A good Advent resource
Jason Vana is this random dude on the internet that I met and have come to consider a friend. He heads up a group called Ignite. He also is one of those design type people.
For advent (which starts tomorrow FYI) he has put together a devotional book/calendar that is defiantly worth your time and energy to check out. You can down load them free here. I’ve looked over the book, and am very excited to walk through Advent with this resource…well, try to anyways. I usually get about a week in and then suddenly it’s New Years. Like three or four weeks just disappear in a blink of an eye.
So, what resources are you using to celebrate and explore this Advent season?
Book Review: A Question of Faith
I found Tor Constiantino‘s book A Question of Faith a refreshing change in the comparative religion discussion. Too often no meaningful conversation comes from these attempts because of mischaracterization, vilification, and this weird need to empirically and definitively prove that “my religion is right”. I’m not against apologetics, nor do I think that all religions can all be right. However, if we are going to have an honest discussion, we need honesty about both sides. Too often people load the dice when talking about religion. What kind of honest talk about religion can come from that?
The entire book revolves around one question:
Q: Which of the major world religions listed below is the best for someone to believe?
- a. Buddhism
- b. Christianity
- c. Hinduism
- d. Islam
- e. Judaism
- f. Sikhism
Saturday Rant
Angles and prophets carried a message of hope and God’s great deeds in ages past. Now, celebrity preachers write books, travel to conferences, and leave pulpits to further their ministry. Why do our methods of proclaiming the topsy-turvy kingdom of God now look so sleek,so familiar to our internet culture? Inverting the old ways just leads to something we are comfortable with, something like us, something devoid of prophetic life.
The value of a martyr is not that they are brave enough to die. The true glory of martyrdom is the life preceding the death, a life that by its very way of expression proclaims something so different, so other, so holy they powers that be deem it as a threat to their familiar, their safe, their way of wielding power.
So, why does a blessed christian life look so much like the American dream? Why do pastors we think successful look like CEO’s, motivational speakers, and entrepreneurs?
The danger of conforming to the world is not that we will end up looking like the unwashed masses. The real devastation comes when our life loses its prophetic voice because the home we point to looks exactly like the demon of success. Maybe we should sell everything we have, give the money to the poor, and follow Jesus… not because poverty is more spiritually pure, but rather because that kind of action is so unfamiliar to our beautiful, savvy culture that shops at Ikea.
If our Message is Jesus and his new kind of life, should we really be telling people Jesus will give them everything they have ever day dreamed of?
Father, Husband, Theological Dreamer, Web Designer, Photographer, Coffee Chugger... Jesus obsessed & dreaming of a better Christianity. It's kind of like listening to a cross between guerrilla radio and a street corner prophet with a bad case of tourettes.
