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“Those who say that children must not be frightened may mean two things. They may mean (1) that we must not do anything likely to give the child those haunting, disabling, pathological fears against which ordinary courage is helpless: in fact, phobias. His mind must, if possible, be kept clear of things he can’t bear to think of. Or they may mean (2) that we must try to keep out of his mind the knowledge that he is born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism and cowardice, good and evil. If they mean the first I agree with them: but not if they mean the second. The second would indeed be to give children a false impression and feed them on escapism in the bad sense. There is something ludicrous in the idea of so educating a generation which is born to the…atomic bomb. Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.” -C.S. Lewis

Pantone predicts that this shade of yellow will be the color of 2009. What are your thoughts? It’s bright and happy, sunshiny…. Kinda hard for me to picture it being the color of the year since it’s so cold outside right now, but I guess that’s the point. I can definitely see it working in spring, fall, and summer though.

Here’s the article that was recently published on Out of Ur, in its entirety. Is It Possible to Have a Win-Win on Same-Sex Marriage? Is it possible to have a win-win on Same-Sex Marriage (SSM)? I think it’s not only possible- it’s imperative. The recent passage (and subsequent furor and church protests over) Prop 8 in otherwise reliably liberal California shows just how divided we are over this issue. Want to start an argument? Bring up same-sex marriage and watch the sparks fly and the tempers rise. Why? Because, at least at this point, neither side seems willing to try and see the issue from the perspective of the other and look for something other than a binary, up or down, yes or no kind of solution. And where will that lead us? Certainly no place good. Look for more protests of churches, more of those who speak out in favor of the biblical understanding of marriage to be labeled as “haters”… and fewer and fewer gay men and women even giving the Gospel a hearing because in their mind, the Church simply doesn’t care about them as people. In order to avoid an exacerbation of this cultural war, some…

LOVE that someone on the east coast just found my blog with a google search for “Christmas Eve sermon”. Talk about cutting it close! Merry Christmas Mr (or Ms) Last Minute. Hope it helped!

So, we’ve canceled our Christmas Eve service for tonight. There’s new snow coming, another winter storm warning, and the Chapel where we were going to have our gathering has parking lots that haven’t been plowed (not to mention it sits on top of a hill that some might have trouble making it up)…I’m disappointed. Disappointed not to be with our community tonight, to see the hard work that was put into the gathering seemingly go for nothing. But mostly, disappointed because the reality won’t match my vision of how it could and should have been. Never mind that it might even be better…Here’s what I was going to share tonight. Merry Christmas everyone. A lot of Christmas Eve sermons tonight are going to decry the commercialization, the gifts and spending and giving and getting of the Christmas season as somehow contrary to the True Nature Of Christmas. Well, maybe. But they might also, if we think of them rightly, point us to the real meaning- What Christmas itself is meant to point us towards. Let me tell you what I mean. Some of the strongest memories I have are of the two sides of Christmas- the first side being the…

Portland is having our very own Snowpocalpyse. A couple feet by now it seems- and more and more all the time. With strata of freezing rain to boot.We’ve been snowed in for a few days here and even had to cancel both our worship Gatherings last Sunday. I wasn’t as cool as Eugene Cho and so didn’t record my sermon for Sunday (though it would have been fun to have long pauses at the discussion points)… But we may have to cancel Christmas Eve as well. There’s a Winter Storm Warning for Wed. In that event, I will record the 10 minute homily I have ready for Christmas Eve and get it out- especially since it deals with what the disappointment we inevitably feel around Christmas is meant to do for us. I’m thinking I need to hear it myself…But it’s been a good time of paying in the snow, trying to keep sane in the house with 3 kids (is it wrong that I kind of get Jack Nicholson’s character in the Shining a bit better now?) and connecting with some neighbors. We’ve had fun sledding, and getting to Mall for a visit with Santa, baking (and eating and…

“How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytise?”3 videos, same point. Good to hear a (seriously rabid!) atheist like Penn talk about evangelism this way. And Elaine has a point. And one more tying together this post and the one before it ht: Bill Kinnon

Cutting back individual liberties to save democracy, abandoning the free market to save the economy… and now one more. Putting the Bible on the shelf in order to better follow Jesus. I wasn’t going to get into this, but… Adam Walker Cleveland has posted “The Bible & Homosexuality: Enough with the Bible Already” and stirred up quite the poop storm in his comments. The basic gist of the post is this:Christians need to get over their fear of gays and of what might happen if they welcomed fully into our society and churches. Christians need to get over their infatuation with a very select few verses, and get over their infatuation with a literalistic interpretation of these texts. Christians need to look more to Christ than to the Bible. Christians need to actually live out the radical love and compassion that Jesus exemplified in the scriptures. Christians need to realize that the world will not end when gays are given the right to marry - or when we finally fully welcome LGBT brothers and sisters into pastoral ministry.If it is the Bible that is causing us to delay accepting and celebrating LGBT persons as being fully human and fully created…

1 12oz Jar of Peanut Butter1lb powdered sugar2/3 cup butter (softened)1 bag choc. chips1/2 stick paraffin3 cups rice crispiesMix butter, PB and sugar all togetherUse hands to smoothen. Roll into balls. Melt chocolate in double broiler (1 pan with chocolate set inside pan with boiling water) and parafin. Dip. Chill in freezer. Try not to eat too many.

… you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley. by Devin Vaughn!Top 5 Evergreeners that you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley:Honorable Mention #2: Chris Leonardo -His big red ‘fro and bigger calves would give him away before he could do anything. Unless he improves these two features, he will never be able to snipe anyone from “out of nowhere.”P.S. Don’t let the picture with his adorable daughter fool you!Honorable Mention #1 - Benjamin WashamTo me, Benjamin seems like the type of guy who, if waiting for you in a dark alley, would McGyver some contraption together to pepper you in the eyes, sweep your legs, and render your hands useless.Don’t really want to find out what this face means.#5 - Tom LipsTom looks the part of back alley brawler. Yet, his achilles heel is that he is probably more likely to crack few jokes with you than hit you from behind with a trash can lid.#4 - Jason SiemerJason might just be, pound for pound, the toughest man, woman, or child at evergreen. A few reasons for this is one - he just looks tough, and two - he would rather drink a Pabst or Coors…