A Measure of Praise

Those brilliant folks at Apple just keep on inventing cool stuff....

From: The Sacred Sandwich

Offering Strange Kindle Fire

What if they made this announcement at the start of every church service?

“Please silence your pagers and cell phones as we prepare to worship the living God. We welcome you to use your phones, readers, or other digital devices to follow along in God’s Word, but we warn you that this is the worst possible time to send texts, check email, or bomb angry birds. God demands and deserves our full attention, and he destroyed Nadab and Abihu for offering “strange fire” during worship. So use your kindle fire at your own risk.”

Somehow I don't think that would go over very well!
BTW, the Nadab and Abihu reference is from Leviticus 9 & 10.

From Mike Wittmer

Tecnology & Magic

Some thought provoking material for a Saturday morning.  Who said we can't think on the weekends?

"There is something which unites magic and applied science while separating both from the “wisdom” of earlier ages. For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men: the solution is a technique."

                -C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man, page 77:

"In ancient times it was understood that there was a transcendent moral order outside the self, built in to the fabric of the universe. If you violated that metaphysical order there were consequences just as severe as if you violated physical reality by placing your hand in a fire. The path of wisdom was to learn to live in conformity with this unyielding reality. That wisdom rested largely in developing qualities of character, such as humility, compassion, courage, discretion, and loyalty.

Modernity reversed this. Ultimate reality was seen not so much as a supernatural order but as the natural world, and that was malleable. Instead of trying to shape our desires to fit reality, we now seek to control and shape reality to fit our desires. The ancients looked at an anxious person and prescribed spiritual character change. Modernity talks instead about stress-management techniques."

            - Timothy Keller, The Reason For God, page 71

Hat Tip: Miscellanies

Help for Christian Bloggers

Any other Christian bloggers out there who stumble across my humble little blog should probably check out The Upright Project, a web page designed to help Christian bloggers to "Blog better." Some recent articles included:

A Serious Bloggers First Year Goals
100 Goals to Consider With Your Blog
The Christian Approach to Writer's Block
Before You Start Your Christian BlogHow I Found My Perfect Niche

Thanks to blogger Christopher Morris for creating this resource for the rest of us.

Does Technology Disembody the Gospel?

Does the use of video screens to watch the preacher in church conflict with the Doctrine of the Incarnation? Ever consider if your worship practices are totally consistent with your theology?

I ran across this article at a blog called Young, Evangelical, and Catholic called "The Disembodied Gospel: Screens in Church: "

So why is this important? Because at the center of Christianity is the Incarnation - Jesus, the God-man. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1.14a) At the climax of salvation history, God himself came to us in a physical form. And why did He do that? Because we are physical creatures.

Evangelicals implicitly communicate the opposite as their worship life becomes more and more disembodied. They're trying to be the disembodied body of Christ.

As the body of Christ, we are supposed to manifest Christ to the world. And it ultimately can only be done in the manner Christ did it – in the flesh, physically, embodied.

After reading the article, I still do not think there is anything wrong or theologically inconsistent with using video screens in church.  However, I do think it is a useful thing to ask questions like that.

What do you think?

If God Had a Cell Phone....

I put it off for a long time. For years I simply refused to get a cell phone. Why should I - no one ever calls me anyway?

Finally in 2002 I broke down and did it. I decided it would be good for safety reasons for my wife and I to be able to communicate if there was an emergency. Plus, it made things easier to call my office when on the road for business.

Once I did it I could no longer imagine life without the little contraption. It was very convenient to be able to check in at home or with the office anywhere I went. It did not take long for me to feel naked if I did not have a cell phone clipped to my belt. How could I live without it?! I have to be reachable! I have to be able to reach out and touch my loved ones! Now I am about to upgrade to a newer model. Cell phones are great - even when I don't use mine all that much.

I have often wished God had a cell phone - or email- or even a fax machine. It would be so nice to get direct messages from the Father, and have him be able to hear from me, on a constant regular basis.

Oh wait - I have prayer, I have the Bible. I have the Holy Spirit. Maybe what I HAVE is better than what I WISH for.

I wish I felt as naked without constant prayer, without Bible reading and meditation, as I do without a cell phone.

Blogger Worry

Hat Tip: blaugh.com

Moses Got His Prayer Request Wrong

From: cartoon: Moses Complains nakedpastor

Computers Got Denominations?

Some of you computer geeks will enjoy this - Best 404 Page Ever? - ChurchCrunch

The OnStar Study Bible

Hat Tip: The OnStar Study Bible The Sacred Sandwich

I'm really enjoying the humor from "The Sacred Sandwich." This one gave me a good chuckle.

Too Techno-Savvy?

Do you sometimes wonder if we are all getting just a little too techno-savvy?

From IPOD to IGOD?

Hat Tip: Ben Witherington: An IGOD? Cartoon of the Day

The Takeover of Conferences & Technology

From Thinking Out Loud, a tongue-in-cheek letter from a pastor:

To the members of our church…

After carefully weighing my options as your pastor, I have decided to devote all of this coming season to attending conferences in various places around the world.

During the past few years there has been an exponential increase in the number of such events, symposiums, conferences, etc. that are available to people in vocational ministry, to the point where there is now one each and every week. To be honest, to continue in effective ministry, I can’t afford to miss a single one.

While this means I will no longer be present in the office, I will continue to provide you with weekly video teaching. The largest and fastest-growing churches in the nation are multi-site congregations, and even in the ones where the pastor is actually in the room, it’s been shown that about 85% of the people are watching the screen anyway. As we move forward into the future, we need to recognize that this is the way preaching takes place across North America.

I thank you for your continued support of our church, and on a personal level, I am grateful for any Air Miles of Frequent Flyer Points you wish to donate.

For those wishing more personal contact, remember I can be reached on Facebook, Twitter, and several other social networking sites that haven’t been invented yet, but please remember that due to the high volume of incoming messages, I may not be able to get back to you as promptly as I would like.

Remember, at our church we care about each and every one of you.

Your Pastor.

This is funny. But like most truly funny jokes, the humor is enhanced by how close to the truth it gets.

Hat Tip: The Thinklings