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Christian Carnival CCLXIX – Summer Vacation Edition

I planned to get this posted early this morning, but my job–you know, my paying work–intervened.  Advance copies of one book arrived from the printer yesterday, and then the first release copies of two more showed up today.  For a small publisher, that’s a heavy couple of days!

In any case, even though it’s not for me, summer vacation is here, so I’m going to organize today’s carnival around various types of vacations.  Don’t read too much into the vacation spot under which I list your post.  It’s intended as fun!

To the Beach!

First let’s head out to the beach for some fun.  There we will find:

Fiona Veitch Smith presents Christian Speculative Fiction – a ‘lost’ genre? posted at The Crafty Writer, saying, “Writers of Christian speculative fiction (ie fantasy and science fiction from a Christian world view) struggle to find publishers for their work. This interview with a Christian publisher explores the reasons for this as well as the problematic area of depicting sex and violence for a Christian readership.”
Oh no!  That’s not the actual fiction.  That’s talking about how to publish it.  Well, it sounded like fun to me!

The Sites of the Reformation

Perhaps a trip through Europe, visiting some of the major sites from the reformation.  Here the scenery will help us discuss some of the major reformation themes.

Sue Roth presents The unforgivable sin? Or the unanswerable question? posted at IN HIM WE LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING, asking a few hard questions about forgiveness.

andriel discusses an important and basic Christian concept in The Basis for Salvation: Man is Sinful posted at ReturningKing.com.

JLS presents Meditating on Justification posted at Pastoral Musings, a meditation on justification by faith that emphasizes our freedom in the grace of God.

For His Glory presents Smorgasbord Tuesday: The Fruit of the Spirit: LOVE posted at For His Glory.  The Holy Spirit brings freedom in our lives; all we have to do is go to the source to have life.

Danny at Boston Bible Geeks asks the question “why does God choose to pour His Spirit out on Pentecost?” and looks for some OT connections to help us answer the question in The Spirit, the Law & Pentecost

Rey presents The Non-Violated Law of Romans 4:15 posted at The Bible Archive, in which he addresses the use of Law in Romans 4:15 and how it remains non-violated.

Weekend Fisher presents The abomination that causes desolation v. the cross of Christ posted at Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength, considering the Abomination that Causes Desolation, the absence of God from the Holy Place, and the cross of Christ.”

Quiet Hiking

Then how about some time out hiking and camping in nature alone, with plenty of time to meditate and hear from the creator?

Glowing Face Man presents Declarative vs. Supplicative Prayer posted at Glowing Face Man: Awaken the Badass Within, in which he discusses prayer, and some of the pitfalls we fall into when we pray.

NCSue presents a reflection on Pentecost, on the Holy Spirit, and on our response as children of God in Thoughts on Pentecost posted at IN HIM WE LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING.

Visiting a Financial Center

I never really got into it, but in college we went on a trip to New York City.  I have nothing against the city, except that everything moves and happens too fast for me.  But there we will find the stock market and those who trade on it, all doubtless thinking and moving very fast!

FMF reviews a Christian based investment web site: Review: Sound Mind Investing Website posted at Free Money Finance.

The Sabbatical

What scholar doesn’t like the idea of a sabbatical?  On sabbatical we find:

Robert Minto presents Emerson’s “American Scholar” & Christian Thinking posted at The Veil Away, discussing what it means to be a Christian scholar, which refers back to his previous day’s post, Does the Gospel Explain Life?. I decided to treat them as one long post and include both.

Shannon Christman presents The Life of O’Reilly: An Argument for God? posted at The Minority Thinker, asking, “Does a successful career offer proof that God exists?”

The postmdoern Christian wants us to believe he or she is very authentic and tolerant.  But are they really? Diane R. discusses this in “Authentic” and “Tolerant?” Hmmmmm…. posted at Crossroads: Where Faith and Inquiry Meet.

Jeremy Pierce says, “There’s a tension between the tendency among some Christian pacifists to call a lot of non-physically-violent things violent and the tendency among some of the same people to say that there’s no violence in the atonement.” He expands on this in Leithart on Christian Pacifism and the Atonement posted at Parableman.

Douglas Manning presents Does The Law Of Attraction Contradict The Bible? (Part 1) posted at SuccessHound.com.  This is Part One of a two part article that takes a comprehensive look at whether or not the law of attraction, as explained in the move, The Secret, is in conflict with the teachings of Jesus Christ.

The Family Vacation

In which we take the family, well, anywhere!

When I was growing up, we had family worship every evening.  That can be hard to do.  Keith Tusing presents some good advice in How to Lead a Family Worship Time posted at CM Buzz.

Can you picture God as the amused parent of a three year old?  Susan can, and she presents How angry are we? posted at Abooklook. She wonders if many people are secretly angry with God?

Are you ready to catch a whiff of …  Allen Scott presents Grandma’s Apple Pie posted at Journey Across the Sky.  He says:  “I loved my grandma’s apple pies. To me there was nothing better than a fresh hot apple pie straight from the oven, covered with vanilla ice cream and eaten while it was still warm. Mmm Mmm good!”

Christians get divorced at the same rate as non-Christians, right? Maybe not. Chris Brooks challenges this common idea in The Myth of Christian Divorce posted at Homeward Bound.

Himalayan Mission

OK, I admit it’s a stretch, but where better to meditate on the nature of God?

What would God be like as a fashion designer? Mark Tenniswood searches for a Biblical answer in God and Fashion posted at until we are home….

Rounding out our post discussing how God might view certain things we have Sinful Certainty from James McGrath, in which he suggests that certainty may well be God’s prerogative.  So then certainty could be a sin, no?

michelle presents Ephesians 6:12 posted at Thoughts and Confessions of a Girl Who Loves Jesus….  Could a strange encounter have a cause in the spiritual realm?

Wickle presents What kind of music does God like? posted at A True Believer’s Weblog.  Have you ever wondered about God’s taste in music?

Staying Home

OK, some of us skip the vacation.

Ken Brown tackles a difficult current issue, in Tough Questions About George Tiller?s Murder posted at C. Orthodoxy.

Bruce Alderman looks at the same issue from a different angle in Does “pro-life” mean anything at all?

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of christian carnival ii using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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4 Comments

  1. The new year is a perfect time for change and self improvement. Make 2010 the year that you attract the life you deserve. Let positive thoughts lead to productive actions and then to the perfect life!

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