Christian Carnival CXXXVIII: The Kingdom Beacon Herald

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Rubbing the sleepiness from your eyes, you fetch the morning paper from the porch. Opening it, there are many sections and feature departments for your information and entertainment.


First, there is the main section, where the international and national news have their place. Part of the main section is the front page, the home of the immediate and the occasionally sensational. As the journalists say sometimes, "If it bleeds, it leads."

Two hostages in Iraq were released last week, following a coerced religious conversion. Adam's Blog discusses it at Say Anything to Live, as does Josh Miller at Fiat: Responding to God's Call


Vita ab Alto brings us a discussion of war as an inevitable part of man’s fallen nature, along with a conversation with a skeptic concerning how a Christian reconciles fighting wars with the peaceful message of the New Testament, in Sad but True


Then, there is the metro section, the home of local news and of human interest stories.

NerdMom presents What are you first? at Nerd Family, asking about primary identity --- Christian or Citizen?

Laurie Blurdorn of Trivium Pursuit offers Echoes, by Chris Alexion, a meditation beginning in an old church building in the local historical district.

What's up with the Christian blogosphere anyways? In Our Testimony in the Christian Blogosphere, Barbara from Tidbits and Treasures proposes that our testimony should show that we are grounded in the Word, and separated from the world so we can be effective witnesses.


Next, sports has its section. [Since no one has entered a post about the only truly Orthodox baseball club or about prayers at public school football games, I just have to view apologetics as a competitive sport!]

Diane of Crossroads writes about Calvinists, Calvinians, Arvinianists and Armenians (And No, It's Not a Typo) , comparing and contrasting the theological views, a bit tongue-in-cheek.

Hammertime of Team Hammer's Musings continues his series defining Biblical Inerrancy by exposing the 'straw man' arguments against it, in Biblical Inerrancy II: Straw Men.

Witnessing - Proselytizing - Defending the Faith. Ever feel like somebody just dumped a trash can full of litter on your mission field? Laura at Pursuing Holiness reminds us that we have to keep it in perspective.


And, of course, there has to be a section for business. This is a Christian paper, so we don't neglect labor when we write about business.

At Touring with Virgil, we find Enron in One Lesson, a Christian business lawyer's overview of what exactly happened at Enron and what we can learn from one of the biggest frauds in human history.

At the Faith at Work Blog, Mike McLoughlin asks, Why are Churches So Silent When It Comes to Labour Day?

The teachings of the Church about work are the topic of Mickey at News from Headquarters, Rosary Army in his Saturday Morning Catechesis: Labor Day.


There's arts and entertainment, for the arts and music, architecture and book reviews:

Under Stacy L. Harp's byline at The Right View, Kim Hill Talks About Her New CD Broken Things. Grammy nominated and Dove Award Winner Kim Hill talks to Stacy about her newest CD Broken Things. Kim also talks about her divorce, recovery, motherhood and a lot more.

This Side of Glory offers Advertising and the State of Art. In part one of this four-part series, Grace takes a look at how the culture clash that happened between art and advertising highlighted a growing crisis brewing for secular humanists. Christians on culture watch haven’t been spending a lot of time in modern art galleries (with good reason!), but what’s been going on there may have applications that affect us all.

Jeremy Pierce at Parableman presents Commentaries on the Gospel of John, reviewing some of the best and most important commentaries on that gospel.

At the Shrine of the Holy Whapping, Matthew offers a few remarks on classical architecture today.


home:

What are the house rules of Christianity? Are there any? Can they be enforced? John who goes barefoot in the wilderness, in his post Setting boundaries, claims that too often, we try to define Christianity --- to produce the definitive statement of faith / creed / doctrinal basis that well contain the essentials of the faith, and to which all "true" Christians must assent. He says, however, that this misses the point of Christianity, which is that it's about Christ first and last.

We're all guilty of wasting time, but is most of our life on a par with underwater ironing? At Attention Span, Rev. Ed may be a little mixed up figuring out his schedule, but he is making a point about how we spend our time in Wind Chasing.

Jen, the Daughter of the King is decluttering and coming to terms with all her Stuff.


faith:

Richard discusses a possible source of inspiration for Luke in creating his gospel of prayer, in Maccabees as a Source for the Prayer Theme at dokeo kago grapho soi kratistos Theophilos.

Why is it important to know who Jesus is, what Jesus' role in the heavens is, and why Jesus is so great? Because if we don't realize how great Jesus is, greater than anything we could possibly know, something else might look better. Thus expounds Chasing the Wind in the post Pay Attention.

Mick of the Romans 15:4 Project offers us Offering and Communion Meditation based on 1 Peter 3:11.

Ouestioning God? Sure, says the blogger at Fides et Veritas.

David Ker wonders, What is a horn of salvation?, at Lingamish.

At the Participatory Bible Study Blog, Henry proposes that the questions we use in approaching Bible study, and the attitude of submission, looking for what God has to say to each of us personally will have a major impact on how much we get out of Bible study, in Goals in Bible Study.


lifestyle and travel:

Vons Takes offers 'She Can' vs 'she should'. Von would come running in to his house and ask his mother a simple question, “Mother, can I go play at Jimmy’s house?” and whammo, it was time for a grammar lesson!

Martin at Sun and Shield offers Commandments in the Sermon on the Mount. He went through Matthew 5-7, looking for commandments of Jesus, and found 14 of them. They are radical, and require a supernaturally assisted heart and attitude to keep.

Should the Great Commission be interpreted as a call to all believers for full-time missionary work, or is that an additional special calling? Karl of Noneya studies the question in The Great Commission and the Holy Spirit.

A Penitent Blogger writes about folk who are on a different wavelength, seeing all that religion stuff as nonsense, or worse.


the advice columnist:

When do you stay and persevere, when do you shake the dust off and go? In growing or quitting, Jan at the view from her explores the question.

Apathy and indifference are the topic of the day for Polly of Life Is a Buffet in Why should I care?.

One deals with the clods and jerks and clueless of life by undergoing a Revolution of the Heart, advises Ruth the Wheelie Catholic.


science and technology:

If you're interested in a Christian perspective on evolution and genetics, the Evangelical Ecologist has a post up on Christian geneticist and author Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Human Genome Research Institute. Collins was recently the keynote speaker at the 61st Annual Meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation. Don transcribed the first half of his talk in a post entitled A Believer Looks at the Human Genome - Part I, and has links to the audio and Part II (as soon as it's posted).

In More on the Age of the Earth, Imago Dei realized that in the general scheme of things, whether or not you believe in an old earth or a young earth, it doesn't matter. These beliefs are not central to the Christian faith and they do not determine whether or not you are a follower of Christ.

The healthy integration of technology into life is the theme of Sr. Susan Rose in community phones, at her Musings of a Discerning Woman.


health:

Looking at the increasing use of online confession sites, like the one hosted by LifeChurch, Left of Calvary writes that online confessions may not be good for the soul.


How did an evil rotten passion become a overriding secular virtue? Pseudo-Polymath studies the issue in Pagans in the Mist Our Midst or An Exercise in K-12 Instructional Folly.

At Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!, starting with all sorts of eating patterns and diet tips, Fr. Philip teaches on Mark chapter 7 in What Comes Out Matters.....


food (What's a Wednesday local paper without a food section?):

Leslie of Lux Venit writes about There's a First Time for Everything, the adventures of her second son when he discovered that, although he and his big brother have lots of food alergies, that he wasn't allergic to milk.

Of course, we can all be thankful for sweet corn!


the comics

and, last but not least, at the very back of the paper, the classified ads:

Jack Yoest posts Help Wanted at the Family Research Council. They are looking for an executive assistant, in Washington DC.


Thanks to all the Contributing Editors of this fine paper --- it could not happen without you and your fine posts. When you're done, do remember to recycle your pixels, and don't worry, next week there will be a volume cxxxix!
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