A random collection:

Fascinating Weekly Family Food Consumption and Cost

Great new song: Choosing Ourselves

These crazy biker’s live in my town!
Barna does a fascinating political report [via]
Energy drink for kids, but not for kids
Is America and Empire? – By naming America as an “Empire” we name the reality that the USA is not the Kingdom of God…and that it isn’t even an ally in the Kingdom of God. It is, in fact, an enemy to the Kingdom of God. Before you start quoting “render unto Caesar” and “submit to the governing authorities” …

“It will Change Their Lives”
The book I recently read, Serving with Eyes Wide Open, discusses at length some of the shortcomings of short term missions (no pun intended), one of which is the false premise that our missions work will change the lives of the people we go to serve. The book highlights a lot of typical comments of short-termer’s expounding on the lofty benefits their work will be on the recipients. The comments consistently give the impression that without the help and service of the short-termer’s the people would …

I’ve accumulated a lot of music videos of varying kinds in my YouTube favorites folder, so I figured I should post them. They don’t necessarily relate to each other in any way. Enjoy.
Hey Ya! Cover song (4:31)

This Too Shall Be Made Right – Video to Derek Webb’s song (3:47)

Tonya Watts “Cumberland Angels” [I came across this video when searching for some news about the panhandling in downtown Nashville, It’s a neat video, though I’m not normally a country fan. Anyone whose ever hung out downtown with the cool people down …

This is a quote from Serving with Eyes Wide Open:
Read the letters and listen to the reports before and after mission trips, and those who go on trips tend to emphasize the so-called spiritual things: the number of souls saved, the lessons learned about prayer and materialism, and the impact made up the church visited. However, sit down for coffee with a friend who has just returned from a trip or eavesdrop on the picture party from a returning group, and the adventure of life in a new place seems …

The church I attended in Nashville took a group on a short term missions trip to Brazil this past November. In discussing the topic of ‘Missions’ I was trying to think about the biblical precedent for ‘missions’ work as we consider it. I wrote this post on the church forum…
The oft referenced verse for Christian mission work is this:

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them …

This past week I read the book, Serving With Eyes Wide Open, by David A. Livermore. I had picked up this book at the suggestion of some people I attend church with in Nashville. We had been having a discussion about what ‘missions’ looked like for the church and about the decision to take a short term trip to Brazil. I got in a little bit of trouble for it, mainly because I was asking questions about the decisions. The suggestion was for me to read this book to …

Okay, nothing fancy this time, just wanted to ask for you to do me a favor and take a quick survey. I wrote a novel back in November and I’m working on self-publishing it. My brother is doing the cover design and I’ve picked three I like to have you choose from. Take a minute and do this for me I would appreciate it.
Cover Survey

This is What I’ve read:

Agent B ponders what Christians in Business should look like.
Jaded Optimist has info for diapering missionaries.
One take on Gender and Politics from Julie.
Just the title makes me want to read this book.
Food Whores
Someone else takes on the Wealth, family and security questions.
If Huckabee really wants to amend the constitution then… [via]
Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Jesus
Lo-Fi discusses Consuming Jesus
And a closing quote:

A lot of times we cry about not having everything we want, even though
we’ve got plenty more than we need. It’s ironic that we whine and moan
about our own …