black community. Our black men are in trouble, yet leaders in the community are more apt to focus on perceived racism, playing the blame game, rather than face the truth. Once again, black people are suffering for it.
* Dignan shares his thoughts and memories in Inside the "Religious Right."
* Pruitt Communications sends us Withdrawing From Society: Pushed Back Into Irrelevance This is a part of a series of posts about Withdrawing From Society. In recent years many evangelicals have sought to change the tone of the relationship between our culture(s) and the church. This is healthy but Christians must beware that world may not like things to be cordial.
* Catholics in the Public Square sends us Congressman
Bobby Jindal – Catholic Apologist? The first Indian-American elected
to Congress for nearly 50 years, Rep. Bobby
Jindal (R-LA) was born a Hindu but converted in his teens. The Catholic
Congressman was behind Congress' ink-stained display of solidarity during
President Bush's State of the Union Address.
Devotional
From the Anchor Hold sends us Happy Lent a passage from Thomas Hopko's book The Lenten Spring that reinforces that this is, indeed, the joyous season, when we prepare to celebrate our Lord's resurrection with hearts and minds renewed.
William of Beyond the Rim... shares Lent: Day Four-S. With the first Sunday during Lent (which is actually a break from Lenten observance) bringing to mind the Eucharist, I decided to post some thoughts about the nature of communion.
King of Fools shares an amazing quote on how mankind's problems are universal in his Quote of the Day.
In A Piece of My Past, Kim of The Upward Call, teaches her junior high age Sunday school class by sharing a story from her own life about a missed opportunity to show compassion.
* jonkopp at CrossTraining reminds us that we must ultimately do the things we don't feel like, so that we can get more of Christ in "The Colonel's "Wish".
Family and Pro-Life
Northern 'burbs blog reminds us in Jesus Loves the Little Children, that we need to raise our children with eternity in mind, not just the next 18 years.
Jeremy of Parableman explains that abortion isn't the simple matter of choice that pro-choicers
want to make it seem in Abortion and Coercion.
Derek of Weapon of Mass Distraction contributes California Stem Cell Research: Follow the Money
Even the oversight committee in charge of California's stem cell research program can barely hide the real reason Big Biotech lobbied so hard for Prop 71:
The [Sacramento] Bee was not happy with the conduct of CIRM so far. It said that at the meeting of the oversight committee last week, 'committee member Leon Thal asked if members themselves could apply for grants. To everyone's amazement, the oversight committee started to entertain this idea.
It's not about saving lives, people. It's all about the money.
* Every Thought Captive reflects on end of life technologies in The Pope, Death and Dying.
* Times
Against Humanity sends us “Brain
Death,” Not Death, Pontifical Academy Advised
At
a meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences devoted to the discussion of
organ transplants, a former president of the Catholic Medical Association has
demanded a more accurate definition of when death occurs. “’Brain
death’ is not death,” declared Dr. Paul Byrne, who has written
extensively on the matter.
* Life
Matters! contributes Will
Washington’s Birthday Find Terri Starving? In denying the First Amendment religious
liberties of Terri Schiavo, a Florida court has
given a green light to her impending judicial murder.
LOVE-ly Pieces for Valentine's Day
IntolerantElle explains what love doesn't look like in her piece, A little advice for the girls on Valentine's Day.
My Domestic Church sends us an Outline of Our Pre-Cana Talk, to be given to thirty engaged couples who have mostly catering and florist problems on their minds!
This Valentines Day, David of all kinds of time shared his standards with regards to relationships with the opposite sex-- with some biblical back-up.
Prayer
A Penitent Blogger says, I will not use not vain repetitions in prayer, in his reflection on repitition and prayer.
From Belief Seeking Understanding, we have Are Retroactive Prayer Requests Well-Formed? When something happens, is it ok to pray "Dear God, please don't let it be because of...?"
The Christian Life
Kentucky Packrat answers the question, Why am I a Bohemian? Why do I call myself a Bohemian, and how is my definition of the term compatable with the Christian ideal?
Another Think sends us Cross-cultural Faith. Genuine New Testament faith creates the spiritual equivalent of culture shock. It's disorienting. It's uncomfortable. It stretches us.
Jim Nutt of A Nutt's View, shares Tribulations and Trials and Tests! Oh My! Trials and tribulations aren't just arbitrary events in our lives, God uses them to forge us into stronger Christians, just
as a smith forges cast iron into wrought iron and then steel.
Theology and Apologetics
The Bloke ...in the outer... sends us A New Command. Why did Jesus give His disciples the New Commandment? The Bloke proposes that the way to look at the New Commandment is
to understand it in the context of the Greatest of all Commandments: Love God and love others as yourself, which summarized the Old Testament Law and Prophets,but now for the Christian, one law
suffices: "Love one another as I have loved you."
From Viewpoint we have Dust in the Wind. Atheists have long maintained that the rejection of God is liberating and exhilarating, but if and when the logic of unbelief is traced out to its inevitable conclusions, the excitement turns to despair.
Pseudo-Polymath issued a Challenge to Unbelievers early in January to read N.T. Wright's The Challenge of Jesus, in return he'd read any book of their choosing. He had two takers. The second selected for him, "Atheism: The Case Against God" by George Smith. Challenge: Atheism essay 4 is his fourth and final essay on this book.
Bill Wallo of Walloworld shares Abraham, The Rich Young Ruler, and What God Really Wants Does God really want anything from us?
Eternal Perspectives sends an Exposipost: Good Samaritan Theology, but he starts us with a quiz. One
question, multiple choice: Which
of the following beliefs were closest to the teachings of Jesus in the parable
of the Good Samaritan?
A. The theology of the priests and Levites
ChristWeb compares Cain and Abel in A Lesson in Sacrifice. Cain Abel give us good examples of sacrifice and what God wants from them.
B. The theology of the Sadducees
C. The theology of the Pharisees
D. The theology of the Samaritans
E. A and B
F. None of the above
Adrian Warnock explains the Simple Gospel.
Ales Rarus responds to Adrian in Arminian and Catholic Soteriologies, Part Deux . This is the latest is a series of exchanges with Adrian Warnock which started with his post about "the simple gospel". The discussion focuses on various aspects of soteriology, with particular mention of Calvinism, Arminianism, and Catholicism.
* Jollyblogger also weighs in on Adrian's Simple Gospel with What is the Gospel? He says, "This post is my interaction with Adrian Warnock's posts on the 'Simple Gospel' and his critics. I seek to show that all 'Gospel Presentations' are pedagogical devices that are incomplete, yet can be adequate to incite belief. "
Deo Omnis Gloria provides a response to the Jehovah Witness claim that only 144,000 people will enter heaven in Jehovah Witnesses and the 144,000 Elect.
The Bible Archive sends us Dueling with Dead Men: A Look at Total Depravity. He writes, "R.C. Sproul and company like throwing up clay pigeons of the dead unable to respond. I just question the Biblical use of 'Dead'
Rusty Lopez of New Covenant asks, "Do evangelicals tend to over-emphasize soul winning? Have we misunderstood the Great Commission by letting our emotions dictate our theology? Read Rusty's answer in, Our sole purpose as Christians.
Weapons of Warfare sends us Of First Causes and Big Bangs Both atheist and theist must then admit this paradox: that there exists something which has no cause, yet which itself causes all other things. Will you believe in an impersonal universe that in its final outworking destroys the significance of your own personhood? Or will you believe in a personal universe, lovingly designed, that glorifies your own person and the person who created all things: God?
Psst...Dory...its Kim of Upward Call and she's a she.
And thanks for doing this on such short notice. I know how much work it is.
Posted by: Rebecca Stark | February 16, 2005 at 10:34 AM
Thanks, for taking on the organizational job and for doing this week's carnival. I'll be happy to do the carnival sometime--whatever week you need filled in.
Posted by: Sherry | February 16, 2005 at 01:57 PM
Hope things get all sorted out. I sent you the details of why you had to switch, so things should be a little clearer.
In Christ
Tim
Posted by: Agent Tim | February 16, 2005 at 03:34 PM
Have you checked Sharing Spirit? She's been posting what she received, each entry in its separate post. It turned out that there were ten posts at her site that aren't here, and I think there are ten here that aren't there. That means there are really fifty posts. I believe these are all the ones that didn't make it here that she posted:
Revelation: Messages to the Churches at Bezahlt(dot)Org
Getting My Attention at Borgard Blog
Congressman Bobby Jindal - Catholic Apologist? at Catholics in the Public Square
Will Washington's Birthday Find Terri Starving? at Life Matters!
You're So Special at truegrit
The Pope, Death, and Dying at Every Thought Captive
Sunday Sermon on Fasting at Dappled Things
Values at Blogcorner preacher
In search of a clue at Pondering poetry
The American Anti-Christian Liberals Union at the Jesusfreak
She also doesn't seem to know anything about your doing this, at least judging by what she says at the beginning and end of it all.
Posted by: Jeremy Pierce | February 17, 2005 at 07:28 PM
The link to the Cross Training post goes to the trackback of the post and not the post itself. The post is here.
Posted by: Jeremy Pierce | February 21, 2005 at 01:23 PM