Will the real Mars Hill please stand up? 1/3 from Arthur Davis on Vimeo.

Will the real Mars Hill please stand up? 2/3 from Arthur Davis on Vimeo.

Will the real Mars Hill please stand up? 3/3 from Tamie Davis on Vimeo.

The Preaching Pastor’s Encouragement – 1 Thes 2:17-3:10

Godly Ambitions – 1 Thes 5:9-12

Final Instructions Before the Final Day – 1 Thes 5:12-29 (recording is missing the introduction)

Why? Why shouldn’t elements of the Bible be taught in public schools? It has had an unparalleled impact on Western culture, history, music, the arts, politics, morality, law and literature. Are we embarrassed about our country’s foundations or, worse, have we become intellectual cowards?

via Quadrant Online – Why the National Curriculum Must include the Bible.

Meanwhile, one appraiser told the Post that the value of the painting is likely half of what it was prior to the accident—bringing it down to about $65 million.

via After Tear, Picasso Value Halved – Gothamist.

The guests came at five-thirty, and Wynn ushered them in. On the wall to his left and right were several paintings, including a Matisse, a Renoir, and “Le Rêve.” The other three walls were glass, looking out onto an enclosed garden. He began to tell the story of the Picasso’s provenance. As he talked, he had his back to the picture. He was wearing jeans and a golf shirt. Wynn suffers from an eye disease, retinitis pigmentosa, which affects his peripheral vision and therefore, occasionally, his interaction with proximate objects, and, without realizing it, he backed up a step or two as he talked. “So then I made a gesture with my right hand,” Wynn said, “and my right elbow hit the picture. It punctured the picture.” There was a distinct ripping sound. Wynn turned around and saw, on Marie-Thérèse Walter’s left forearm, in the lower-right quadrant of the painting, “a slight puncture, a two-inch tear. We all just stopped. I said, ‘I can’t believe I just did that. Oh, shit. Oh, man.’”

via Doh! Dept: The $40-Million Elbow : The New Yorker.

The Suffering Servant – Isaiah 53

Easter Day – What’s the Bottom Line – 1 Corinthians 15

Being the Salt of the Earth – Matthew 5:13-20

Jesus Addresses Anger, Adultery and Oaths – Matthew 5:21-37

Warnings of the Kingdom – Matthew 7:13-29

Earlier in the year we worked through Galatians in the evening congregation. This was very challenging and good medicine for us as a church. The rebuke to righteousness as a form of rebellion comes through most strongly in Galatians.

Justification By Faith Not Works – Galatians 2:15-21

Abraham’s Blessings Through Jesus – Galatians 3:1-14

Law and Gospel – Galatians 3:15-29

A Tale of Two Mothers – Galatians 4:21-5:1

Friends will know that this area is significant to me, as my first curacy (Anglican assistant minister’s position) was in Cranbourne which is also in the Casey growth corridor.

This south east part of outer Melbourne is one of the fastest growing areas in Australia.

The population of the shire is 247,000 people, but that is projected to grow to 380,000 over the next 25 years. That will make it bigger than our country’s capital city Canberra (assuming little growth there!).

A Review of The Rage Against God. By Peter Hitchens. » Bill Muehlenberg’s CultureWatch.

This is huge and exciting news. We are so sad to be leaving the saints at Holy Trinity and the wonderful staff team.

Please pray for us. More posts to follow…

Father + son dynamics in a surprising context. A husband juggling family and the weight of the world.

Not for the faint hearted – one of my favourite mafia films.

Worth a look, but the cheapest is nearly always the US Book Depository.

Incidents at Six Flags parks – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn

List of scandals with “-gate” suffix – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanist_Manifesto

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teledesic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grape_juice

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_ness_monster

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilha_da_Queimada_Grande

See also:

Wayne Schuller’s Blog » Blog Archive » Interesting Wikipedia Articles #2

Wayne Schuller’s Blog » Blog Archive » Interesting Wikipedia Articles

Well worth an online read, you’ll end up buying some of them!

Fidelity

Future Men

Reforming Marriage

Mother Kirk

The Paideia of God and Other Essays on Education

Heaven Misplaced – Christ’s Kingdom on Earth

Angels in the Architecture – A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth

A Serrated Edge: A Brief Defense of Biblical Satire and Trinitarian Skylarking

GQ: But aren’t there two sides to Christianity as well? The side that launched the crusades, and that many believe is still active, steering the last administration’s foreign policy. Aren’t we really talking about the human failing here, not tied to a particular faith?

MY: No, no, no, no. This is what I'm trying to avoid. I point to the book, to the god. I am not pointing to the people. I judge and compare books and gods. In Christianity, it’s very clear that the god we worship is equal to love. The bible says, ‘God is love’;. The god we worship was sacrificed, crucified on the cross, tortured, spit on, and was still forgiving. This is our highest example. The god of Islam tells his people, “Beat your wife. Go kill infidels. Go Kill Christians and Jews.” This is in the Koran; it has been for 1400 years. Their god tells them to kill everybody who doesn’t believe in the god of the Koran. The problem is ideological—it’s not a people problem. Now, most Muslims don’t obey the order of god to kill infidels. This is why I say Muslims have more morality than their god. To be honest with you, I’m amazed at how Muslims keep their humanity after reading the Koran.

via Son of Hamas: The Q: GQ.