Lent thougts.....

Well, while reading Alan Creech's blog I realized that i think God might be wanting me to do something similar with my blog during Lent this year. For lent this year i am giving up a little bit more of my time to devotional time each day. And so I resolved to reading and using a Lent study book as a starting place each day. And I thought i would put my favorite quote from the book here on my blog, so that others will be as blessed as I am, maybe cause a discussion or two, and maybe just maybe get yall to read some of this guys' books...he is one of my heroes!!! The book is:


that is what my book looks like(out of print)..but there is another one that looks to be the same thing...without the Lent aspect to it and it looks like this one:
<---- Click on that picture to order the book @ Amazon.com...but the book details are:

author: Tom Wright
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: BRF (The Bible Reading Fellowship) (November 21, 1997)
ISBN-10: 0745935567
ISBN-13: 978-0745935560
(c) 1997

I hope that is enough info that Tom or the publishers will not mind we quoting him here and there each day (I mean come on..this is free advertising here!!! to all 12 people who read this blog, ha ha ha)...anyway here are a few quotes from the previous days that I was blown away by:

Ash Wed: 2 Cor. 2:14-17
"as God is leading us in Christ through pain, through the valley of the shadow of death, through apparent despair, then somehow, strangely, as we look around, we discover that god is spreading in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him (vv.14-15), and we become the people through whom the sweet smell of God is actually being wafted to and fro." (p. 12)

Thurs: 2 Cor. 3:1-6
"The personal presence and activity of Jesus Christ come to live within them. they become a letter of Christ to the world." (p. 17)

Fri: 2 Cor. 3:7-11
"The glory of Christ is not revealed in spectacular show of success, in people who get everything right all the time. People like that, as we know, can sometimes be a pain in the neck. the church reveals the glory of Christ through suffering and shame as much as through what the world counts as success." (p. 21)

Sun: 2 Cor 3:18
"He (Paul) means liberation from the ministry of death; liberation from the need to pretend; liberation, in fact, to reflect the crucified and risen Christ to one another." (p. 26)

Mon: 2 Cor. 4:1-4
"Just as by the Spirit we, reflect God to one another, so Christ truly reflects the living God into the world."


Tues: 2 Cor. 4:5-6
"If we are to know God in Christ, and if we are tpo be the people that God wants us to be in Christ, we must learn the painful lesson of recognizing the glory of God, the god-ness of God, as we look at Jesus on the way to Calvary, and then finally on the cross itself. And part of this is learning who God is. it does not mean that God has forsaken us. times like these are the moments when we are privileged to be led by the Spirit, as Jesus himself was led by the Spirit, into the wilderness and along the way of the cross, a way illuminated by the knowledge of the glory of God." (p. 33)

Wed: 2 Cor. 4-7-12
"it is when people are actually living out the dying of Jesus that, strangely but surely, the life of Jesus is also then made visible.......

Have you in your body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus might be made visible in your mortal flesh? this is, i suspect, at the hear of the message of Lent. This is, after all, the time when we can rediscover that only when we suffer with Christ will we learn what it means to be glorified with him."

=========================

If you are not blown away or blessed by those quotes...lets talk...over dinner or coffee, and we can read the entire chunk of the text and wrestle with it together!

this time reminds me of my brother's death. Jay died right before Easter Day, and I remember everyone (including me) desired for him to at least make it through to Easter...but that time of year is about joy and not death, it is about resurrection, and hope, but maybe we could never have appreciated the joy that comes from the life Christ gives if we had not suffered in the Glory of God for that time. It is amazing how God teaches me even to this day through the life and death of my brother! Amen!

I pray that this season of lent is one that you can find struggle and peace in the difficult life of glory. for the glory of God is in the death & life of Christ! I will try to put a quote up more often and not make them all hit at once. until next time... may God bless you! may God help you realize when life is not at all what you desire for it to be, that, that might be exactly where he desires for you to be joining Christ, so that you may live with Christ in the perfect timing of God. KUTP's!!!!

More thoughts about the Jesus bones....

All these questions are around here and here is a good view.

Well, one of my best friends John (who does not blog anymore...but takes great photos here) posts a few comments on the Jesus bones stuff.... Just FYI....

Here are the few things he had to say (and Thanks john before I forget!! Seriously, Thanks!:

Discovery Channel's web site has two original articles that should lay the whole thing to rest - first is a catalog of first century ossuaries; second is the original excavation report.

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/tomb/explore/media/tomb_evidence.pdf

I haven't looked at much of what others are saying, but the critiques are generally weak. NT Wright is great, of course, but his argument work only if one shares his perspective on the issue. Otherwise, it just adds more fuel to the conspiracy.

So here are a couple of significant factors:
1) the names are common, and I think that both the ossuary catalog and Kloner's article touch on those issues. A Jewish guy named Yehudah? That's like an Scottish guy names Scott, a French guy named Francois, you get the point.

2) the reading of the name is "Jesus" (Yeshua) is highly questionable. Kloner reconstructs the name on the basis of another ossuary that identifies a Yeshua as the father of Yehuda, but there is no empirical evidence that the ossuaries are related in any way.

3) the whole bit about the cross being etched into the stone in front of Jesus' name...it's barely a cross, and can be easily explained as scratches, or erasures, cracks or...

So yeah, another great example of why archeology, whether it's used for or against Christianity, is more art than science. And, a fantastic reminder that a little knowledge (emphasis on the little) is more dangerous than ignorance.

Very cool photo of the Earth's Atmo....

I am sure Courtney will like this one:


Click the image to see te full resolution of te real photo!! Very awesome!

Thank you Digg for this find.

Now this one is great music!

Well, listening to Net@Nite podcast the other day I found out about Jonathan Coulton!

So here is two songs that cracked me up! the first one up is Baby Got Back (remake)....now this is an acoustic remake of an old rap song....so please be advised there is very questionable lyrics in this song...but holy cow this song is stinking funny when heard in this new way... here it is:

Baby Got Back (Remake) by Jonathan Coulton


And the second song that you all must listen to is called Code Monkey. This is one of the best songs I have heard in a long time and those of you who code all day long will really apprecite this song! (it is a song by a geek for geeks) and this one even has a you tube video so check it out here:

The Lost Family Tomb Of Jesus..... a radical statement...

Well the hype machine has started....again....

I am getting tired of people writing books that force me to read them, heh. 1st off was all the stuff about the bone box of Jesus' brother (which was debunked) then it was Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (fiction!...but really good fiction, heh heh) and now I get to read this book:




And this book goes beyond putting theories into fiction, it flat out claims it found the bones of Jesus...and his family, and his son, etc... (most of you will know that "the bones of Jesus" Christian philosophy story is one of my favorites that I tell to challenge people to deal with their theology when it comes to the resurrection and ascension of Jesus....thanks to the man who told it to me the first time Jerry Walls)

Now, I will not make any comments of it yet (and probably will not put them here anyway....but I know that the world will read this book (mostly because James Cameron did the documentary for the discovery channel on it...want more about that you can go to the hype machine here:



But, I will post a little response from a man I respect a great deal (N.T. [Tom] Wright) when he was asked about such and claim in 1996:

Dr Wright said: "These were very common names at the time and it would be
like someone in 2000 years time claiming to have found the tomb of the royal
family because it contained the names Charles, son of Philip, Andrew and
Diana.

& another article:

Dr Wright said it was "laughable" that anyone could have tended the body of
Jesus without it becoming public knowledge. 

  He said early Christians had been adamant that Christ's body was
resurrected,
and this was the reason the religion had survived.

   "This is no more than an interesting coincidence."

Oh and does it not see a little weird that if Jesus had a son, that the early church would have known and covered that little tid bit later on...you know the SON of the one they accept to be GOD....and the guys on The Today Show this morning even said that it was all found in the 1980's but everyone dismissed it and it was only after they found statisticians that told them that having all those very common names back then in one place is the only evidence they can base their claim on... not a very strong on if you ask me.


Anyway.... I suppose i will read the book (or have Tiffany read it and then tell me what it said, heh) and then i will watch the documentary on the Discovery channel and be able to at the very least talk to others about it... but I might be able to tell the bones of Jesus story a few more times, ha ha ha... thanks for reading the blog.... KUTPs!!!


(added Feb 27th 12:30 am)...a good friend Russel Smith has a good critique of the whole story on his blog post here.)

Lunch Photoshoot with Scott...

once a month I try to go and do what I love. And once a month I try to go with my friend Scott to go take photos of the Cincy area. Yesterday we went to Park Place, and the Taft museum area of Downtown. it was fun...very fast (we only had around 15-20 mins to shoot some photos, but it is always a blast!

So if any of you like photography I invite you into the Park Place photo shoot:
(p.s. click on the image to go to the photo shoot photos)



Here is what Scott has put up from the shoot so far:

An ad I might try to use in our Experimental worship service this Saturday...

Video: Windows Vista "Wow" ad

Yes, yes, I know it is an ad for Windows Vista (and that Vista is just a Mac OS X wanna be), but come on it is a great ad and I think says a lot about worship... come to the Experiment on Saturday and find out....

more info here.

KUTPs!!!!

I beg of you please attend this Gathering....

Well, everyone can now register for the EmergingUMC Gathering in Nashville, TN October 4th-6th!

follow the picture/link and get signed-up! And please please please, help me spread the word!

Happy St. Valentines Day!!!

Love yall!



















..........and just for those of you who despise Valentines Day (think it should be called VD), and have not been sucked into the Hallmark hype and really care about the Saint it was all named after....THIS is for you!

OK, the cat is out of the bag!!!!

GREAT news.....

For the past 2-3 weeks Tiffany has been praying about a new ministry opportunity. There is only one ministry opportunity that she would have ever openly considered, and that ministry is one that would be an opportunity for us (a ministry couple) to be in full time ministry together. Tiffany has been a part of Th3 Waters all along, but I have not been able to be a part of her youth ministry and church as much as I would have loved to be. And we knew graduating seminary that we would only be our full potential to God and the Kingdom if we were in ministry together.

A few weeks ago Florence UMC (the church I help out with on Sundays and Wednesdays, and is sponsoring/supporting Th3 Waters) open two new positions for their staff. One of them was for a Youth and Children's Director/Pastor, and we realized that we might have an opportunity to be able to live out our full potential for our combined calling of being a ministry couple.

Tiffany, applied for the position and interviewed for the position, and the Sr. Pastor Gary called Tiffany Sunday night offering her the job!!!!

Tiffany accepted and she starts the new position March the 15th!! While this is wonderful news...and she will get a $1,000 raise (woo hoo we are going to go hog wild on that extra $40 per check. heh heh) another piece of news is that since we currently live in the parsonage of Asbury, that means we need to move out by the 15th...also Florence UMC would give me a housing allowance and a utility allowence.

So, we had to make a decision...do we rent, lease, or buy a home. And after tons of prayer and crazy thoughts...we decided to buy..and we started looking!

Well, yep, we made an offer, the countered, and then made another one and they accepted!!! So you want to see it? Here you go:



That was the Upstairs and the downstairs tour is below:



and you can go to the Flickr page to check out a few photos of the home:

The new Hollums' House photos

Well, I hope that that explains a little bit of the crazy life we have just had over the past couple of weeks....

oh and Tiffany's hip Dr. looked at the MRI's and told us that he thinks that it is just hurting worse because that is what happens when you have a hip that was not right to beginning with when you were born. The Dr. has prescribed water therapy and a hormone shot directly into her hip socket to see if that helps with pain. It is not fixed...but we are trying to get it taken care of one day at a time!

So, we hope to meet the inspector @ the house Thursday morning and pray that there is nothing that is horrible about the house, waiting for the loan stuff to get finalized and finished, and then close hopefully by March 7th!

Then we get to paint 2-3 rooms and then get to move in...so needless to say we are excited, blessed, and our check book is not as happy as we wish it was...but we are just getting to live a little more life of faith. oh and did I mention that we can't wait to get to meet our new neighbors?!!! Excited, excited, excited!

I stink'n love snow!!!!

Go to this!!!

OK, here is a FREE conference in the cincy area! Come on you know you want to go to this and listen to all kinds of very cool people! so just go check it out..it is coming up soon and I can promise you tha tyou will be blessed by this event!

oh and yeah...so life is REALLY busy for us right now! lots of life changes are going on for us right now...more on that later...and sadly no it is not a baby...and please pray for Tiffany we think that her hip sockets have seen thier better days and she will be meeting with the Dr. next week! right now even with a heavy pain med...she is having a hard time walking, sitting, or sleeping... yeah it is not fun for her at all. Thank you for your prayers! KUTPs!!!