I am not a HUGE fan of Dave Ramsey, but I have tremendous respect for the man and the majority of what he does. His heart and character are certainly in the right place. I only hold reservations as to whether we shoud really be investing for retirement as much as we are, and whether the stock market is the right place to place our money.

While I may elaborate on these topics more later, I want to make sure you’re aware of the great lengths that this man is going to in order to get his message out to the world. He has been partnering with Lifechurch.tv over the past few weeks to put together a sermon series that any church can use. These videos and promotions materials will be available at open.lifechurch.tv in the coming days. (Lifechurch gives away it’s sermon material on every series it does, which is a phenominal gift to the worldwide body of Christ)

In addition to this, they are also creating a conference event to discuss finances in a Town Hall fashion over the internet, which will be aired live on April 23rd. Visit www.townhallforhope.com for more details on this event too.

I wish this was a video of our Legislator attacking our Executive, but alas, they seem to be on the same side of spending…the wrong side.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lW6Y4tBXs[/youtube]

In my first post, I tore down a number of electronic Bible study tools saying they were inadequate for the task. I still wholeheartidly believe that you are better off utilizing a church library or pastor’s commentary collection that using the current software that’s available out there.

However, if you are studying the original language of the Bible from a knowledge of Greek or Hebrew, than there is no greater resource available than good software. Two programs stand out among the crowd: Bibleworks (for PC) and Accordance (for Mac). While I am not well-versed in either program, I find it incredibly helpful to be able to define works by simply scrolling over them in any translation I use in Bibleworks.

Brandon Johnson, who has had more experience with Bibleworks, has shared his thoughts here. I’ll refer you to that summary for now, and return with my own evaluation sometime. Don’t forget to view his pdf example, here.

Brandon Johnson of Learning to Walk as a good post on the “social gospel” movement, and how it often serves mankind without sharing the gospel. I want to leave his words to speak for themselves, but I thought I would add a few applicable quotes to emphasize his point. Read his post by clicking here: Christianity and Social Justice.

“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” – Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

“We cannot state too strongly in an age when the thought of men is full of things, and the body has crept up on the throne of the soul, that our work is not immediately and in itself a philanthropic work, a political work, a secular work of any sort whatsoever; it is a spiritual and a religious work. Of course, religion must express itself in life, but religion is spiritual life. I had rather plant one seed of the life of Christ under the crust of heathen life than cover that whole crust over with the veneer of our social habits on the vestiture of Western civilization.
~ Robert E. Speer, 1867 to 1947

I’ve always seen the internet as a channel of freedom for expression, whether good or bad. More and more, however, I am watching the free expressions of men and women become influencial. I started this blog for the purpose of growing myself: my writing abilities, my knowledge of culture, and my understanding of the ministry. And while it fills that purpose, it is also acting as a conduit for discussion and training.

But my blog is not the amazing part. Thousands of bloggers in countries where we cannot even having internet access are rapidly informing and transforming the world by their free expression. Some even die for their words. Watch this video, and read the links below if you want to know more…

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/2139754[/vimeo]

From: Iranian Blogger Reported Dead in Prison
Blogger Persecution can be found in Egypt and Iran. Iran is currently considering attaching the death penalty as a legal punishment for it. “Misayafi was sentenced in December to 30 months in prison “for insulting Islamic Republic Leaders.””

Global Voices Online

One question: Will this ever be a reality in the U.S.?