Rural Rounds

I've had a $25 gift card to Wal-Mart just lying around for over a year now, so I decided to use it today. I had earlier had the idea to possibly buy a canvas and some paint, and paint my own abstract or contemporary-ish art to hang in my room or somewhere around the house, to add some color. I figured it would be cheaper than buying something, and nicer than a poster. Well, I went to Michael's first, and their painting supply is high-dollar. Disappointing. I later found some 16"x20" canvases at Wal-Mart, as well as some cheap acryllic paint. I bought primary colors and black and white in big $1.67 tubes, more than enough for the canvases (maybe I can make more art later). I also bought a candle, and a wooden box in the craft area that I thought looked nice for a dresser organizer (I put my keys, watch, cufflinks, etc., in it to take away clutter). It feels good to be able to beautify a living space, even a temporary one. Having a creative flow at times, be it art, fur...

I've been reading the book The Provocative Church lately, and must say I give it two hands up and an amen. Reading this book will jump in the face of everything you thought evangelism was. Once not long ago (as in, beginning with my entrance into college and up until just recently) I felt very guilty regarding evangelism. The book hit this to a T when it sums up that most Christians feel that evangelism is something that ought to be done, but they don't readily do because they don't know how, they don't feel good at doing it, or they don't want to subject friends to a church that they themselves are bored and unfulfilled with. I have always wished to evangelize, but have always had the principle hindrance in feeling that it does no good to talk about God to someone who isn't really curious. And, to that end, I've simply strove for Christian progress (see Justification, Sanctification, Reconciliation, in a previous entry). This book holds that just such an ap...

I went to see The Da Vinci Code last night with Thane. He wanted to see it after reading the book, to see how the movie compares. I wanted to see what the hubbub was all about without reading the book. Boy, was a silly little story. I believe it's been out a couple weeks now, and it is probably going to be pulled from theaters real soon; the Forum showing we went to had five people watching it, including Thane and me. Thane says that the movie isn't completely like the book, and that it fails to embellish certain very important parts that in the book were elaborated to no end. Afterwards, we both drove back to my place and Thane came in for a while. We had been discussing the movie, and religion, and other things. Eventually we started talking about faith and apologetics and evidence of the truth of Christianity. Thane was telling me about what the book Case for Faith is like, and his intentions to read Case for Christ later on. He made an exceptional point in an exceptionally ...

"There are two great lies I've heard: The day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die And that Jesus Christ was a white middle-class Republican And if you wanna be saved you have to learn to be like Him" - Derek Webb, A King and a Kingdom Lately Tyler and I have had lots of discussions on the subjects mentioned in the title of this post. To use a second quote from Derek Webb (I know, two in one post!), "A lot of the songs on Christian radio are just outright misrepresentations of the character of God." I want to move that beyond radio and music, however. I think that it is far too easy to fall into the trap of putting God in a box, as they say; for someone to write a book that gives a suddenly new "insight" into who God is and what He's about. It's also a problem to assume to have correctly interpreted the Bible, which has for centuries been hotly debated as to what it means or instructs in many instances. What strikes me as ...