Birmingham Olympics...Yes, THE Olympics

Birmingham, Alabama, mayor wants Olympics in 2020- al.com

Seriously.

Coffee Thief

Half-ton of premium coffee beans stolen in Hawaii - Weird News - Wire - Kentucky.com

It's hardly a case of "sticky fingers" when it is a half-ton of anything. If you're going to be a thief, you might as well steal something of measure.

Small Print Revision on AIDS

This story is not exactly making headlines, so I thought it would be worth pointing to the FRC Blog which sheds a little light on some new admissions about the spread of HIV/AIDS:

Heterosexual AIDS Pandemic Won't Happen

I'm not suggesting that AIDS is not a problem that needs great attention. However, the energy and resources devoted to handling AIDS treatment and AIDS research has apparently been blown out of proportion as compared with the need concerning cancer, heart disease, and other leading causes of death.

The release of the World Health Organization statement has scarcely been covered. A Google News search brings up less than 70 news articles around the world. Compare that number to the more than 2,800 articles on the latest news about the Guitmo Prisoners, just for a little perspective.

According to Cornell Scientist David Pimentel, turning corn into fuel is most costly in terms of resources than it is worth. He is quotes in this article as saying "Abusing our precious croplands to grow corn for an energy-inefficient process that yields low-grade automobile fuel amounts to unsustainable, subsidized food burning."

Here are a few of the facts:

• One acre can produce enough corn to make 328 gallons of ethanol. The gas used to produce this corn before being converted is about 140 gallons. At prices at the time of his analysis, the cost per gallon of ethanol (still in the raw form of corn) would already be $1.05.
• In processing, 131,000 Btu are needed to produce one gallon of ethanol. The energy value of one gallon of ethonal stands at only 77,000 Btu. Result: negative Btu's.
• For the average car to travel 10,000 miles in a given year using ethanol, 11 acres of corn must be harvested.
• For every car in America to use ethanol for a year, 97% of our land must be used to grown corn.

Rolling the Hurricane Dice

In this AP article, we learn the fascinating secrets behind hurrican predictions:

Here's the intro:

Each April, weather wizard William Gray emerges from his burrow deep in the Rocky Mountains to offer his forecast for the six-month hurricane season that starts June 1. And the news media are there, breathlessly awaiting his every word.

It's a lot like Groundhog Day - and the results are worth just about as much.

So, how many hurricanes should we expect in the Atlantic in 2008? Roll your own dice (use 5 for good measure) and you can publish your results.

I came up with 11 named storms.

Might as well translate some Bible...

Awilum.com points out the problems with the Wiki Bible translation (everyone invited to translate a portion!) Of course, such an approach seems to fit perfectly with our age where all views are supposedly equal. Why limit this project to those who know some Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek - all you need are some Strong's numbers, right?

No One Ever Is To Blame

Childhood lead exposure linked to adult crime - USATODAY.com

Cain killed Abel because of exposure to lead. We'll all have to rethink our theology and philosophy.

Vatican: It's OK to believe in space aliens.

Didn't Matthew McConaughey's character in Contact already determine this? Yes, Palmer Joss was that wonderful theist in the movie who, by his own admission, could not be celibate to be a priest. A great quote of Joss from IMDB: "You could call me a man of the cloth, without the cloth."

On the larger scale, don't you find it interesting that mankind always seems to set up some scientific line in the sand which will disprove the existence of God, and yet that line in the sand is always another step away.

Walking Away From Grace

"Is your experience of grace so light that you can walk away from the cross?"

The question is from the 'May 1' reading of D. A. Carson's For the Love of God (Volume Two.) He is writing chiefly about Hebrews 6 but is also alluding more broadly to the theology of other New Testament writers John and Paul.

A little background...

By "experience of grace" Carson is referring to conversion to Christianity or at least what appears to be conversion to Christianity, and by "the cross" he is speaking of the whole of the biblical account of the most important event in the record of Jesus - his death on the cross to pay for the sin of mankind and his subsequent resurrection. While Jesus is the basis for Christianity, it is the "cross of Christ" which is the very purpose of his humanity.

Back to Carson's question...

The question serves strongly in communicating on many levels the true grace of God as it concerns any person and his or her experience of coming to understand and know the significance of what Jesus has done and the way in which one is accepted "in Christ" by faith - by simply (yet truly) believing. At a deeper level, the question appears to be rooted in the larger teaching of the Bible of the inconceivably great glory of God. In the book of Exodus Moses is spoken to by God in the burning bush. Could Moses have simply ignored this with apathy? For the Apostle Paul, the resurrected Jesus appeared to him suddenly and left him blind for a period. Could Paul (already a theist) have simply walked away and shrugged off his encounter? For the John the Apostle, he had known the person of Jesus for a long time and then seen the death and resurrection firsthand. Could John have walked away with ease? There are others in the Bible who will not believe even if they see one raised from the dead.

Carson's question bears repeating as any person would consider that they have come to trust in the person of Jesus Christ: Is your experience of grace so light that you can walk away from the cross?

People walk away from Christianity every day. Why? The reasons are countless but ultimately the reason has to be that they never had a true "experience of grace" in the first place. The weight of the truth of the gospel is so overwhelming for the one who gains a true taste of what it means to have forgiveness and life in Jesus that it is difficult (I'd even say "impossible") to find any person who has truly come to understand the meaning of this who can ignore the truths of who Jesus is and simply walk away.

How the rich and famous do the Kentucky Derby | courier-journal | The Courier-Journal

How the rich and famous do the Kentucky Derby courier-journal The Courier-Journal

Overheard on the News

I did a double take with my ears this morning when listening to the news report from the Wall Street Journal (XM Channel 166.) The update was concering the 0.6% growth in the economy as reported. However, the follow up on the report was something to this effect: "But it is still up to the American public to determine whether or not the economy is in a recession."

Clearly numbers mean nothing. Instead, we live in a culture more driven by opinion - and opinion poorly shaped by the media, at that. Maybe I just do not understand higher economics...

The Opposite of Supply and Demand?

As Southeast drought eases, water bills rise - USATODAY.com

Playing Politics

This "pact" below is a better version of what I have been saying for some time about the presidential race and the next President. Lost in the polarization of the past 18 years in politics is the respect that we should have for the President of the United States. No matter now much I may disagree with him (or her), I disagree more fervently with the kind of extreme rhetoric which has been employed by those opposed to the political decisions being made.

My Non-Derangement Pact if Barack Obama Wins the Election conservativeintelligencer.com

HT: TruePravda

Is This a Problem?

Study: Single parenting costs billions - Life- msnbc.com

Since the cost is to the federal government and the taxpayer, some "fix" has to be discovered.

Interesting.

How Much for Some Christianity?

Since you're not doing anything productive, go read TruePravda's "God as Commodity."

Pike Place Roast

As Starbucks continues to try to find itself the latest attempt involves going back to the original with Pike Place Roast. I had a cup Tuesday, another Wednesday, brewed some at home Thursday morning as well as another from the store this afternoon. Not bad. Even more than the flavor of this new 'old' coffee, I do like Starbucks' supposed return to the basics. Time will tell if it is successful.

I don't look for any of this coffee, though, anytime soon.

Executive Experience and the Presidency

Here's a chart showing the executive experience of U. S. Presidents prior to becoming president.

For some time I've been thinking that the position of Governor is a greater experience for a would be President than other political offices. I had also wondered how many former Presidents were Generals.

The chart is interesting - I'm not going to pretend to be able to give deep analysis. Just a few observations:

• John Kennedy was the last President to have had only experience deriving from the Senate
• Prior to JFK, the previous President to have had not executive experience was Abraham Lincoln
• 4 of the last 5 Presidents had experience as Governors
• Eisenhower was the last General to become President

Stem Cells: Adult Variety

What the mainstream press does not like to cover:

http://www.frcblog.com/2008/03/patients_first_current_adult_s.html (video at Family Research Council of real live people who have been medically helped by adult stem cells.)

Great Headline - 911 Call

Hallucinating man climbs tree, calls 911 to report cops are chasing him - On Deadline - USATODAY.com

Call to Ministry (Part 3)

[Read Part 1 and Part 2]

I heard a statistic a few years ago that the number of ordained Southern Baptist ministers was several thousand more than existing Southern Baptist churches. I’ve found no way to verify such information, but I would not be surprised if such a ratio is correct. Whether true or not, the relationship of the local church to the process of ministers becoming ministers has certainly evolved into a shapeless process in some denominations in our era.

What does it mean to be “called to ministry”? One of the things which D. M. Lloyd-Jones develops in his book Preaching and Preachers is that with some young men the appeal of the position of pastor is likely to cause them to want to be in such a role in the church. A person who is zealous for the Christian faith is not necessarily to pursue a “career” in Christian ministry. The tendency, of course, is to push anyone who has any great interest in studying Scripture and pursuing a devout Christian life into full-time ministry. Shouldn’t such a pursuit of the Christian life be true of every Christian man?

At least in the Baptist tradition, the authority and autonomy of the local church has backfired creating a culture where the church’s role in forming ministers and sending them into the ministry has been minimized. Churches often take a very passive role in the formation and evaluation of those who might be qualified for Christian ministry. As I mentioned before, the usual method is that a man or woman approaches the pastor in order to announce to the church that he or she is called to the ministry and seeks the church’s approval. For most, the very fact that this person has been called to ministry is enough – no further evaluation is needed. In many cases, then, the most important thing the church will do in the process is to sign a form giving their approval for the ministry candidate to go to seminary, to into missions, or serve in some other capacity.

Of course, today you can be “ordained” via the internet because the meaning of being ordained is completely subject to whatever religious organization is in question. So one of the real problems in our society today is that there can be little, if any, recognition of what an official ordination should be (or even if there should be such a thing.) One of the things I learned in doing some searching on the topic was that historically the place of ordination has held a rather low position in Protestant churches since the Reformation. Wm Lloyd Allen’s article “The Meaning of Ordination” is helpful especially in provided an historical context for the practice. As one could imagine, there is a danger is viewing those who are “ordained” as some higher religious figure which can confuse one’s understanding of the role of a pastor as compared to that of a Catholic priest or a Jewish priest. That, however, is another discussion.
Allen writes:

The original Baptists in the first decade of the seventeenth century defended
the equality of each member of the body of Christ against the historic claims of
clergy privilege made by the bishop led Anglican Church. These earliest
Baptists formed congregations of baptized believers who covenanted to share
equal authority and responsibility in the body of Christ.

The role of the modern-day seminary may have also played a role in taking the church off course as it relates to ordination and the role of ministers in ministry. There are many great advantages to attending seminary, and I am a firm advocate of such an education for most who would desire to pursue Christian ministry. (Seminary is not for everyone, though, and should not be a requirement for a man to serve the church.) Especially pertaining to serious study of biblical languages and classical theology, the collection of skilled instructors at a seminary cannot be matched by private study or in most cases reproduced in the local church setting.

At least in Baptist seminaries, all that is required as it pertains to the student’s home church is a letter or recommendation. Once a letter is attained, the seminary student is then completely free to move to seminary and pursue an education free of his home church. While seminaries do require that students are attending of a church in the local city where the school is located, this is a soft requirement at best.

For Baptist churches, though, ordination is not linked directly to seminary. The local church may ordain whomever the congregation chooses to ordain, for better or worse. As stated before, this creates a great disparity in understanding about what it means to be ordained to the ministry, and no local church can rely too heavily upon what another church has decided in terms of ordaining a minister.

Called to ministry? I find it unlikely that individuals are “called” outside of their involvement with their local body of believers. I do believe strongly that individuals are called to serve God in the ways in which God has gifted them. Such calling by God is worked out in many ways which do not need to be mysterious, but really seem to be quite obvious and logical many times. A healthier view of the entire process is one which closely involves the church in helping individuals decide how to pursue using the gifts with which God has gifted them.