Believe in God: He is Real
These were Rachel’s drawings on the children’s bulletin today in our church service.
Cross posted to Learning Signs and Eyes Right.
Sent from my iPhoneAuthor: Wesley Fryer
Accordance for iOS
Free and for iPad!
Accordance for iOS Now Released :: Buzz
http://www.accordancebible.com/News/Accordance-For-IOS (Sent from Flipboard)
http://www.accordancebible.com/News/Accordance-For-IOS (Sent from Flipboard)
Sent from my iPad
Sent from my iPad
Happy Birthday: Jesus Is almost Bigger than Angry Birds (TCTV)
Good article on the wild success of the YouVersion Bible on iOS.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/j-I7RSoxyQU/
Sent from my iPhone
How would you begin to respond to Fake Steve?
From time to time, I like to check in on the blog of the Fake Steve Jobs. Although I do not like and disapprove of his periodic use of profanity in his posts, much of what he writes is funny and on target with things happening related to Apple. The recent post, “Hate-spewing “Christians†need to listen up,” makes some good points but also leaves me asking, “How should I respond to this?” After starting with an initial denial of Jesus as the resurrected Son of God, fake Steve (a.k.a. Daniel Lyons) shares with a great deal of accuracy the stories of the good Samaritan, the woman at the well, and the prodigal son. His points on the first two stories are on the mark, he seems to miss that grace definitely IS a huge part of the prodigal son story, however. In his older post, “FWIW, Jesus didn’t always tell the truth, either,” he reveals a clear background in Bible study and awareness citing the scene of Jesus before Pilate prior to his crucifixion. His conclusion, that Christ lied frequently and was inconsistent in discussing his identity, is off base, but I find it noteworthy Daniel reveals some background in Biblical study but BIG misunderstandings about major points.
My goal with this post isn’t to debate Daniel Lyons’ ideas point by point, but rather to raise the startling point that in this widely read, written for laughs blog – Christianity is being not only discussed, but also brazenly attacked. Certainly Christ is maligned and mis-interpreted by Daniel. It strikes me as quite remarkable, however, that this kind of frontal attack on core ideas of Christianity and the gospel is being carried out on this blog. The 199 comments on this post (as of this writing) also reveal an engaged debate about many of the issues Daniel raises, with people chiming in from multiple vantage points.
My main response to this is to pray. It’s not ultimately up to me to change Daniel’s mind about Jesus and who He is, it’s in God’s hands. That does NOT, however, mean I should disengage from this discussion or shy away from sharing Christ with Daniel as well as others in my life. I know prayer is the right path in every circumstance, and these messages from Daniel are so challenging prayer seems to be the natural, reflective response. If you’re reading this, I encourage you to also pray for Daniel Lyons: That God would reveal himself to him, that he would read the Words of Christ in the Bible again and be transformed, that (like Saul who became Paul) he would stop persecuting the church on earth and instead be transformed to become its agent and champion.
Daniel is 100% correct that Jesus and the Bible do not command us to hate other human beings. We are, however, commanded to hate sin. He is also correct that the Catholic church historically strayed FAR from the teachings of Christ. I’m pleased indulgences are no longer for sale, but it’s understandable many are disillusioned by the checkered past of “the church” and those proclaiming to act in God’s name as well as the name of Jesus.
Overall, reading this post as well as others in which Daniel takes jabs at Christians as well as Christ reinforces my conviction that we must be vocal and speak out in the world about Christ and for Christ. This is a basic idea behind the “3 Minutes About Jesus” video campaign. In our lost, postmodern world, we need to shine as lights in the darkness.
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
We’re not called to shine alone. We’re called to shine together.
Technorati Tags:
bible, steve, fake, postmodern
10 year old reflections about Jesus on Christmas Eve
I’ve republished a 10 minute, 47 second enhanced audio podcast which my fifth grade Sunday School students created in 2007 for the Christmas Eve service at our church. They reflected “reader’s theater style” on the meaning of Christmas, who Jesus Christ was and is, and why we should remember his entire life and teachings at Christmas time and not focus just on his birth in the manger.
The original enhanced podcast version remains archived on our class blog. I’ve re-published this to YouTube hoping more people will watch and listen to this podcast when it’s available there.
Background – 3minutesaboutjesus.org
Please let me know what you think about this project idea – see the attachments. Doing this has been on my heart since 2004. This would cost almost zero (financially) to start – about $30. I think it’s time, but I value your ideas and input. I’ll forward you a Google Doc link to share ideas / feedback shortly.
Wes
Enjoy! Below is the list of attachments:
– MindBlowing.jpg (212Kbytes)
– viral, digital evangelism.caf (3588Kbytes)
– like Film On The Fly.caf (6586Kbytes)
=Total size (10387Kbytes)
– MindBlowing.jpg (212Kbytes)
– viral, digital evangelism.caf (3588Kbytes)
– like Film On The Fly.caf (6586Kbytes)
=Total size (10387Kbytes)
This is a mind map generated by MindBlowing.
Sent from my iPhone
The Jesus I Never Knew by Phillip Yancy
At the recommendation of Mateen Elass, I’m listening to “The Jesus I Never Knew” by Phillip Yancy on Audible. I am finding it very thought provoking and challenging. How many people, as Yancy writes, still believe in the “Mister Rogers” Sunday School version of Jesus and miss out on the passionate, unpredictable, and sacrificial leader He was and is?
Check it out and be transformed!
http://mobile.audible.com/productDetail.htm?asin=B002V9Z5IK&s=s
Divorce, Facebook style
Don’t blame Facebook for affairs, that lead to divorces, blame the people who choose to have an affair.
It’s popular to blame technology for individuals’ poor choices, however, and Facebook is getting accused in this recent news article.
http://infocult.typepad.com/infocult/2010/12/divorce-facebook-style.html
Sent from my iPhone
Choir surprises conference attendees: Random Acts Of Culture
Initial Christian focused videos with Storyrobe
Encouraging 10 and 11 year old students in fifth grade to think deeply about the ways God speaks to us in our lives, what the Bible means for our lives, and how we should respond to challenging situations in our lives using the words of Jesus is hard work. We are continuing to encourage our students to share their understanding, their thinking, and their questions about their Christian faith through multimedia in our 5th grade Sunday School class. Today we used the iOS application “Storyrobe” to create short videos about several topics. Students worked in pairs and were given the challenge of creating short videos (using five still images and finger puppets) which illustrated either:
- Bible Verses (explaining their meaning, application to their life, or special personal significance)
- A SINtuation (a real-life situation they have seen or encountered which involves fear, temptation, action, and consequences)
- Questions (challenging questions about God, faith, the Bible, or other topics related to faith)
Students were required to create a plan for their story and write down some ideas, and explain it to one of our four adult teachers / shepherds who were present for today’s lesson.
We had four groups out of eight complete their stories in class today. We’ll share and debrief these next week.
Kelly and Suzie created this video about “The Birth of Jesus.” December and Christmas time often presents confusing messages about the birth of Jesus as well as Santa Claus and consumerism. We’ll discuss these topics in upcoming weeks.
Another group (I didn’t get their names written down but will add them later – if you know please comment!) created this video which I’ve titled, “The Good Samaritan.” This story references Luke 10:25-37, which is very relevant to the way we live our lives and treat others. It also connects to questions one of our students asked last week, about “Who decided who got to go to heaven and hell before Jesus came?” We discussed that a bit in class and will talk more in the weeks ahead.
Sarah and Hannah created this video which they titled, “Building Problems.” This is based on Ezra 4. Rather than select and explain a verse they have studied previously and has personal significance, they chose to just select a random verse from the Bible and illustrate it. We’ll discuss next week how this example not only missed the purpose of our assignment, but it can also be confusing for people watching it. What does this mean? What is the main idea of this verse and the lesson we should take away from it? While this particular video didn’t meet our lesson objectives, it does provide a great opportunity to further discuss our purposes of doing this activity and how we want to both seek and share truth in our lives, rather than random ideas that can be confusing.
The last group to finish a video in class today was Gracie and Darla, who created “John and Lily.” They wanted to illustrate a situation which challenges faith, when a person is dying. In addition to illustrating the scene and the role prayer and faith can play in giving hope, they tried to explain this in the end of the video.
Overall today’s lesson was MUCH more successful than some others we’ve tried using media and technology, in part because we used mobile devices (iPhones with cameras and Storyrobe pre-loaded) to create our stories instead of more cumbersome, larger cameras and computers. Next time we do this I’m going to prepare an empty storyboard for students to complete, which lists spaces beside the five photos they plan to take and has room for character dialog planning. This may have been the first time many of our students had a chance to create a video project like this in Sunday school, and there is a LOT to learn both for students and adult facilitators. Next week we will definitely praise and recognize our students who DID complete their projects, because it took focus and work to get done in just 30 minutes! I’m hopeful this process will help us do even better next time. Many of our student groups worked hard in the time we had, but there’s a lot to do here in just 30 minutes!
If you have comments or feedback about this activity or this process please share them on this post!
Have a blessed week!
Technorati Tags:
ios, iphone, story, storyrobe, storytelling, video