Christian Carnival #213: Bookstore Edition

And no, this is not an edition designed to sell books, but rather according to sections of the bookstore. I had several ideas for this carnival. One was to call it the “Complete Confusion Edition,” after the server problems of yesterday, but God is not the author of confusion, so I thought it better not to name the carnival after the other guy. Then I thought of using just fiction categories, since this is my fiction blog, but I suspect I might be accused of bias regarding posts placed in say a Fantasy or Horror category.

Thus, I’m going to use the rather open-ended bookstore edition. I’m also going to quote some texts from the Lenten lectionary readings with each category I create. Before someone asks, these are my own translations. I use my them a great deal both because I generally do draft a translation of any text I’m studying, but also because of copyright considerations, given the large amount of scripture quotation I do.

Finally, why is this on this blog? Well, I won’t have fully restored the Participatory Bible Study Blog until somewhat later today, and I don’t want to delay that long. Originally, I had just one blog, Threads from Henry’s Web, which also suffered a nasty day yesterday, and I divided it into three to keep from inflicting things on my readers they weren’t so much interested in. Threads now contains politics, social issues, and generally religion and society issues, Participatory is for Bible study, and is usually where I host, and this blog, Jevlir Caravansary, is for playing around with fiction, both reviewing books and such writing as I attempt.

So, welcome to the Bookstore Edition!

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Biblical Studies

¹The hand of YHWH grabbed me and took me by the spirit of YHWH and set me down in a valley. The valley was full of bones. ²He made me pass over them all around, and there were very many of them all over the valley and they were very dry.

³And he said to me, “Human! Can these bones live?”

And I said, “My Lord YHWH, you know.”

⁴And he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, ‘Oh dry bones, hear the word of YHWH! ⁵This is what YHWH says to these dry bones, “Look! I’m bringing breath among you and you will live! ⁶And I will put sinews on you and I will bring up flesh on you, and I will cover you with skin, and I will give you breath and you will live and you will know that I am YHWH.”’”

⁷So I prophesied as I had been commanded, and there was a sound while I prophesied and a clatter, and the bones were gathering together, one bone to another. ⁸And I looked and sinews were placed on them, and flesh rose up on them, and skin on top of that, but there was no breath in them.

⁹And he said to he, “Prophesy to the breath! Prophesy human! Say to the breath, ‘This is what the Lord YHWH says, “Come from the four winds, oh breath, and blow into these dead bodies that they may live!”’”

¹⁰So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath went into them, and they lived and they stood on their feet, and very, very large crowd. — Ezekiel 37:1-14

Ali presents Jesus in Genesis 3. posted at Kiwi and an Emu.. Types and hints and parallels of Jesus in the Fall.

Weekend Fisher at Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength presents The Son of God and the sons of God, looking at all the people and groups called “son of God” in Scripture and finds that Scripture keeps using that phrase, and it means more than we think it means.

Richard H. Anderson presents Rewriting Abraham posted at dokeo kago grapho soi kratistos Theophilos.

Update: I forgot my own entry! I present Testimony – John 4:39-42 discussing the impact of the testimony of the woman at the well. We only need to bring them to the point where they can hear from the Master. We don’t have to have all the answers ourselves. (As you will see below, I also forgot my wife’s entry–bad me!)

Christian Living

²⁴They called the man who had been blind again, and they said, “Give glory to God, we know that this man is a sinner.” ²⁵Then he answered and said, “I don’t know if he is a sinner or not, but I do know one thing: I was bind but not I see.” — John 9:24-25

Jennifer in OR presents A Habit of Peace posted at Diary of 1. I’m trying to replace my worrisome habits with habits of peace.

the bloke presents There are only three types of soil posted at …in the outer…. a re-reading of the Parable of the Sower within the context of Mark 4 provides insight into the lessons that we can glean from this very familiar story. The question to ask is not so much “Am I the kind of person represented by the seed that fell on good soil?” but a slightly different question that helps us to direct our attention at the areas in our lives that need attention.

Ronnica presents Emotions are Nothing to Get Emotional About.

Health

Life. Money. Development. presents Diet Tips for Preventing High Cholesterol Levels posted at Life. Money. Development A neat collection of diet tips for keeping cholesterol in recommended levels.

Jody Neufeld presents Depression . . . Win, Lose, or Draw, discussing what depression is and a Christian response.

Money

FMF presents How To Take Market Turbulence In Stride posted at Free Money Finance. Details appropriate Christian response to the recent stock market turmoil.

Divine Guidance

Chasing the Wind presents God’s Will Be Done Despite Us posted at Chasing the Wind. When we do God’s will, He blesses us. Or we can do it our way and make our lives chaos – but God will accomplish His will anyway. A study of Genesis 25-27 and Isaac, Rebekah, Esau and Jacob.

David Porter presents Knowing God’s Will posted at A Boomer in the Pew.

Marriage and Family

Mark Olson presents Confusion and a Divorce posted at Pseudo-Polymath. Some thoughts on marriage and modern culture in the context of American political practice.

Tom Gilson presents A Dying Man’s Demand for Definite Answers posted at Thinking Christian. In a widely viewed clip from the TV show ER, a dying patient was seeking forgiveness. He didn’t want maybe, didn’t want doubts, didn’t want what-ifs; he wanted certainty. What do we make of that kind of demand? Could anybody legitimately say they know the one true answer?

Theology

¹Since we have been made right with God by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we also have access by faith to this grace in which we now live and we boast in the hope of God’s glory. — Romans 5:1-2

Logic

Rey from the Bible Archive, with nothing written this week, decides to include a poem about the One-Hoss Shay.

Epistemology

Chaplain Mick presents To Be, or not to Be – Futility of Human Thinking posted at Romans 15:4 Project. Two news stories caught my attention today and remind me of the futility of human thinking apart from God.

Soteriology

Ken Brown presents Inclusivism and the Atonement posted at C.Orthodoxy. If Jesus’ death was sufficient to save everyone, can it save even those who never hear of him?

Rodney Olsen presents The Cross posted at RodneyOlsen.net.

This week at Light Along the Journey John finishes his blogging through John Piper’s book Future Grace with the post God’s Glory & Our Joy.

Jeremy Pierce presents Supererogation and Christian Ethics posted at Parableman. Some people think Christian freedom means there are ethical options, i.e. good things that we aren’t morally required to do. This post argues against that view. Morality requires being perfect, as God is perfect.

Matt Rawlings presents A Brief Break from My Vision for a Church to a Dialogue with Luther posted at River City Redemption Project.

Apologetics

Elgin Hushbeck, Jr. asks Is Christianity a Religion? Is telling people that Christianity is a relationship, not a religion, an effective response?

Church

³⁵Jesus heard that they [the religious leaders] had thrown him [the man born blind whom Jesus had healed] out, and he found him and said to him, “Do you believe in the son of man?”

³⁶He answered, “And who is he, sir, so I can believe in him?”

³⁷Jesus said to him, “You have seen him! He is the one speaking to you!”

³⁸He said, “I believe, Lord!” And he worshiped him.

³⁹Jeus said to him, “I have come into this world for judgment, so that those who don’t see might see, and those who see might become blind.”

⁴⁰Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and said to him, “We aren’t also blind, are we?” ⁴¹Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin. But because you say, ‘We see,’ Your sin remains.” — John 9:35-41

e-Mom presents Why Men Hate Going To Church posted at C h r y s a l i s. Where are all the fathers? Discussion includes quotes from David Murrow (Why Men Hate Going to Church) and Leon Podles (The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity), plus a previous commentor.

William Meisheid presents Lent 2008: Day 16 – Weekend Warriors posted at Beyond The Rim…. A few thoughts about how God gets the short end of our efforts during the week and how we try to make up for it on the weekend.

Peter Anderson presents The Bible and tithing: To give or not to give – Part 1 posted at Bible Money Matters. A post series talking about tithing and whether or not is biblically commanded to tithe. I will look at both sides of the issue, and then talk about my own feelings on the subject.

Thom presents The Miracle of Dirt posted at Everyday Liturgy. Thom comments on the recent NYT article about a small desert sanctuary in New Mexico famous for its miraculous dirt.

Christian Fiction

Annette presents Tiger Soup posted at Fish and Cans. Though perhaps not a Christian article, the author is a Christian and I thought it might be fun to share a bedtime story I made up for a little boy with lots of stuffed cats, one of which is called “little cat”.

Final Note

If you were left out, it is almost certainly inadvertent. I only left out one submission intentionally, and that poster should consider that this is not the swim suit and lingerie carnival. So if there’s nothing on your blog that would make me say that, and your post isn’t here, put a link in a comment and I’ll promote it into the post as soon as possible.