The hidden content in ancient works could be illuminated by a light source 10 billion times brighter than the Sun. The technique employs Britain’s new facility, the Diamond synchrotron, and could be used on works such as the Dead Sea Scrolls or musical scores by Bach.
Imagine having this woman in your church: 71 years old, a member since 1959. Struggling with knee and hip replacements, she winters in Florida.
According to the Hillsdale (MI) Daily News, however, that same woman, Karolyn Caskey, was handcuffed and escorted from Allen Baptist Church on Sunday, June 17th.
The paper reports that while in Florida, Caskey had received a letter from the church, informing her that “the congregation no longer wanted her to be a member.”
When she returned home to Michigan, she attended her church on Sunday, just as she had for the past 48 years. This Sunday was different. The Daily News gives few details regarding what exactly went on within the church, only that the woman had allegedly “interrupted services” that Sunday and previously. The police arrived and attempted to escort Caskey willingly from the building. She refused, and the officer was forced to handcuff her for trespassing. She was booked and fingerprinted, and released after paying 10% ($62) of her bail.
Without a few more details, it’s difficult to evaluate the situation; still, there are questions that arise from such a story.
Why was her membership suspended? How much effort was put forth to resolve the situation, in terms of discipleship?
With the information provided, this incident does not seem appropriate. Attempts to clear the membership registries should not generally end in trespassing arrests.
Whatever the motivation or reasoning, it is up to us to learn what we can from the situation.
Evaluating the procedures we’re given in Scripture leaves us with quite the box of tools for approaching wayward members. The story doesn’t tell, but I’m curious to hear how those tools were used.
Almost more interesting would be seeing whether or how the relationship between Karolyn and Allen Baptist is restored.
The Christian Post reports that the dwindling Church of England is using a new book and outreach effort, which centers on The Simpsons TV show, to reach people with the Christian message.
Mixing It Up with the “Simpsons,” a book to be released by the Church of England’s publishing company, will be sent to youth advisers in every diocese across the country next week, the Sunday Telegraph reported, with the hope of showing how Christianity is relevant to life today through issues tackled in the popular U.S. TV cartoon series. Clergy will be urged to show episodes of “The Simpsons” that focus on Christian themes such as love and punishment.
The book’s author, Owen Smith, is a youth worker in the Kent Diocese of Rochester and insists the cartoon series is filled with biblical references. He looks to illustrate this in the book with quote comparisons.
Smith told the Sunday Telegraph: “’The Simpsons’ is hugely moral, with many episodes dealing with issues and dilemmas faced by young people. The willingness of the show’s writers to deal with questions of both morality and spirituality makes the program an ideal tool.”
YouVersion is a free online Bible that allows users to associate video, audio, images, text, tags, and links to other websites with any verse or series of verses in the Bible. Each piece of contributed content can be labeled as public or private, so the application can be used both as a personal study tool and a public expression of user-generated commentary. In addition to contributing content, Scripture can be organized by assigning user-defined “tags” to any verse of the Bible.
For users who are skeptical about whether the Bible has application for their lives, YouVersion provides a platform to learn from the experiences and perspectives of others from around the world in a non-threatening and easily navigated environment.
Pulpit Magazine has a selection from John MacArthur on the relationship between the church and the world. He holds no punches in challenging the church on the matters of seeker sensitivity and friendship with the world, which, by the way, puts one at enmity with God.
Evangelicalism seems to have been hijacked by legions of carnal spin-doctors, who are trying their best to convince the world that the church can be just as inclusive, pluralistic, and broad-minded as the most politically-correct worldling.
The quest for the world’s approval is nothing less than spiritual harlotry. In fact, that is precisely the imagery the apostle James used to describe it. He wrote: “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
. . .
The Christian message simply cannot be twisted to conform to the vicissitudes of worldly opinion. Biblical truth is fixed and constant, not subject to change or adaptation. Worldly opinion, on the other hand, is in constant flux. The various fads and philosophies that dominate the world change radically and regularly from generation to generation. The only thing that remains constant is the world’s hatred of Christ and His gospel.
These words need to be heard. Even if one disagrees with MacArthur’s application, he must do something with the following passages, which seem impossible to reconcile with many of the practices of so much of the church today.
Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets. —Luke 6:26
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. —John 3:19–20
The world . . . hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil. —John 7:7
If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. —John 15:18–19
Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. —James 4:4
Teenagers who identify as “evangelical” or “born again” . . . think sex should be saved for marriage. But thinking is not the same as doing. Evangelical teens are actually more likely to have lost their virginity than either mainline Protestants or Catholics. They tend to lose their virginity at a slightly younger age—16.3, compared with 16.7 for the other two faiths. And they are much more likely to have had three or more sexual partners by age 17: Regnerus reports that 13.7 percent of evangelicals have, compared with 8.9 percent for mainline Protestants.
How is that possible? What happened to all those happy, young Christian couples from the ’90s swearing that True Love Waits? Partly, the problem lies in the definition of evangelical. Because of the explosion of megachurches, vast numbers of people who don’t identify with mainstream denominations now call themselves evangelical. The demographic includes more teenagers of a lower socioeconomic class, who are more likely to have had sex at a younger age. It also includes African-American Protestant teenagers, who are vastly more likely to be sexually active.
. . .
Abstinence pledgers are considerably less likely than nonpledgers to use birth control the first time they have sex. “It just sort of happened,” one girl told the researchers, in what could be a motto for this generation of evangelical teens.
. . .
Among the mass of typically promiscuous teenagers in the book, one group stands out: the 16 percent of American teens who describe religion as “extremely important” in their lives.
Is America guilty of animal worship? Decide for yourself.
An estimated 63 percent of American households have a pet, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, with a record 44.8 million households owning dogs and 38.4 million owning cats in 2006; since many households own more than one feline, cats actually outnumber dogs in the United States by 88 million to 75 million. . . .
As the demographics of America have changed, so too has the nature of pet ownership. It used to be that most pets were bought by families. Now, the majority of pet owners, 61 percent, are childless—singles, unmarried couples waiting to have kids, gay couples, empty-nesters. Invariably, these owners tend to treat their pets like surrogate babies, and they spoil them accordingly. To help these childless pet-parents spend their disposable income, the pet products industry has mushroomed in the past decade. This year we’ll shell out more than $40 billion to keep our furry friends fed, adorned, amused and healthy—the latter a huge growth category, with more and more owners paying top dollar for elaborate medical treatments to forestall that inevitable last visit to the vet. By the end of the decade, we’ll be spending $50 billion on pet products, according to the APPMA. Walk the aisles of Petco or PetSmart, past the Hawaiian shirts and sunglasses for your dog and the $140 Catnip Chaise Lounge for your cat, and you’ll discover just how well-trained we Americans have become. . . .
Some 56 percent of dog owners and 42 percent of cat owners buy their pets Christmas presents. Pets can listen to their own Internet radio station (Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” is one of the more popular songs on DogCatRadio.com), post their pictures and make play dates on dogster.com and catster.com, and earn frequent flier miles on United.
. . .
63 percent of cat owners and 42 percent of dog owners sleep with their pets, according to the APPMA.
Why don’t people who want children adopt children instead of buying pets and treating them like children? I guess pets are just easier: they cost less (although the gap seems to be narrowing), they require less work, and you can get rid of them if things don’t work out.
What I would love to know is how the statistics from the believing community compare. Is the church just as guilty of this kind of ridiculous treatment of animals?
LifeWay Research conducted a study on the religious beliefs of teens, which showed noticeable decline from 2005.
Though the large majority of teenagers believe heaven exists (69 percent), there has been a 6 percent drop since 2005 (75 percent) in the percentage of teens who are sure in their belief of heaven.
. . .
Twenty-four percent said they had told a friend about their religious beliefs in the last 30 days (compared to 30 percent in 2005). Fifteen percent had invited someone to a church activity in the last 30 days (compared to 19 percent in 2005).
The study also showed that more black than white teens believe in heaven—as do more girls than guys.
African American teenagers are more likely to believe in heaven than the average teen (81 percent vs. 70 percent). Girls (73 percent) are also more likely to strongly agree heaven exists when compared to guys (66 percent).
A minority of teens who say they are trusting in Jesus for eternal life are trusting in Jesus alone.
Results show that 69 percent of teenagers believe heaven exists. Also, a majority of teens strongly agree with the traditional Christian belief in Jesus Christ’s death for their sins as the reason they will go to heaven (53 percent).
. . .
Approximately 28 percent of American teenagers are trusting only in Jesus Christ as their means to get to heaven.
Isaac Hydoski, one of pastors at Covenant Life, has written a paper addressing the topic of online dating. Here’s an overview of the big points.
Concerns:
Expensive
Time-consuming
False hope
Safety
Compromise
Can reinforce self-focused view of relationships
Loss of protection from church community
New temptations
Counsel:
Discern your motives (Jeremiah 17:9; Luke 6:43-45; James 1:14)
Involve your community (Proverbs 11:14, 15:22, 20:18, 24:6; Hebrews 3:12,13, 10:24,25)
Know your values and convictions (Ephesians 5:10)
Communicate your values and convictions (Zechariah 8:16; Ephesians 4:15, 25)
Ask about their values and convictions (Ephesians 5:6,7; Proverbs 24:21; 1 Corinthians 15:33)
Here’s his conclusion:
In summary, if you are participating in online dating, please know that we love you and we support you. Our concerns are just that: concerns. We want to see you experience God’s grace in Christ Jesus and we want to be faithful to show you some of the significant pitfalls as we see them, so you can be protected from discouragement and danger.
Ιf you are considering participating in online dating, please weigh our concerns and make your decision carefully and with much prayer and counsel.
Here are today’s bullet points:
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Imagine having this woman in your church: 71 years old, a member since 1959. Struggling with knee and hip replacements, she winters in Florida.
The Christian Post 
Is America guilty of animal worship? Decide for yourself.
