Tag Archives: The Guardian

Sunday Six-Pack (18)

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Welcome to the weekend after a week in which even sitting to type a short blog post was an impossibility.  Here’s hoping that your weekend (a LONG weekend in Canada) allows you a chance to sigh.  Thanks for showing up for some “Wandering & Wondering”.

This week’s Six-Pack features the usual: A half-dozen of the best things I’ve read online in the past seven days.  As is the norm, most of these articles are faith-focused or ministry-geared, with a bit of who-knows-what tossed in!

If you need help prioritizing, note my two “Picks of the Week”, and roll on from there.

Today’s edition:

1) 4 Things I’ve Learned about God Through My Baby Who Was Born Blind
The Resurgence‘s Mike Anderson opens this piece like this: “It’s not often that you get the opportunity to empathize with God; I recently experienced that bitter-sweet insight when I found out that my eleven-week-old baby girl was born almost completely blind.”  His brief but sharp observations are worth a stop today.

2) Serving Communion to Former Cannibals
Tony Merida recounts the powerful story of missionary John G. Paton (1824-1907). *PICK OF THE WEEK*

3) Pastoral Advice from a Professional Wrestler
Pastor Jay Sanders reflects on one sentence of profound pastoral advice from Nikita Koloff. *PICK OF THE WEEK*

4) They Cuss in ET.  WTF?!
Is violence now more permissible than swearing or nudity in our movies?  Steven Schlozman thinks so.  And then he wonders why.

5) 24 Creativity Quotes to Bring Out Your Inner Artist
I love great quotes.  (If you do too, subscribe to my Twitter feed @jasonbandura, and I’ll keep ’em coming for you.)  This batch may serve to fuel the quest toward fresh thinking and imaginative inventing.  Enjoy!

6) Who are the Coptic Christians?
Perhaps you’ve heard of the Coptic Christians in Egypt.  If you have but have been unclear on who these people are exactly, The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones would like to help you out, while giving you an art education at the same time.

Enjoy your weekend, friends, through renewing yourself and reverencing God.

Saturday Six-Pack (8)

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Another week, another weekend.  Thanks for coming for a bit of “Wandering & Wondering”.

The Saturday Six-Pack brings a weekly dose of online pieces, written to inform or inspire.  Generally, these articles are faith-focused or ministry-geared, but the “disorderly pile of who-knows-what” tagline at the top of this page catching everything outside of that!

This week:

1) God is Most Glorified When We are Most Dependent on Him
Justin Buzzard takes aim at the hidden dangers of chasing independence.

2) Farewell Rob Bell
On February 26, 2011, John Piper rocked the Twitter-verse with three words: “Farewell, Rob Bell.”  The adieu was viewed as a cutting critique of the not-yet-released “Love Wins”.  This interview provides the behind-the-tweet story that you have likely not heard before.

3) Saudi Grand Mufti Calls for “Destruction of All Churches in the Area”
When I was in Syria, the group I was part of was hosted for a feast by the nation’s Grand Mufti, in Damascus.  This was more than a big deal, as the Grand Mufti is one of the country’s most influential Islamic leaders.  Knowing that, you can now appreciate the context of this article’s opening line: “Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, declared that it is “necessary to destroy all the churches of the region.”  Read this brief piece to enlarge your perspective on what fellow Christians around the globe are facing, as they live out their faith.

4) Life on God’s Time
In a culture bent on instant gratification, how do we follow a God with a completely foreign sense of time?  How do you trust a Being beyond time?

5) How Do You Keep from Getting Distracted?
How do you buckle down and focus deeply when you cannot afford distraction?  Donald Miller has a few ideas.

6) Top Five Regrets of the Dying
What do you get when a palliative care nurse spends years learning from her patients how they look back on their lives?  You get a full-blown book, shrunk down for this blog post.

Have a great weekend, friends–renew yourself and reverence God.