Tag Christianity

May Edition of “Pop Goes the Gospel”

Allen Frederick 7 Comments

'Pop Goes the Gospel'

'Pop Goes the Gospel'

Each edition of “Pop Goes the Gospel” will be posted on the 30th of each month. Please be sure to get your submissions in by the 25th to be included in each month’s edition. Any article that relates scripture to “pop culture” will be accepted.

Take note: Any submission that does not meet the requirements of traditional Christian values may be refused.

To submit your blog article to the next edition of “Pop Goes the Gospel” use our carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Welcome to the May edition of pop goes the gospel. This month I received far more posts then at any time in the past. Once again I refer you to the rules for submission page which outlines that I will only post one article per author. This is to allow equal time and clicks for all those who submitted a post. You are welcome to resubmit an article that was cut from this edition in the next edition. I do not carry them over from month to month because of the time it would take to try to keep track of them all.

I am increasingly amazed at the quality of posts that I get each month and I am thankful to all my regular contributors who continue to offer up quality articles in each edition. If it wasn’t for your contributions this blog carnival would not be as popular as it is becoming. Thank you all for once again rising to the occasion.

FEATURE ARTICLE

This month’s feature article is an article from Yvette Nietzen who presents Having a ready mind posted at Fresh Wind Ministries.Yvette is a  regular contributor to Pop Goes the Gospel and is back this month with another excellent article. She recommends  that we have a mind ready to accept things God’s way rather than wanting them to go our way. I took something away from this article and so will you. It is a quick read but contains plenty of truth.

In Media

Sarah Scrafford presents Top 10 Christians in Hollywood posted at Christian Colleges.Thank you Sarah for pointing out that not all celebs have abandoned traditional values for the sleaze of Hollywood. Although not a complete list Sarah gives us a good place to start when looking for actors and actresses to keep a faith watch eye on. Do pray for these folks because they will be tempted perhaps more than others because they are basking in the spotlights.

Ken Brown presents God and Battlestar Galactica posted at C. Orthodoxy, saying, “Explores the tensions and questions surrounding a God who chooses–on Battlestar Galactica and in Christianity.” Ken Brown offers a well written post about the Sci-Fi channels Battlestar Galatica. This modern day sci-fi spectacular seems an underlying spiritual side, At least that is how Ken and others have viewed it. See for yourself and tell him what you think.

In Church Life

andriel presents The Consumerization of the Gospel posted at ReturningKing.com.Andriel is back with another of a long series of posts concerning the “falling away” from the faith spoken about in the latter days. These regular submissions to this blog carnival are required reading to challenge and provoke us to take another look at what we believe and why we believe it. I challenge you today to surf over to The Returning King and check it out for yourself. And do not hesitate to leave behind your thoughts in the comments.

ChristianPF presents Are you a good steward of God’s money? posted at Money in the Bible | Christian Personal Finance Blog, ChristianPF also a regular poster to Pop Goes the Gospel offers up a timely message concerning our use of God’s money. After all the Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. All belongs to Him and if we are His child then all we have belongs to Him as well.

In Travel

Victor Schultz presents St. Peters Basilica | Michaelangelos Pieta | Pictures of the Vatican City, Rome, Italy posted at St. Peters Square, Vatican City, saying, “As you enter St. Peter’s Basilica, it is hard not to be awestruck by its vast size and sheer beauty. For example, as you walk in you will see some very large statutes to the side. While beautiful in their own right, I mention them as a reference point on the incredible size of the interior space. If you look up you will see writing and numbers that are carved into the upper wall just below the ceiling. While this text appears to be relatively small to the unaided eye, in fact the those carved letters and as tall as the large statutes you see to the sides as you enter.” Thanks Victor. This is something you HAVE TO SEE TO BELIEVE! I feel like Thomas when told about Jesus’ resurrection. He said SHOW ME! The only complaint I have about this post is the pictures do not do justice to St Peter’s Basilica. For now that is all we have so enjoy.

In Culture

Carole Gold presents Christ Consciousness posted at Carole Gold, saying, “How the bias of the messenger can kill the message.”

Margaret Garcia presents Top 100 Blogs on Christian Families posted at Becoming A Radiologist.I am not one for lists but if you are a Christian parent then these top 100 blogs on Christian Families may be just what you are looking for. This list should take you a while to get through. Give them a try you might just find one or two or three you can use.

Shannon Christman presents Scripture We Like To Ignore: I Corinthians 6:1-8, Lawsuits Among Believers posted at The Minority Thinker.Brother fighting with brother. Brethern against brethern. Sounds like an uncivil war to me. Shannon does a good job of pointing out scriptures that we often times over looks in our day to day activities. WE would do will to take heed.

In Politics

Paul Gable presents Apr 15, The DHS Report: Gasoline on Brushfires! posted at Paul Gable, Paul Gable a first time poster to this carnival tackles the Department of Homeland Securities watch list. He feels, like myself and others, that the current administration is set on a course that is contrary to biblical Christianity. See his views here. And then check out my own views by visiting A Reply to Political Propagandists.

In Family

Bill presents Blessing Blockers: Walking in Forgiveness posted at The Covenant Blessing, saying, Thanks Bill for reminding us that is it better to forgive then to simply forget.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of pop goes the gospel using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Lego Jesus

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A statue of Jesus Christ made entirely out of Lego construction bricks
stands in a church at Vasteras, Sweden, April 12, 2009.
The 1.8 metre (5.9 fet) tall statue, a copy of Thorvaldsen’s “Resurrected Christ”,
has taken parishioners 1.5 years to construct out of
30.000 tiny plastic pieces. (AP Photo/Jonas Ekstromer)

The journey of a 30,000 Legos begins with only one. I had a hard time building the designs that came on the actual box of Legos when I was a child. I would have never thought about doing anything like this. Isn’t it amazing what can be done if someone just gets a vision for it?

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Earth Day 2009

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For the creation waits with eager longing
for the revealing of the sons of God.
Romans 8:19 (ESV)

 

The only way to truely save the planet is to remember who it belongs to.

The End of Days: Armageddon and Prophecies of the Return (The Earth Chronicles)

Blue Planet: Seas of Life (Special Edition)

Planet Earth – The Complete BBC Series

The Late Great Planet Earth

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April Edition of “Pop Goes the Gospel”

Allen Frederick 3 Comments

'Pop Goes the Gospel'

'Pop Goes the Gospel'

Welcome to the April edition of “Pop Goes the Gospel“. Each edition of “Pop Goes the Gospel” will be posted on the 30th of each month. Please be sure to get your submissions in by the 25th to be included in each month’s edition. Any article that relates scripture to “pop culture” will be accepted. Take note: Any submission that does not meet the requirements of traditional Christian values may be refused.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of “Pop Goes the Gospel”! Use our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

This month is our best ever “Pop Goes the Gospel”. I am so blessed to be able to offer 14 excellent articles for your enrichment. There did seem to be a common theme this month as many of the articles focused on an aspect of our relationship with God and each other. Each article will be worth your while to read and ponder. Take the time to read through each one perhaps more than once on some of the more indepth articles. You can always link directly to “Pop Goes the Gospel” so you can come back often. A big thank you to everyone who took the time to submit an article to this month’s blog carnival and an even bigger thank you to all of you who stopped by to read it. Now then onto the journey.


This Month’s feature article

Paul Gable presents Confront This Evil posted at Paul Gable, Although Paul offers no scriptural support for his positions I felt that because of the political and economic upheavals our country is facing, Paul offers a thought provoking post and it was worth featuring in “Pop Goes the Gospel”. I will leave you with this thought as you head on over to read Paul’s offering, the words of Edmund Burke– ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.’

In Media

Anthony Delgado presents The Jesus Film Project posted at eInquisitive | Giving you something productive to think about!.Why not take time during passion week to watch the Jesus Film and perhaps you will take away a deeper devotion to Christ.

In Church Life

Jim DeSantis presents How I Go Boldly to the Throne Every Day posted at On Line Tribune | Spiritual Matters Blog, saying, “Thirteen times, in the book of Hebrews, the author uses an edifying, faith building Greek device. This device usually begins with the expression “let us.” I call it simply a “let us exhortation.””

Thank you for the invitation Jim. The way has been opened into the very presence of God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We can boldly go where no man has gone before because of what Christ has done. Just remember you are standing in the presence of God, and just like you would not stand before a King irreverently neither should you be irreverent before God. GO, ENTER!

Travis Morgan presents Where do you live? posted at My Glory to Glory, saying, “So I was driving to the bank, and on the way, I just had it. I said, “God, it’s so hard to live here.” You know what He said back to me?

“Then don’t live there.”

Wow, four words and God shut me up. Here I was, trying to complain to God, and He just made it so simple that I couldn’t complain anymore.”

Travis along with Kiesha’a article Trade Your Mope for Hope reminds us to look up when things are looking down. Although you may be walking through a valley the God of the mountaintop is the same God in the valley. The Psalmist says that although I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil for thou art with me… So stop living as if you are in a valley, start living as if you are on top of the mountain.

andriel presents The Emerging Ecumenicism: “We’re Ready to Believe You!” posted at ReturningKing.com.

As usual andriel presents a thought provoking article. This one deals with familiar spirits and meditation. This one will require a cup of coffee and some time to digest. Not for the timid.

Nathan Creitz presents One God, Two Gods, Three Gods, No God posted at ChurchETHOS.

Nathan tackles the idea of religious tolerance. Can’t we all just get along? Doesn’t all roads lead to the same place? Some worship god one way and some others but as long as you are sincere then what is the problem? Okay I took license in my description but I think you will see Nathan’s points quite clearly. ALL can not be true, or there would be no truth, and if there is no truth, then really what does it matter? Thus we have the circular logic of those who espouse all roads lead to the same place, that place according to Nathan is ignorance. A MUST READ! Thank you Nathan!

Yolanda Lehman presents BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED ME… posted at Ain’ta That Good News?!,

“A devotion on God’s love for the World, or cosmos, and God’s great love for humanity as well!”

Yolanda offers a devotion taken from the simple song ‘Oh How I love Jesus’. And it shows in her post. If you are in need of a whole lot of lovin’ race over to Yolanda’s post and get your love tank full. Thank you Yolanda!

In Family

Kiesha presents Trade Your Mope for Hope posted at Highly Favored.

Kiesha, a first time poster to “Pop Goes the Gospel”, submitted a great article. She was reminded that hope was simply one call away. Jesus is only a whisper away or like the song writer put it, ‘He’s as Close as the Mention of His Name‘. Thank Gordon Jensen and thank you Kiesha for the comforting words.

Tiffany Partin presents Fathom Deep: Sounding the Depths of God: Hide & Seek posted at Fathom Deep: Sounding the Depths of God.

Tiffany never disappoints, her writings are filled with the love of a mother and over flows with the love of the Father. This month she shares the joy of knowing her children are walking in truth as she relates the joy of hearing her 3 year old quoting scripture. You are never too young to learn the word of God and you are never too old to stop learning the word of God. Well done Tiffany, and thanks for sharing the joys of motherhood.

Cale presents Maybe you should just stay home: Autism in Church posted at Spectrum Siblings, saying, “Some thoughts on how the church should approach Special Needs families.”

Cale, another first timer here at “Pop Goes the Gospel’, hits a nerve when he points out the obvious. Church is not a place for perfect people, but a place where imperfect people can commune with a perfect God and by so doing learn how to love perfectly all the imperfect people in the world. For God so loved all of us imperfect ones that he died for us all. And if CHRIST died for us then who among us can condemn us? We are His and therefore our imperfections are also His. So whatever we do to the LEAST of these we do unto Christ. Let us remember that the next time we think about pointing out someone’s imperfections. Well done Cale!

In Culture

Ann Shorb presents The New Cookbook posted at Christian Counseling & Educational Services.

Ann says that although the covers were the same what was inside was not. Ann soon discovered that her new cookbook did not contain the same old tried and true recipes she grew up on. So just because they looked alike, they were completely different. It is not what is on the outside that matters but what is on the inside. SO it is with our walk with the Lord, we maybe trying to look good or hip or culturally relevant but what is on the inside? Maybe we really do not need a new cook book after all?

christiantwopointoh presents Sex and Drugs posted at Christian2.0, saying, “Everyone is dong it? Literally, they are doing it. What are the lasting effects of sexual liberation? Could there be hidden consequences to our indulgence?”

Sex and drugs what more does a blog post need? Temperance. This article does a good job of highlighting the issue but requires further study to fully grasp the complete picture. His main point however was the Lord’s ways are liberating while our ways are enslaving. Freedom or slavery which do you prefer?

Victor Schultz presents St. Peters Square and Plaza | St. Peters Square, Vatican City posted at St. Peters Square, Vatican City, saying, “I had the great pleasure on touring the Vatican, St. Peter’s Basilica, and the Sistine Chapel. I wanted to give you just a glimpse of what you might see, if you were to visit the Holy See in Vatican City, Rome, Italy. Obviously, any tour of the Vatican is best in person. If you cannot go there, then a tour with pictures is perhaps the second best approach to seeing the Vatican and all the beauty and splendor that it has to offer.”

For all our Catholic readers here is a virtual pictorial tour of Vatican city. Enjoy!

Hopeful Spirit presents Affirmation of Faith posted at On the Horizon, saying, “A true story about a signed received . . . of faith, belief, and hope.”

It took the cross the break through the blackness of sin, and it still takes the cross to break through the blackness of night and the fog of unbelief. It is the cross the speaks to the world about the love of God. It is the cross that stands as a beacon to light the darkness and point us toward heaven. Thank God for the cross! And thank you hopeful spirit for the inspiring true story. Just in time for Passion week.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Pop Goes the Gospel using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Zeros and Ones

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

blessed2c

010001000110111100100000011101000110100001100101001000000111011101101111011100

100110101100100000011011110110011000100000011000010110111000100000011001010

11101100110000101101110011001110110010101101100011010010111001101110100*

see end of article for translation of this binary string

Snowflakes!

“Tell me the weight of a snowflake,” a coalmouse asked a wild dove.

“Nothing more than nothing,” the dove answered.

“In that case I must tell you a marvelous story,” the coalmouse said. “I sat on a fir branch close to the trunk when it began to snow. Not heavily, not in a raging blizzard. No, just like in a dream, without any violence at all. Since I didn’t have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,471,952. When the next snowflake dropped onto the branch–nothing more than nothing — as you say — the branch broke off.”

Having said that, the coalmouse ran away.

The dove, since Noah’s time an authority on peace, thought about the story for a while. Finally, she said to herself, “Perhaps there is only one person’s voice lacking for peace to come to the world.”

image Binary code is the language of computers. A series of instructions that tells the CPU how to handle the data stream. If you were to simply look at a binary code string you would see nothing more than zeros and ones. Unless of course you understood the basic language of a computer. 01000001 does not mean anything to the average person but in the hands of a computer programmer those ones and zeros spell out the capital letter ‘A’. To think a digital picture is simply a series of zeros and ones, on or off, yes or no, true or false. These are the basic instructions utilized by a programmer to get the desired output.

As Christians, we are part of a master plan much like those zeros and ones are a part of the binary code of a computer program. When lined up in the right sequence wonderful things can happen. What happens when one of those lines of computer code becomes corrupted? The whole program comes to a crashing halt. If a zero is supposed to be a one then instead of the predicted results you will get unpredictable outcomes.

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Just like one snowflake alone does not seem to make much difference when joined with other snowflakes, their combined weight of ‘nothing more than nothing’ can cause a pine branch to break. Zeros alone will not cause a computer to operate, but when you add just a single one you begin the journey toward a positive output.

As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist (be the one), fulfill your ministry. 2 Timothy 4:5

Timothy admonishes us to endure hardships, to put up with opposition, to withstand the storms and fulfill the ministry set before us. Each of us, who have been redeemed from the curse of sin and death, have been placed in the body of Christ to do our part. We have gone from a zero to a one. It might appear that by yourself you seem so small and unable to accomplish much, but together with the rest of the body of Christ you are able to accomplish greater things than you could have imagined. Evangelism is simply each “one” making another “one”. Each on fire Christian ignites another. Simply turn an off to an on, a zero to a one.

How could one person chase a thousand or two people make ten thousand flee? Their rock used these people to defeat them and the Lord gave them no help. Deut 32:30 (GW)

Where else besides binary code can 4 = 100 or 27 = 11011? In scripture we find similar arithmetic where God was able to route thousands of the enemy by a few men of God because he fought with them. In His math 2 = 10000. So you do not have to be many, just be a one in the right place and God can do great things through you. Now if we all line up in our rightful positions in the body of Christ and be ‘THE ONE’ we will see great things of God accomplished for and through us.

I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. Revelation 3:15

God does not want you to be a ZERO but to be number one. To be number one you simply have to be “turned on”. God desires for us to be hot not cold. He wants us to be “on fire” for Him and the work He has set out before us. Be the “one” placed where God can use you and watch how much happens when we hold our ground as “one” in the binary code of life. Or do nothing and be a zero, a place holder, turned off, and tuned out. The choice is yours, choose to be a “one”.

* translation to above binary code string is: do the work of an evangelist.