Tag: Moderate Christian Blog Aggregator

I’ve just added Kouya Chronicle to the aggregator and blogroll. Kouya Chronicle is written by Eddie and Sue Arthur, who have some interesting involvement in Bible translation. I welcome them to the moderate Christian blogroll.

OK, this is getting regular, which I know is contrary to my personality, but here comes another roundup of the http://www.moderatechristian.com”>Moderate Christian Blog Aggregator. I’m seeing a lot of good posts on the blogs covered by the aggregator and would like to help see them get some more attention, so here goes. Note that the order in which I list these is random except that I round up my own other blogs last. I do not include any blogs with no posts since my last roundup.

Bruce Alderman writes about the stories of the birth of Jesus in Matthew and Luke. These are excellent entries. I’d really love to see more of this type of writing applying scholarship to scripture in a way that the general public can understand. The entries are Christmas According to Matthew and Christmas According to Luke.

Kievas Fargo reminds us of what Jesus could have done as opposed to what he actually did in O Holy Night. Aren’t you glad Jesus chose the way he did?

Allan tells us that we can receive the greatest Christmas gift right now in The Greatest Gift of All is Jesus.

Kara at Everyday Liturgy writes about the importance of traditions in developing our Christian life in Traditions.

Peter Kirk writes about two women teachers/preachers and wonders how complementarians deal with the good fruit of their labors. I wonder the same thing. Good approach!

Tom Sims tells us that suddenly it’s Christmas and says:

In fact, the preparation that God requires is not that which we provide at all. The naked truth is that God has prepared our hearts for Christmas. It is always now that we may welcome the Son of God into our hearts afresh. It is always in our darkness that the light is welcome. And it is always our own unawareness and self-reliance that humbugizes us. Suddenly it is Christmas and we are ready. Glory to God!

I just had to quote that!

Gavin at Hit the Back Button to Move Forward moves us toward New Year’s Day with a devotional that challenges us to become revolutionaries.

At monastic mumblings, the topic is the days of Christmas. Entries thus far are: 1st Day of Christmas (Christmas blessing), 2nd Day of Christmas, 3rd Day of Christmas – Feast of St. John the Apostle, and 4th Day of Christmas – Slaughter of the Innocents.

From my wife’s devotional list, Jody’s Devotionals, the entry is one I wrote for her, talking about the down side of becoming a baby in first century Palestine and suggest that we need to empty ourselves.

Donny Prater says it’s time for New Year’s resolutions and suggests that a good resolution would be to Just Say No!.

It’s Donny Pauling’s 33rd birthday.

The Pen of the Wayfarer tells about a life surrendered to Jesus in My Life or His Life and challenges us to surrender.

As for my own blogs, on the Jevlir Caravansary I have posted a new short story about Daniel, written in the tradition of apocryphal Daniel stories. On the Participatory Bible Study Blog I wrote about avoiding major errors in Bible study in Bible Study, Community, and Agendas. I contributed Getting Things in Focus to Pacesetters Bible School News Blog, challenging us to find the right focus and bring things into line with that focus in our personal and our church lives.

I went wandering through the Moderate Christian Blog Aggregator today. I really should do this more often as there are always some really excellent posts. I simply try to read so much stuff that I often don’t get around to writing about all the things I’d like to. In any case, here are some selected entries with my (hopefully) brief thoughts. I am only including posts that are fairly recent.

I’m taking these entries in the random blog order (entries for each blog are in reverse date order) in which they appeared on the aggregator when I looked at it.

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Everyday Liturgy
I chose too entries from Everyday Liturgy, though there are others that are great. The first is Negative Capability, which will challenge you to look at faith as poetry rather than as prose, a very fine idea all around! The second is A Gendered View of God, which may help us take a broader view of God and gender.

From Monastic Mumblings, a Friar’s Journey I’d like to highlight Twofold Coming of Jesus Christ, which comes largely from Cyril of Jerusalem, but is an excellent and relevant selection from that.

From In Praise Of Jesus we have a practical, classical sermon from George Mueller, titled Real Faith.

On The Dream Factory Tom Sims tells us that he always chooses hope in his entry These Are the Days.

Bruce Alderman keeps busy at It Seems to Me…. but what caught my eye as a Bible teacher was our need for the word, in which he calls for a subjective experience of the word. I’d note that the objective study has its place, but we do not become transformed by the word through merely objective study. We often look at “subjective” as somehow less than objective. Subjective is different, not less than, not more than, but it is a personal view.

Coops was here provided discussions of God’s fairness in Why does God seem to play favorites? and the relationship between what we believe and going to hell in Does God Damn People Because They Believe Something Different? – A response.

Donny Prater at A Man Coming Alive is Running the Gauntlet of Temptation and learning what’s truly important in life in Bobblehead Spirituality. (Hint: It isn’t bobblehead figures, though he says they’re cool. I’ll take his word for it!)

Kievas Fargo on Sharing a Journey is participating in the RGPB Friday Five with his post Friday Five: Yuletide favorites, and he has some nice things to say about one of my posts in The egalitarian worldview, though I probably shouldn’t mention that. Oops! I already did. 🙂

Bill Vernick at The Wordwright wants us to quit TAMPERING WITH REALITY in the way that we use words.

The Pen of the Wayfarer writes about a comforting vision in A Matinee with the Trinity and some things that can be brought forth by pain in Pain at Christmas, Pain in the Christmas Story.

Gavin (Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd) is responding to a post about far right youth ministries in huffington post on the far right youth ministries, and calling on all to get involved in a challenge to the Methodist blogosphere (though I don’t suspect outside help would be declined!) in your best millennial life now

At E-Merging Daniel is in the video and pics business!

Donny continues his online and ongoing testimony (for which kudos to him!) at Donny’s Ramblings: Diary of a FORMER Pornographer with his latest entry Heartache and Negativity. He may dislike reading negative things at a blog, but I appreciate his willingness to share.

The Pacesetters Bible School Newletter features two new contributors, Rev. Geoffrey Lentz in Signed, Sealed, Delivered and Dr. Bob McKibben with Inspired and Empowered – Apportionments and Connectionalism

Peter Kirk (Speaker of Truth) and I have both been rather heavily involved in responding to Adrian Warnock’s interview with Dr. Wayne Grudem. Peter’s most recent entry on that topic is Adrian Warnock closes his blog to comments… but he’s also asking Does God know what time it is?

Since I often write devotionals for my wife, I’m making sure to feature one of her entries from jodydevotionals at Yahoo! Groups, here message on God’s gifts and our expectations, Monday Morning Devotion 12/18/06. Note that even though all the entries show me as the author that’s because Jody sends them to me and I post them. Even when I write them they go to her first and she selects and edits before deciding what to post.

From my own blogs, I’d like to note some words on trajectories and how they can be used in scripture, a blank verse attempt at Psalm 103, which may be more of a demonstration of my lack of poetic ability. I’m not totally happy with it, but here it is!

Note: I’m going to cross-post this entry on the Pacesetters Bible School Newsletter blog. I’m not certain how trackbacks are going to work, but we’ll see!