Archive for July, 2006

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 75% Green Lantern 75% The Flash 60% Spider-Man 55% Supergirl 53% Robin 48% Catwoman 40% Hulk 40% Wonder Woman 38% Batman 35% Iron Man 35%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

It seems about every week I stumble on a cool "new" tool – new to me, that is.
I have found digg,
and I think I’m going to like it. I guess you could say I dig digg. Or I’ve dug digg. Whatever.

Although I use Bloglines daily, I have begun to fret between using it or Technorati – which continues to add new features all the time – and del.icio.us. All of these three have ways to keep track of your favorite sites and blogs and let you know when they’ve been updated. Which one will end up on top? It’s a toss-up, but a ton of folks seem to be using Technorati.

But here’s what I like about digg -so far. Go over to the main page, and you’ll see it tracks stories for you. When you see one you like, you just click on it. But then you have the option to send it to a friend, blog about it (it connects you directly to your blog), or to save it. (BTW, the Flock browser – which I’m using predominantly now – has similar features built in).

Another cool blogging tool that I’m using a lot now is cocomment. It’s awesome. Whenever you post a comment that you want to track or save, you just click on cocomment (put it as a toolbar link in your browser). Cocomment pops up – as you post your comment in your friend’s blog – and lets you "tag" it, track it (get notified when someone else posts a comment there), etc. Awesome!

Let me know which blog tools above you’re using or that you begin using after this post! Enjoy.

If you’re a Mac user and enjoy the easy functionality of iTunes and iPhoto, you’ve got to look at kip! It’s free right now, so toodle on over to this link and track it down!
read more | digg story

Check out the latest prognostications about Apple Computer! Heh-heh. I am doing the "I-told-you-so-way-back-in-1988" dance. (That’s how long I’ve been using Macs.) Back in September of ‘03, I got my first Powermac G5 – to start off my financially-challenged career as a graphic designer. You might enjoy this video from then.

read more | digg story

This is an example of a post that I posted directly from digg.

Have you ever been in a situation where you wished your cell phone would ring? Maybe you wanted to look extra important or popular on that hot date. Or maybe you just needed an excuse to escape from an unpleasant meeting.

read more | digg story

You may recall my "philosophy of the cell phone" post last year…

Playing catch up today on some design work and just thought I’d refer you to some blogs and sites that you may not have stopped by recently. Sorry for the laziness, but hey, you just might find a jewel in all these that becomes a regular stopover.

Oh, and Ryan and I are beginning to read The Pursuit of Holiness together for challenge and encouragement (like I need another reading group!). If any of you would be interested in reading with us this powerful but short book (notice the sneaky motivational hook there), grab you a book and let me know.

Here are my lazy entry links:

• Behind door number 1 – some Southern Baptist links for information and encouragement. Having served as an SBC minister and in their churches for most of my life, I’m still intrigued and keep up with what’s going on there. Wade Burleson’s blog, Grace and Truth to You, is an attempt by a trustee of one of the SBC’s mission boards to keep the playing field level. In recent years, a powerful few have gained control of key positions in SBC life and leadership. Burleson simply wants convention leadership to be held more accountable to the good folks in SBC churches…. Kiki Cherry is an OBU grad and friend serving as a collegiate minister in the northeast. Her blog, The Cherry Pit is a great read. T4G Blog is an ongoing public conversation between Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, C.J. Mahaney, and Albert Mohler – all conservative evangelicals, not necessarily SBC-ers.
• Behind door number 2 – some blogs to follow the continuing emergent church dialogue. The "Emergent Church" movement is pretty difficult to follow, however. Depending on who you talk to, it can be encouraging/confusing or enlightening/darkening. A decent first read would be Wikipedia’s entry on emergent church. Steve McCoy has a personal commentary on the emergent church. There is an interesting article, with decent graphs at subversiveinfluence. Open Source Theology in pretty interesting. For a long critique of the emergent movement, read Phil Johnson.
• Behind door number 3 – some excellent blog designs, as well as content. I continue to be extremely impressed and a consistent lurker over at challies.com. 5thirtyone.com… I have no idea what it’s about, but I like the look. Sonspring is also pretty cool.
• Behind door number 4 – Mac stuff. Of course. The "Unofficial Apple Weblog" is a nice way to keep up. There’s Apple’s main site which will make you drool over the new Macbooks. Finally, there is dotmac.info which is a Mac user’s site with all kinds of ways to find out how people are using their Macs. (Is it just me, or is there a huge group of new church starts and ministers now using the Mac? Seems like everyone I come across these days has a Macbook.)

I read a great book, first published in 1928, over the weekend called The Richest Man in Babylon. For all of you out there whose personal finances are somewhat disorganized (or in shambles), I want to encourage you to pick up a copy and read it! For the first 2 folks who can’t afford the book, I’ll buy it for you. (It’s cheap!)

However, I ask that you sincerely promise to begin to change your approach to your finances. As a personal aside, I sat down today and ran all kinds of Quicken reports for our own family. Even though it’s extremely difficult for us to tell our income level since we’re both self-employed, we’re gonna buckle down and seek to live on 70% of what God does provide. We’ve been consistent givers since our first year of marriage (over 14 years ago), and have seen God do amazing things when you acknowledge Him with the firstfruits of your life. We’ve been able for 3 years now to give more than 10% as a joyful love gift to Him each month through our offerings to our church. We’ve also been enabled to give through other avenues as well. Now it’s time to become even more wise, strategic and shrewd with the monies God provides. I’m excited about our personal financial journey.

Are you ready to become "shrewd" with your money?

• Matthew 10.16
• Luke 16.1-3
• Luke 16.7-9

By the way, I don’t know if he ever reads this or not, but I want to thank my father-in-law, Danny Hunter, for giving me this book this past Christmas. He and Teresa have proven the premises of the book many times over and inspired me in more ways than one.

Dan Kimball over at vintage faith has written a great, personal assessment of the different stages people go through in their church involvement. check it out, and tell me what stage you find yourself in.

I got my book today and am ready to jump into the reading group. Anyone else out there interested?

While we were gone, Journey had five new couples visit! That’s crazy. Perhaps we should leave more often…

I got this from my mom. Very funny. Call me trying to sell something…

Download no-no.mp3

I’m posting tonight from Alabama – Fort Payne, to be exact. It sounds like it would be a great spot for the WWF to host a Cage Match. Caro and I concluded the Relationship Weekend with Axis this morning (Saturday) and went straight to the Biltmore Estate for the afternoon. It is still the largest home in America, built by George Vanderbilt. It was constructed with the latest in modern technology, including electrity, an in-house intercom system, phones, toilets, etc. It’s amazing and stunning.

From there we decided to head home down Highway 74 which took us meandering down some absolutely gorgeous mountain beauty. I fell in love with Murphy, Tennessee, pledging to move there if everyone else in Journey will join me. Just down the road from there, you can jump in a kayak and go white-water rafting. Or you could hop in the car and be in Atlanta, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville, Asheville, or Birmingham in the span of 1-2 hours.

We began driving with the sunroof down when dusk hit so we could hear the symphony of crickets, frogs, locusts, and birds in the waning light of the day.

We made it to Chattanooga for supper and fell in love with the downtown area there. We ate supper at Easy Seafood Company on the outside veranda and people-watched over our dinners. Because the city is such a touristy area, we had to zip down I-59 to Fort Payne to find a vacancy (we didn’t have this part of the trip planned via Expedia.com).

We should be home Sunday evening. We are so grateful for the hospitality of the folks at Axis. The collegians and singles there were great. North Asheville Baptist Church was wonderful for allowing Axis to use their amazing facilities for the weekend. Thanks! We were humbled to be able to watch the Lord use Caro and me to minister to the lives of the folks there. It was a great weekend. We’re going to miss not being at Journey tomorrow a.m. for worship, but we are expectant for God’s continued working there.

Nuff said for this trip-log.

Aaaah. You may recall some of my previous entry about supremely sublime days. This is the beginning of one of them. I’m sitting in a Panera Bread in Nashville, typing away to you, my two faithful blog readers. If I had the money, I would immediately open one of these babies up in Monticello. If you ever see one, stop! Great food, ambience, and friendly service (as well as free wi-fi!) make this franchise a hip and restful place.

Carolyn and I have been in Nashville the last couple of days, on our way to Ashville, NC. We will speaking to some collegians there who are participating in a summer discipleship project called Axis. It’s sponsored by the Baptist Collegiate Ministries of Arkansas. I’m pretty sure it was the brain-child of fellow ignorantprotestant.com author, Neal Nelson.

Here are some shots of our trip so far. (you can also see them on Flickr)

So far, we’ve eaten at several fine dining establishments, including Hard Rock Cafe, Mrs. Maggy’s, and Logan’s. Downtown Nashville is cool. We didn’t get down to see a show, but we strolled down Second Avenue and stopped at Sun Records (signers of Johnny Cash and others). I tried to get Caro to record a song with me (you can make your own record there), but she declined. So it’s up to you, Ben Coulter!

We stayed at the Union Station Hotel, an amazing place, full of history (at least history for the States – my UK readers and beyond will scoff at the idea of a train station built in 1898 being very historical). It’s gorgeous and reasonable if you book it on Expedia.com. We highly recommend it. The majestic building in the film loop is the hotel.

We stopped by the mall and went to Nashville’s Apple Store. The angels were singing there, so we stopped to listen. Why do people torture themselves with PC’s? Leave the dark side and come to the light, my friends.

We’re heading out this morning for Asheville. So I’m going to get some mo’ coffee, do some reading, and enjoy myself here at Panera. As Paul Harvey would say, Good Day.

BTW, for those followers of the boil episode… it has popped. Aaaah. Thursday was my first non-limp day in a week.

Justin over at radicalcongruency.com is forming a reading group. Stop by and see if it interests you. I signed up and am intrigued by how this will work out.

For those of you who made it through the last post with full stomachs, I congratulate you. Seeing someone’s butt boil is not my idea of a stellar entry. However, one of the applications from that post, which some of you hinted at but didn’t land on was just this: there are some things you shouldn’t blog about.

(I still heartily recommend Vox and Multiply (with a strong lean toward the latter) for personal blogging.)

However, yesterday’s post has a deeper implication for many of you. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that blogs can be extremely hurtful/dangerous/unethical in many ways. A few simple taps of your fingers and you have launched some things out into cyberspace which have amazing power. In a moment, your unthinking and unfiltered thoughts become words.

While I still agree with Mark Wegley and his excellent post about the benefits of blogging and the history of communication, I must chime in with this entry with a word of caution for today’s bloggers.

Being a blogger requires discernment and ethics. Here are a few excellent sources to review about blogging ethics:

• Cyberjournalist.net
• Imprint blog – this is an identical list, but with a few added from a Christian worldview.

Blogging has become the primary internet traffic these days. They have surpassed every other type of website in traffic and popularity. After having blogged for almost a year, I’ve learned just a tad about the strengths and weaknesses of blogging. Here are some things I’m learning:

1. Do not hide behind your blog to communicate what you really should in person.
2. Avoid talking about people (friends, spouses, teachers, family, etc.) in sensitive ways without their permission.
3. Never use your blog for retaliation, revenge, or to slander another person.
4. Limit your dirty laundry. It’s not healthy for you to consistently air your problems in an online fashion and avoid the one-on-one, face-to-face of a true friend or counselor.
5. Don’t write about personal events or issues that involve another person without asking their permission.
6. Seek to encourage, instruct, and help others rather than seeking to just "get things off your chest."
7. Try not to base important decisions or conclusions on comments you receive to a personally-important or self-revelatory post. If you notice that everyone agrees with you in your comments, it may just be that those who disagree with you wish to not create a conflict where the whole web can read it.
8. There is a huge difference between being authentic and being self-revelatory. There are many things that just shouldn’t be said. (Ephesians 5.8-13)
9. If someone you know personally upsets you in a blog, respond and communicate in person rather than blogging about the issue yourself.
10. Extend grace to others.
11. Have fun.
12. Delight yourself in truth rather than innuendo.
13. Do not allow your blog to replace your communion with God. It may feel "spiritual" at times, but God would rather hear from you personally than read your blog.
14. If someone’s blog has helped/encouraged/inspired you, tell them so in the comments. Many incredible blogs die an early death for lack of feedback.
15. When quoting someone else, remember, context is king.

Uncomfortable reading
It seems that Facebook, MySpace, and Xanga remain popular choices for teens these days as their preferred blogging sources and online community builders. However, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend. Recently, as I began to follow some links to local teens’ blogs (most of which go to churches here in town), I became pretty dismayed by the sheer vulgarity, lack of taste, and rampant immaturity I found. "Christian" teens are saying things on their blogs which they would never say to another person in public, and which certainly seem to undermine the very faith which they profess.

Teenage bloggers seem more interested in verbally vomiting out their
thoughts and feelings than they do in truly communicating with each
other. There seems to be no filter between their thoughts and their
keyboard. And perhaps, there are more blogging adolescents out there than we’re comfortable admitting.

Ephesians 4.29 is an arrow to the heart of careless blogging:

Do not let any unwholesome
talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building
others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who
listen.

The End (again)
Let me encourage you all to consider deeply the necessity of wisdom and ethics in your blogging. Don’t let your fingers be your brain. What’s on your mind doesn’t need to be on everyone else’s. (Or in my case, what’s on my butt…)

BTW, I’ve posted before regarding some handy-dandy tips for blogging:

• Increase your blog traffic
• For beginning bloggers
• Focused vs. Diverse

For those of you who made it through the last post with full stomachs, I congratulate you. Seeing someone’s butt boil is not my idea of a stellar entry. However, one of the applications from that post, which some of you hinted at but didn’t land on was just this: there are some things you shouldn’t blog about.

(I still heartily recommend Vox and Multiply (with a strong lean toward the latter) for personal blogging.)

However, yesterday’s post has a deeper implication for many of you. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that blogs can be extremely hurtful/dangerous/unethical in many ways. A few simple taps of your fingers and you have launched some things out into cyberspace which have amazing power. In a moment, your unthinking and unfiltered thoughts become words.

While I still agree with Mark Wegley and his excellent post about the benefits of blogging and the history of communication, I must chime in with this entry with a word of caution for today’s bloggers.

Being a blogger requires discernment and ethics. Here are a few excellent sources to review about blogging ethics:

• Cyberjournalist.net
• Imprint blog – this is an identical list, but with a few added from a Christian worldview.

Blogging has become the primary internet traffic these days. They have surpassed every other type of website in traffic and popularity. After having blogged for almost a year, I’ve learned just a tad about the strengths and weaknesses of blogging. Here are some things I’m learning:

1. Do not hide behind your blog to communicate what you really should in person.
2. Avoid talking about people (friends, spouses, teachers, family, etc.) in sensitive ways without their permission.
3. Never use your blog for retaliation, revenge, or to slander another person.
4. Limit your dirty laundry. It’s not healthy for you to consistently air your problems in an online fashion and avoid the one-on-one, face-to-face of a true friend or counselor.
5. Don’t write about personal events or issues that involve another person without asking their permission.
6. Seek to encourage, instruct, and help others rather than seeking to just "get things off your chest."
7. Try not to base important decisions or conclusions on comments you receive to a personally-important or self-revelatory post. If you notice that everyone agrees with you in your comments, it may just be that those who disagree with you wish to not create a conflict where the whole web can read it.
8. There is a huge difference between being authentic and being self-revelatory. There are many things that just shouldn’t be said. (Ephesians 5.8-13)
9. If someone you know personally upsets you in a blog, respond and communicate in person rather than blogging about the issue yourself.
10. Extend grace to others.
11. Have fun.
12. Delight yourself in truth rather than innuendo.
13. Do not allow your blog to replace your communion with God. It may feel "spiritual" at times, but God would rather hear from you personally than read your blog.
14. If someone’s blog has helped/encouraged/inspired you, tell them so in the comments. Many incredible blogs die an early death for lack of feedback.
15. When quoting someone else, remember, context is king.

Uncomfortable reading
It seems that Facebook, MySpace, and Xanga remain popular choices for teens these days as their preferred blogging sources and online community builders. However, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend. Recently, as I began to follow some links to local teens’ blogs (most of which go to churches here in town), I became pretty dismayed by the sheer vulgarity, lack of taste, and rampant immaturity I found. "Christian" teens are saying things on their blogs which they would never say to another person in public, and which certainly seem to undermine the very faith which they profess.

Teenage bloggers seem more interested in verbally vomiting out their
thoughts and feelings than they do in truly communicating with each
other. There seems to be no filter between their thoughts and their
keyboard. And perhaps, there are more blogging adolescents out there than we’re comfortable admitting.

Ephesians 4.29 is an arrow to the heart of careless blogging:

Do not let any unwholesome
talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building
others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who
listen.

The End (again)
Let me encourage you all to consider deeply the necessity of wisdom and ethics in your blogging. Don’t let your fingers be your brain. What’s on your mind doesn’t need to be on everyone else’s. (Or in my case, what’s on my butt…)

BTW, I’ve posted before regarding some handy-dandy tips for blogging:

• Increase your blog traffic
• For beginning bloggers
• Focused vs. Diverse

The following picture is not for the squeamish of heart. My wife will be embarrassed that I’ve posted this, but I wanted to invite everyone else into my own misery of the last few days.

I also recall a comment a friend made a while back about bloggers who are never transparent with their real lives. Most of the bloggers I know don’t fall into this category, but I wanted to make sure that I qualify.

What you see above is a boil. A boil is “a skin disease caused by the inflammation of hair follicles, thus resulting in the localized accumulation of pus and dead tissues.” (Thanks, Wikipedia.)

Here’s the best part. It’s on my left butt cheek. Yep. Gag now and keep reading.

I did start out as a small bump, but over the weekend grew to the size of an egg within my posterior. It’s extremely painful, tight, and hot. Yesterday, it began to get so bothersome, that whenever I stood up, I almost buckled from the pain. Today.. misery.

I made Carolyn try to “pop it” with needles, alcohol and liberal squeezing. (Mom, you still with us?) to no avail. In desperation, I went to the doctor today – it takes something huge to send me there. After sitting in the waiting room visiting pleasantly (as much as a man with a boil on his butt can visit pleasantly) with Carolyn (yes, my wife is superwoman!!!), Kim Piggot, and Clay Brown, I was finally called to the back. There, Doc Connelley tried to stick it with a sharp knife. No explosion. Just pain.

The result? Pain meds (yippee!) and antibiotics. Dangit! I wanted instant relief, but it looks like I’m in for another night of sitting on a heat pad, catching up with this past season of Smallville.

I’m sure many of you could offer some interesting application from all this – even spiritual. I’d be interested in the conclusions you draw.

The End (literally)

I was forwarded the following interview from The Other Journal with Tony Campolo. This is an excerpt from it relating to the average church-goers allegiance to nation above their allegiance to kingdom.

TOJ: Do you think, then, that part of the problem is that a lot of
Americans confuse patriotism and the U.S. with the Kingdom of God?

TC: Yes, I think that one of the real fears that we have after 9/11
when our love for America became so intense, is that we tend to forget
that our ultimate obligation is not to the United States of America,
but to Jesus Christ and to the Kingdom of God. The Bible is quite
clear. As Christians, we are sojourners here. We are called in the
Bible ?ambassadors from God.? That is to say that we are in this world,
but not of it. And when in fact our patriotism takes precedence over
our spiritual commitments, we have to take a good look at ourselves and
ask whether or not we have become idolatrous. I think we are on the
verge of that in this country.

There’s a big argument right now as to whether American Flags should be
in churches. Brethren churches and Mennonite churches historically have
not had American Flags in the church because they sense the tendency to
idolatry that is in patriotism. Now I find that there are Brethren
churches that are beginning to put flags in churches. I don’t have any
problem if you put the flag of every nation in the world in the church,
but to single out one nation is to say that this Jesus that we worship
calls us to loyalty to one nation above all others? Because I’ve got to
tell you, I am committed to justice for all people, not just for
Americans. And I am committed to all of humanity, not just to
Americans. I think that Jesus calls us beyond our identity as
nationalists and calls us to be internationalists.

Go check out the rest of the interview and comment here.