Mini-series on Men and Women
Here’s a peak at what’s coming up the next two weeks in our teaching.
Look for them to be to the point, Biblical and therefore, potentially controversial.
Genetics, the Bible and a little conjecture…
Apparently genetic studies have revealed that not only can all people be traced back to a common mother (what is known as the “mitochondrial Eve”) but recent research suggests that there was a time when mankind as we know it was reduced to a very small number of people scattered across Africa.
Interestingly, they blame the near extinction on a colossal drought. I’d love to see the evidence for the drought as this sounds really familiar to a story I know about a worldwide flood; a small number of survivors; and a huge boat called an Ark.
Here’s my favorite quote…
“Paleontologist Meave Leakey, a Genographic adviser, commented: ‘Who would have thought that as recently as 70,000 years ago, extremes of climate had reduced our population to such small numbers that we were on the very edge of extinction?‘”
I guess he wasn’t familiar with Genesis 6-8.
Click here to see the news story.
Rockin’ the Lutheran Educators Pt II….
**This post was originally written on 4/24, but it didnt get posted**
So today was day 2 for me but officially day 1 of the LEA conference. The day got started just after noon when I arrived at the convention center. The place was decked out and ready to roll.
We had a rehearsal with a thrown together choir about 15 minutes prior to the set. Pretty casual affair as myself and the band leader Chris ran through the tunes unplugged at the loading dock. The first set consisted of an old hymn with a new twist and Blessed Be Your Name among others. It was pretty hard for Stan and I to hold back as this version was a little slower paced than we’re used to. It was a great start to the conference, the attendees seemed to be engaged in some great worship too.
So after the first set we had a handful of hours to kill. In an effort to reduce my carbon footprint I decided to hang around and just spend the day out there rather than driving back to the grove and back again to mpls. We found ourselves sitting at Brit’s enjoying some of these beauties————–>>
I don’t even want to know how many calories or fat grams are in those things, but I did the math and:
hard-boiled egg
+banger sausage
+bread crumbs
+batter+deep fried
+mustadyspicy dipping sauce
=MMM MMM GOOD
Sometimes ignorance is truly blissful! Definitely not something you’d want to indulge in every day or week for that matter, but definitely scrumptious.
Ok before this becomes too much of a foodie blog…..
So we ventured back for the evening’s set and had a great time! The song selection for the set was a bit livelier than the first one and we really had some fun with it. We honky-tonked through the Happy Song, jammed to My Redeemer Lives and Stan absolutely destroyed This Little Light of Mine (in a good way!). All in all a great time of worship and fun. It’s really nice to be kind of in the background for a change, i felt free to just hang loose and jam out.
Also there are several cameras taping and displaying all that’s going on the stage onto a giant screen. I was weirded out on more than one occasion when this camera came sweeping in get a close up of my lack of guitar chord knowledge.
So tomorrow it’s back for one last hoo-rah, stay tuned….
Ben Stein’s Expelled :: Movie Review
Thanks to our own Tim Schmitt for contributing the following review.
When I was told that Ben Stein had made a new movie, I wondered if the spin off movie trend had finally hit “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off “and had earned Ben Stein’s character a movie of his own (Bueller, Bueller….). I can thankfully report that this is not the case. Ben Stein’s new movie, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed”, is documentary about the retaliation that is taken against the scientists who support the intelligent design theory and how the discussion around intelligent design is suppressed by the scientific community.
The first part of the movie focuses on proving that scientists who support the intelligentdesign theory in their professions are systematically squeezed out of their positions or pressured to change their views to conform to the mainstream positions. There are about 5 scientists who give their accounts about how they supported intelligent design and the resulting conditions which led to their dismissal. Although it’s difficult to prove that the underlying reason each person lost their job was related to their support for intelligent design, the individual stories were compelling and believable. The end result is a convincing case that intelligent design is not accepted within the scientific community and that people have lost their positions in academic institutions over their beliefs on the subject. Ben uses these cases to demonstrate that although science is based on the sharing ideas and theories, the scientific community seems to suppress the intelligent design discussion by disciplining those who support it.
The second part of the movie is a discussion with people on both sides of the intelligent design and evolution debate. Several video clips are woven together into a discussion which covers topics ranging from how some evolutionists explain the origin of life to thoughts on why the scientific community seems to suppress the intelligent design discussion. The people representing the intelligent design position were thoughtful and clearly knowledgeable on the topic, which was a nice contrast to how proponents of intelligent design are typically portrayed in the media.
There were a few aspects of the movie that I did not agree with. For example, in between many of the interviews, the movie would stop and a humorous clip that pertains to the previous segment would be played with the intent of poking fun at the answer which was just given. For example, after one of the scientists gives a half hearted explanation for the origins of life, the movies cuts to the scene of the Dorothy discovering the wizard of OZ is just a man behind a curtain. The clips are sometimes humorous but they detracted from the seriousness of the topic and seem undermine what could have been a sincere discussion of the topic.
Secondly, the movie attempts to link Nazis and evolutionists together by demonstrating that the “survival of the fittest” concept was the root motivation for the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis in Word War II. While it is true eugenics was part of the Nazi’s motivation, I’m not sure you can suggest that the people who support the theory of evolution today would take the “survival of the fittest” concept to the same extreme that the Nazis did.
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed demonstrates the bias against intelligent design in the scientific community but could have done better job proving their case by reviewing more of the evidence for intelligent design and taking a more serious approach to the debate. If you are interested in learning more about intelligent design, I would recommend seeing the movie. Tim
Mission-minded kids/families
- Children learn from doing and seeing more than hearing. The more your eyes are open to even the opportunities in your own neighborhood the more mission focused they will be.
- Find ways to serve others that you can do as a family. Store to Door is a great program that can be done together.
- Another good one, depending on children’s ages, is Feed my Starving Children
- Serve a meal together for the needy at St. Martin’s Table.
- As a family adopt a new refugee or immigrant family. See www.lssmn.org/volunteers/stpaul.htm
- Be genuinely interested in the people you meet and in their backgrounds–even the ones from next door!
- Make cards and send them to missionaries or overseas military personnel.
- Make food for a food kitchen or collect food for a food pantry.
- Make and serve community meals at holidays.
- Exercise hospitality in your home.
Give of what God has given to you.
Landra suggests, “Have kids give money to missions and let them research and decide on their own (with some guidance) where they give. We have our kids give 25% of their allowance. They have bought chickens, goats and bees for poor people. One of their dreams is to buy a water buffalo–really! (World Vision and Samaritan’s Purse both offer opportunities to buy animals that families in third world countries can use to earn money).
- Pack Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes
- Have a missionary offering jar–put change in and periodically give the money to a mission’s cause, with the family’s input.
- Sponsor children through Compassion International and have the kids write letters to them.
- Encourage your children to prayerfully give things that belong to them personally to those on the mission field.
- Pick a missionary family and write them before Christmas and see what items they need. Then spend your Christmas money on them.
Pray.
Lynne wrote, “Make a missions-focused phrase a constant part of your family prayer time. As Cameron Townsend was growing up, his father would pray daily from Isaiah 11:9, that the earth be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. He had no idea how mightily his own son would be used to answer that prayer!”
- Collect missionary prayer cards. Hand out the cards at a meal or at family worship time along with a list of suggested prayer requests. Younger children can learn to pray by reading through the prayer requests.
- Give missionary prayer letters to children to learn about, pray for and communicate with. Then meet together as a family so each person can share what he learned.
- Encourage family members to pray that God will use them in His Kingdom.
- Pray every day for your children that God will prepare them for the future He desires and that He will use them to expand His Kingdom for His glory. Let them hear you pray it, too.
Communicate. Use today’s technology to stay in close touch with those around the world.
- Encourage children to e-mail missionary families (especially kids) and do projects for them here at home (making phone calls, sending letters, etc.).
- Send packages to the children especially on their birthdays.
Get to know missionaries personally.
- Make your home a place where missionaries on furlough or passing through the area can stay.
- Invite visiting missionaries to your home for a meal.
- When you invite missionaries over, ask the children to prepare a list of questions so they’ll have something to talk about.
Read biographies and watch videos about missionaries.
- Read Voice of Martyrs magazine.
- Check out videos about missions on websites such as Christian Cinema.
Go! Of all of the ideas folks wrote about, this one is clearly most important. Folks raved about the powerful benefits their families received by participating in missions trips.
Walter and Marilyn wrote, “In response to your question, the best thing we’ve done with our 4 home-schooled sons is to spend 2 months serving at an orphanage in Uganda, Africa. Since our return, our church holds a monthly 24-hour prayer vigil for the staff and children of this orphanage–which is igniting a passion in the hearts of many of our congregation.”
- Send your kids to missions camp (recommended by one subscriber was WorldVenture).
- Go with a church group or an organization that helps arrange short term mission trips, such as GlobalEncounter.
- When you go on a family missions trip, encourage each child to “earn” his own way. When he earns the money needed, he develops a greater appreciate for what it means when missionaries “raise their own support” and he gets more out of the actual experience.
- Start with simple trips and move toward progressively more intense experiences. Mexico is great because it’s incredibly needy but very close and therefore pretty economical. Children can have meaningful experiences as early as 8 or 9 years of age.
Rockin’ the Lutheran Educators….
So these next couple days and yesterday I am part of the house band for the Lutheran Educators Assoc conference at the convention center downtown Minneapolis.
Sounds like it’s a pretty big deal and when I walked into the hall and saw the stage setup my hunch was correct. Check out the size of this place! I was standing about halfway into the hall when I snapped this pic. Just a tad bigger scale then our humble but beloved Cafetorium.
So yesterday afternoon/evening was rehearsal and they have collected a great pool of musicians for this thing! A few folks flew into town and then there are some local guys as well. Some guy named Stan something or other was in the band too, he looks really familiar but I just can’t place it ; )
Anyways, I’m off in an hour or so to start the first set of the conference. I’ll try to take some more shots and give you all an update as we progress.
Rawk out.
Pop-up pop-up for Jesus
It seems the newest trend is to make your own cards. Well, this little link will help you do that and take it to the next level. Besides that, it’s a great family/kid activity.
Introducing, make-your-own pop-up cards. I’m sure there are others, but my family stumbled across this little site and have been impressed with the results.
There are 29 different designs available. And a great step-by-step visual instruction guide.
Check it out and have fun!
BTW, watch for more ideas like this to begin showing up with our daily Jesus Time guides sometime in the near future.
Earth Day – A prayer and a challenge
Today is Earth day. Celebrated by many as a day to remember the planet we live in and how to not only take care of ourselves, but take care of it.
I know the idea of taking care of the planet has somehow become a political argument but truth be told it was God’s plan for us in the first place.
26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” Genesis 1:26
So all politics aside here is my prayer and my challenge for this day.
Prayer: That as Paul says in Romans, people would see the Creator behind the creation and come to worship Him.
Challenge: That we would see this as an opportunity to share our faith.
One of the things we talk about at the Alley is that, “We want to not only serve others, we want to serve with others.” What a great way to point to Him, it was His idea for us to take care of the planet in the first place.
A few of my favorites…
Some quotes that have recently caught my eye.
In Science…
“In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence.” ~Isaac Newton
“Before God we are all equally wise – and equally foolish.”~Albert Einstein
In Life…
“Not forgiving is the poison you take, hoping it will kill someone else.”~Author Unknown
”Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”~Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
In Leadership…
“All worthwhile men have good thoughts, good ideas, and good intentions, but precious few of them ever translate those into action.” ~John Hancock Field
Just for Fun…
“In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is.” ~Yogi Berra “There are 3 kinds of people in this world. Those who can count, and those who can’t” ~Author Unknown
