Tag: Think

17/365 grace beyond our imagination

17/365

17/365 Originally uploaded by Jonathan D. Blundell.

grace beyond our imagination

Tonight our community group looked at John 1:16-18. We tried a different approach, lectio divina, tonight. The idea is to read, think, pray and live over verses and passages of Scripture.

1. Read – read, reread, reread, reread a passage
2. Think – what stands out to you in the passage
3. Pray – pray over what you’ve learned
4. Live – apply what you’ve learned

John 1:16-18 (the voice) :: Through this man we all receive gifts of grace beyond our imagination.
He is the Voice of God. You see, Moses gave us rules to live by, but Jesus the Liberating King offered the gifts of grace and truth which make life worth living.
God, unseen until now, is revealed in the Voice, God’s only Son, straight from the Father’s heart.

It was great hearing all the different things that stood out for folks in the passage. It’s a great reminder that God speaks to each person uniquely and for us to really know Him we need to share in our collective experiences.

As I reflected, here are the notes I jotted down ::

Jesus is the Liberating King
God’s grace is beyond our imagination — over and over and over and over again
It’s all from Jesus the Messiah

As his grace floods my life – I pray its flowing out to others as well.

Looking forward to the next few weeks as we practice this “ancient practice” further in our group.

Did I Steal My Daughter

KERA’s Think had a great show yesterday with the author of the Mother Jones Magazine article, “Did I Steal My Daughter?”
I thought it was a very interesting discussion and look at foreign adoptions and some of the thoughts a mother and father might have from both sides of the coin. Laurie and I have talked about possibly adopting a child from Russia or another country someday so who knows… the information could come in more handy than we realize.
From Think:

What do parents who adopt children from abroad really know about the child’s circumstances and background? Our guest this hour, journalist Elizabeth Larsen, plunged headfirst into the world of international adoption when her family adopted a young girl from Guatemala. She writes about the experience in “Did I Steal My Daughter?” which appears in the November/December issue of Mother Jones Magazine.

Listen online

The founding fathers and the battle over church and state

From KERA’s Think:

What role did religion play in the founding of our nation? This highly-debated topic is the subject of Dr. Forrest Church’s new book “So Help Me God: The Founding Fathers and the First Great Battle Over Church and State” (Harcourt, 2007).

I’m listening to the program now. Sounds very interesting – take 45 minutes or so and give it a listen – then share your comments.

Rock & Roll stops the traffic*

My mate Thomas over in Glasgow is helping push a concert featuring Klearkut, Ashley Ballard, Yvonne Lyon and The Glasgow Gospel Choir on Nov. 20th. The cause – STOP HUMAN TRAFFICKING. I can’t make the show, but maybe Elijah and his bride and Erikito and her husband can make the show.

Here’s a brief history:

In 2001 the chocolate industry committed to eradicate the worst forms of child labour. In 2007 the world is still waiting.
Nearly half the world’s chocolate comes from cocoa plantations in the Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa
Twelve thousand children have been trafficked to work on these cocoa plantations.
We want all chocolate companies to be able to give us a traffik free guarantee: that the cocoa beans which make their chocolate have not been harvested by trafficked children.
Download resources for you and your community to fight for a traffik free guarantee on chocolate at www.stopthetraffik.org/chocolatecampaign

It’s amazing to think that human trafficking and slavery still takes place today – but it does – even in the “Good ole’ U. S. of A.”
in fact KERA’s Think had a full hour dedicated to the issue on yesterday’s show. Host Chris Boyd spoke with Journalist John Bowe. His new book, “Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy” (Random House, 2007), exposes a practice which fuels the low prices that benefit us all.

In the interview Bowe makes the statement that most slavery in the U.S. isn’t as much about saving money – as it is about how we view others. When the cost of pesticide increased 1 cent per pound, the growers simply increased the cost of oranges. Yet when the workers asked for a pay increase of 1 cent per pound, which would have doubled many of their yearly incomes, the growers said, “No. We can’t do that.” When asked why not, the growers responded, “Look my tractor doesn’t tell me how to farm.”

Yet we (myself included) let these atrocities continue when we make uninformed buying decisions. When will it stop?

* I wonder how many people will recognize this blog post title (leave a comment if you do).

Sesame Street on KERA’s Talk Show

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Sesame Street stage show | Photo by Montage Man

Gary Knell, President and CEO of Sesame Workshop was on KERA’s Talk Show (later changed to Think with Krys Boyd) today at noon.

I only caught the tail-end of the program, but it sounded like an interesting show on one of my favorite shows growing up.

You should be able to catch a podcast of the show online.