September 25, 2008
OK, so, I fully admit to the fact that in terms of useful, insightful information, this blog has been a little lacking lately. For thhat, I apologize.
I have been busy working on a couple of book proposals, lots of work stuff, etc., etc.
However, I will provide this link for your enjoyment. I have no idea what the purpose of this is. However, I can promise you that you will spend at least five minutes goofing around with this site. (HINT: You can drop bugs on the screen with yrou spacebar and the little guy will eat them . . . )
Enjoy . . .
http://www.onemotion.com/flash/spider/
September 15, 2008
1 John 1:1 says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” Get past John’s convoluted sentence structure and you get his drift: He’s basically saying, “Here’s what I have to say about the “Word of Life,” Jesus Christ. And look what he says . . .
We (meaning John and the other disciples) heard Jesus.
We saw Him.
We touched Him.
John experienced Jesus in 3-D and was changed because of it. John knew Jesus on a sensory level. And as a result he was more than a believer. He was a vocal proponent.
2 thoughts:
1. I am guilty of encountering a 2-D version of Jesus. Too often He lives only on the pages of my Bible. While I cannot encounter Christ in the same way that John did in the first century, I can go beyond the shallow understanding I sometimes have of Christ. I can do this through prayer, worship, service . . . all through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
2. For those of us who teach youth and young adults, it is a reminder to teach in such a way that incorporates multiple learning styles and sensory experiences. Too often I am guilty of standing in front of teenagers and lecturing. Sure, I make in interactive, but I do not engage their senses enough. It’s a reminder to present Christ as the living, dnamic Savior He is and not a 2-D history lesson.
September 5, 2008
OK, OK . . . for those who have been giving me a hard time, I am back. And still alive.
I have been crazy busy lately. In the last three weeks I have written or edited two new series in our Disciple Now product line.
I have also finished up the second devotional book I have written for Student Life, 31 Verses Every Teenager Should Know: Identity. I love this one. I will put some clippings of it on the “Clippings” page when it hits.
I also wrote an article for Relevant’s new young adult curriculum, Neue. Not sure if they will use it, but I wrote it nonetheless.
Plus I have been building my kids a playhouse (pictures coming.) All in all, I’ve been swamped. So for those of you who care, I am returning to blogging. For whatever that is worth.
August 14, 2008
So, tonight is my 5th consecutive night of staying up past midnight working . . . My brain is fried.
This is how I feel right now . . .
But there is an end in sight . . . Deadline day is Friday. Oh, sweet Friday.
August 12, 2008
Have fun with this one, kids:
http://www.alterfin.com/dominique/
Start by dragging your cursor over different parts of the face.
Then try clicking over different parts.
Then, try clicking, double clicking, clicking ad dragging . . . It’s wild.
Let me know how it hit you. I thought it was pretty cool.
August 11, 2008
So today marked our last lesson in Student Life Bible Study’s 48 week study of Consecration. It has been a pretty awesome trip . . .
I honestly watched my students’ understanding of being set apart for God change and expand. I got to see tremendous growth this year in the lives of several students, and a general interest in what we were studying by most of the rest of the group. All in all, great stuff.
I changed the last lesson from what it was supposed to be. I taught instead today from Philippians 3:7-11. We looked at the essence of living the consecrated life and I left students with the idea that ultimately, our desire should be to know Christ. Simply that. This concept saturates Paul’s writing, especially this passage. I love the NLT’s translation of this passage:
7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him.
We cannot live a life set apart unless Christ is alone at the top of our list of what is important. There can be nothing in our lives as important as knowing Him. I tried to help our students understand that compared with the importance of knowing Christ, what they look like isn’t important, whether they are talented or not isn’t important, how much money their parents make isn’t important, the clothes they wear isn’t important, where or if they go to college isn’t important, what they choose for a career isn’t important . . .
At least according to Paul, everything else, everything else is worthless compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ.
An awesome time in Scripture, for sure. I have been blessed with a great group of students. I am sort of sad to see this group pass through.
August 10, 2008
OK, so this is defintely worth one minute of your time.
Click on this link.
Then, drag your mouse from the left side of the picture to the right.
Simple.
Cool.
August 9, 2008
I have writing on my mind . . .
I have to finish a book I have been working on. And I have to finish it now! I am super behind, but the end is in sight. So, I got that going for me.
It’s another book in the 31 Verses Every Teenager Should Know line of devotional books from Student Life. This one is 31: Identity, exploring 31 verses from Scripture that speak to our identity in Christ. It’s going to be pretty cool. (I hope.)
Anyway, it’s with this in mind that I came upon an article on metaphors used by highschool students. You might have run across this yourself. Basically, teachers can submit clever, or not-so-clever, metaphors their students have used in their respective writings. Some were lame, some were absurd, most were funny.
I chose the ones I liked best to pass along to you. Let’s hope by bringing these out in the open, I manage to avoid using anything even close as I try and finish up this book.
1. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
2. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
3. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
4. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.
5. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
Peace . . .
August 13, 2008
Maybe “Mr. Brightside” would have been number 11
Don’t know if anyone saw Blender Magazine today, but it was an article asking the two candidates to list their top-10 songs.
I was BLOWN AWAY by their repsonses.
First, Obama’s Top 10:
1. Ready or Not–Fugees
2. What’s Going On–Marvin Gaye
3. I’m On Fire–Bruce Spingsteen
4. Gimme Shelter–Rolling Stones
5. Sinnerman–Nina Simone
6. Touch the Sky–Kanye West
7. You’d Be So Easy to Love–Frank Sinatra
8. Think–Aretha Franklin
9. City of Blinding Lights–U2
10. Yes We Can–will.i.am
Without making any sort of political statement, or endorsing either candidate, here is my response to Obama’s list:
Dang.
I mean, that’s a pretty good playlist. I am not lying when I say that I currently have 8 of those 10 songs on my i-tunes. Nicely done, Senator.
Now for McCain’s. (Get ready, cause this ain’t funny . . . )
1. Dancing Queen–ABBA
2. Blue Bayou–Roy Orbison
3. Take a Chance On Me–ABBA
4. If We Make It Through December–Merle Haggard
5. As Time Goes By–Dooley Wilson
6. Good Vibrations–The Beach Boys
7. What A Wonderful World–Louis Armstrong
8. I’ve Got You Under My Skin–Frank Sinatra
9. Sweet Caroline–Neil Diamond
10. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes–The Platters
A-Political thoughts on McCain’s list:
You have got to be kidding me. For real? Two ABBA’s in the top 3?
I give McCain props for the inclusion of The Hag at number 4 (”December” is such a beautiful tune), but for a guy who is trying to battle the “hey, don’t worry that I’m an old dude who admittedly has never logged on the the Interwebs” tag, man, he could have done better than rolling out the Platters at number 10.
And who the heck is Dooley Wilson?
Good grief.
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