Author: Jonathan Blundell

I'm a husband, father of three, blogger, podcaster, author and media geek who is hoping to live a simple life and follow The Way.

Three answers to prayer

Sometimes we overlook the little things. Either saying they’re not worth wasting God’s time with or even if we do ask we forget to realize that He answers our prayers.

Today we’ve seen proof of three answered prayers.

  • Laurie’s raise was finally approved.
  • My allergies are MUCH better than they were over the weekend.
  • Someone’s stepped up and wants to lead the discussion for the new women’s group at encounter.

Praise God. Always good to remember God cares about the little things as much as the big things.

AcademHack

“Please on behalf of those who will listen to you, stop using PowerPoint, or at least stop using PowerPoint the way that it is commonly used.”

Just found AcademHack – via research on my last post about Twitter. The presentation above is from them. Wish I had one of Brian’s weekly PowerPoints – they’re usually right on with this idea.

AcademHack has some great stuff! I’m not in the classroom but there’s some great stuff here that could work for those in any type of leadership/teaching position… including community groups.

Twitter peeps

So you’re browsing SSL and you see this box on the right hand side that says Twitter updates.
Currently (as of 8:26 a.m. on Jan 29) it shows:

  • what happens when you live alone and die alone > who picks up the pieces? http://tinyurl.com/yto2or 21 minutes ago
  • Listening 2 this american life podcast podcast on the bus about an hour ago
  • Cant find my keys about an hour ago
  • The new Casa de Blundell is live :: http://tinyurl.com/27cyj2 about an hour ago
  • time to take out the trash and head off to work… now where’s the dog at? about an hour ago
  • Getting my morn caffeine fix while checking email about an hour ago

Wait, you haven’t noticed this yet? Well go check it out. We’ll wait for you….

OK now that we’ve all seen it, you’re probably asking, OK so what is it? It’s my Twitter feed. The feed displays everything I add to my Twitter account throughout the day.
Now explaining Twitter might be a little bit harder.

Twitter.com is another one of those fancy Web 2.0 sites that is built around community and 140 character text messages. The site asks the basic question, “What are you doing?”

Users then respond throughout the day with their own activities, thoughts, notes and what not. There’s even a channel set up for things people overheard in their day-to-day lives. You’ll find all sorts of things happening, or being mico-blogged about on Twitter.

ESPN has a feed that alerts people with the latest NFL news. College professors are Twittering with their students. Folks are sharing their insight from the Sundance Festival. Reporters are sharing insight on the presidential race and MacRumors abound.

So what’s the big deal? Well once you sign up for your free Twitter account you can follow any of these feeds, including mine, to can get the updates from your own Twitter page, via txt message or e-mail. And what amazes me is the community that’s built around Twitter. I’ve mentioned this before, but thanks to Twitter and his blog, I know more about Thomas and his life in Scotland than I do about my friends and family that live within 20-30 miles. That’s good and bad — but for this blog entry, we’ll go with the good ;-).

We’re also starting to use Twitter for encounter. We’re posting info on upcoming events and hope to start using it for prayer request notices as more encounter peeps get on board.

Kevin Hendricks over at CMS has more suggestions for Twitter as well (who by the way kept me entertained/informed last week on living life without a furnace via his Twitter feed):

The main thing to keep in mind is that Twitter is just another medium. It could be a volunteer coordinator or an evangelism tool. Experiment and see what works:

  • Ask questions: Sermon research, who’s coming to an event, what people might be interested in, etc.
  • Share insights: Maybe it’s a quote from a sermon, maybe it’s a sudden insight from a Bible study.
  • Highlight content: Point people to blog posts, articles or resources on your church web site.
  • Hype events: Remind people of events and give a glimpse of what they’re missing.

So that’s about it. Now go for it. Twitter away.

The GOP in 2008

Moby has some interesting thoughts on the current Republican Party in America.
Granted he’s definitely not a Republican…

sitting in my hotel room in london and i just finished watching bush’s final
state of the union address.
eh. to be honest it was kind of a non-event.
no nutty comments about steroids or trips to mars.
no new members in the axis-of-e-vil.
he just seemed sort of out of touch and a bit lost and sort of
desperate in a ‘uh oh, i don’t want to leave
office with a 25% approval rating’ kind of way.
it got me thinking about the state of the republican right in 2008.
and how fractured it is.
to make a big sweeping generalization, there are 4 big components
to the republican right(let’s use simpsons examples)-
1-the flanderses(aka-cultural evangelical conservatives)
2-mr burns and kent brockman(rich guys who don’t like taxes)
3-cletus and brandene(ignorant hicks who believe that barack obama lives in baghdad with wmd’s)
4-grampa simpson(scared and angry people over 70)

Moby suggests that the “flanderses like mike huckabee, mr burns likes mitt romney, cletus and brandene don’t know who they like but they know they don’t like hillary cos she wants to kill christmas, and grampa simpson likes john mccain cos he’s over 70 and doesn’t take sass from the young people.”

Wonder which Simpson character is a fan of Ron Paul?

A fairly broad paint brush of the GOP but probably not too far off. Thoughts?

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Adopted and proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.”

PREAMBLE

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4.

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6.

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7.

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8.

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Continue reading Universal Declaration of Human Rights