4 Posts – Devotionals (v. 0.3)

What are these 4 Posts entries? As many days of the week as I have time I look through the RSS feed for the Moderate Christian Blogroll/Aggregator and select four posts on a single topic. Usually the topic is suggested because a post has caught my eye. To call my attention to a post you have written e-mail pubs@energion.com and suggest your post and a general topic heading. Your blog must be a member of the Moderate Christian blogroll, and in general I prefer to include posts within the last week only.

OK, today’s four, which are either devotionals or about personal devotional activities:

1: Heaven’s Highway – Four Minute Devotionals: Living with Lions

Living with Lions starts with Psalm 34:10 and then gives some thoughts that resulted from watching a Discovery Channel program on lions.

2: Bible Money Matters – Wisdom and Understanding: Better than silver or gold

This is a good meditation on the value of wisdom in making decisions.

3: Thoughts from the Journey – Jealous

God is a jealous God, but is this good or bad?

4: Pen of the Wayfarer – The Deception of Idolatry: The False Promises of False Prophets

This is a slightly heavier devotion taken from Ezekiel, but well worth reading. The wayfarer reminds us to “[b]eware of the prophet who is too popular.” Good advice!

I’m currently collecting posts on prayer for the next 4 Posts.

4 Posts on Scripture (v. 0.2)

Here comes the second “4 posts” post. For details, read this.

In choosing today’s posts I was looking for things written during the past week that discussed Bible study, the inspiration of scripture, or provided a useful example of such study. Here are my choices:

1: Through a Glass Darkly – Joshua and War

Joshua and War is a good example of a brief post looking at the broad theme of a larger passage of scripture and trying to answer the question: How should we see this today? The hard part in this case is being true to the original text at hand, while also remaining true to other revelation and the tradition (particularly ethical) of the church. It’s brief, but well worth looking at.

2: Kouya Chronicles – Bible Pictures

In choosing this post, Bible Pictures, I recalled my own reactions when someone has chosen a post of mine for a roundup that I might not have chosen. Eddie may feel the same way, but this link to resources is worth publicizing further. I was deeply disappointed on being informed that Moses had no Nikon. However shall I continue living? So you don’t miss it, Eddie and Sue Arthur are Bible translators, and he does write many other things.

3: Shuck and Jive – Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

Any preacher who preaches from Ecclesiastes, and doesn’t choose his pieces carefully so that they sound pious, deserves some attention. John Shuck is preaching through the Bible, and his sermon on Ecclesiastes is worth looking at both for style and interpretation.

4: Whispers From God’s Spirit – The Thoughts of the Lord are Deep

The Thoughts of the Lord are Deep represents an activity I strongly recommend to Bible students–writing poetry, stories or something similar that relates directly to a Bible passage. This is a lovely example of poetry and is based on Psalm 92.

I’m now collecting 4 posts on devotions or devotional readings. Stay tuned!

4 Posts on Christian Apologetics (v. 0.1)

Note: See this post for the concept involved in “4 Posts”

I’m going to use “Christian apologetics” a bit loosely and include anything that involves witnessing or defending the faith in general.

1: Finding Atheism and Donny’s Response

Donny wrote an essay To Carrie, Regarding Atheism. Donny is to be commended for discussing his own questions and doubts. Carrie is to be commended for speaking experientially and honestly. Featured in her discussion is the book The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, though there is little detailed discussion of the claims. I found all of this well worth reading.

2: Evangelism 24:7 – What is the Gospel

I link here to part 4 which is the most recent. This is a sound definition of the gospel from the evangelical point of view, but it may feed into many of the doubts expressed in the first post. You can find links back to the first three posts at the end of the linked post, and part 5 is yet to be written.

3: Sharing a Journey: Yin and Yang

In this post, Kievas Fargo maintains that faith is essentially irrational. He likes science. He believes. He doesn’t see them in conflict because faith doesn’t work that way. Interesting, with good additional link.

4: Pen of the Wayfarer: Unless I had Believed

This short post talks about faith and the meaning of believing. I think it rounds out this “four posts” thing nicely!

Until next time, remember to submit your posts. Otherwise these “4 posts” things will depend entirely on my random reading.

4 Posts on . . . v 0.0

I’ve been thinking for some time that we need a bit more helpful information in order to build the Moderate Christian Blogroll. The problem is that I’m pretty heavily loaded with work right now, much of it on the web, and I don’t have time for a full roundup.

Then I thought of something we did in the conservative Christian elementary school I attended as a child. There were various topics and we would be asked to memorize a list of four texts, 4 texts on creation, 4 texts on scripture, and so forth. I know, there isn’t much relation, but that’s where I got the idea of four posts.

So many blog carnivals and roundups give almost no information about each post and so become just a general collection of links. I don’t have time for that. But 4 posts? I think I can handle it, hopefully more than once per week.

I’m going to pick the topic based on what I see in the feed or the aggregator, and then I’ll link to the posts with enough comment, I hope, to let people know whether they want to read that one. If you have a topic and/or a post, e-mail pubs@energion.com and suggest post and topic. A brief summary would be helpful. I won’t promise to keep up, after all later today I have a list of additions to the roll to add, but I’ll do my best.

And now, watch for new content, 4 Posts on . . . (wait and see!)