The Internet and Education

There's a really good discussion happening between Doug Wilson and Levi Heiple about technology and education. Both men believe strongly in the benefits of Christian education. They have a lot of common ground, but are a ways apart in a few areas, especially in how much to embrace and depend on technology in education--flipped classrooms, blended learning, and the like.

Check out what they've written so far:

Wilson: Chasing the laser pointer dot

Heiple: The internet and education: clarifying the issues

Wilson: Not all cake

Heiple: Delicately disrupting school

There will probably be some more back-and-forth. I don't know if I'll get around to updating this post with the links, but you can figure it out.

New Music - Andrew Peterson

Well, it's new music for me anyway. One of the blogs I read featured this song on youtube by Andrew Peterson. Go ahead and play it while you read the rest of this blog post (or just play it and skip the rest of the post).

When I first heard this song back in January, I was waiting for the results from some scary medical tests. The song moved me in a way that music rarely does. It was exactly the message I would want to leave with my kids if something happened to me. (The medical thing ended up being nothing to worry about.)

So I bought the album that the song came from, Light for the Lost Boy. It's one of my favorite albums now. I guess the concept of the album, songs from a father to his kids, really resonates with me right now. "Come Back Soon," "Rest Easy," and "Don't You Want To Thank Someone?" are among my other favorite tracks. Andrew Peterson is part of a community of Christian artistic types called The Rabbit Room. It's worth checking out. They just might be this generation's Rich Mullins and Ragamuffins. Here's one more song that I love, "Hosanna."

ANDREW PETERSON - Hosanna Live from Far Country Media on Vimeo.

Examen

A former Jesuit seminarian, later a finance guy, recommends the practice of examen. This is a habit I want to develop. It looks like it would prevent how-in-the-world-did-my-day-get-so-out-of-control syndrome.

The English word examine roughly conveys the concept: to examine your day and take stock. With apologies to my spiritual father Ignatius, I often refer to it more colloquially as a "mental pit stop." I recommend two of them daily — one at midday, for example, and one at the end of the day — completely dedicating at least five minutes to each one. (Sorry, multi-taskers — listening to sports radio, texting, or listening to cell phone messages would not qualify for completely dedicated.)

During those few minutes, do three things. First, remind yourself why you are grateful as a human being. Second, lift your horizon for a moment. Call to mind some crucial personal objective, or your deepest sense of purpose, or the values you stand for. Third, mentally review the last few hours and extract some insight that might help in the next few hours. If you were agitated, what was going on inside you? If you were distracted and unproductive, why? Those who are spiritually inclined might also reflect on how God (or a higher power) was present in the people and challenges you encountered over the last few hours.

 Read the rest.

Beethoven Flashmob

via

Belief and Obedience

So obvious, but so easy to neglect.

The message of the Cross contains two elements: (1) Promises and declarations to be believed, and (2) commandments to be obeyed. Obviously faith is necessary to the first and obedience to the second. The only thing we can do with a promise or a statement of fact is to believe it; it is physically impossible to obey it, for it is not addressed to the will, but to the understanding. It is equally impossible to believe a command; it is not addressed to our understanding, but to our will. True, we may have faith in its justice; we may have confidence that it is a good and right command, but that is not enough. Until we have either obeyed or refused to obey we have not done anything about it yet. To strain to exercise faith toward that which is addressed to our obedience is to get ourselves tangled in a maze of impossibilities."  -A. W. Tozer, Paths To Power, Chapter 3.

 

Paths To Power By A.W. Tozer / Wingspread Publishers

Balancing Ministry (or Work) and Family

We know that God won't call us to keep one command in a way that would cause us to break another. So if, over the long haul, our family suffers neglect because of our ministry, it is because we are doing things in ministry that we should not be doing because we wrongly assessed that we can handle more than we are able to handle. -Paul Tripp

2013 Bible Reading Plans

At the end of every year, I plan how I will read the Bible the next year. I find that if I don't plan to read, I just don't read. These are the plans I've used for the past few years.

2010 (2009 too, I think) - Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan (pdf). This plan has selections from four different parts of the Bible each day and takes you through the whole Bible in a year. It gives you a few catch-up days each month. It's biggest pro could also be a con. Reading from four different places each day keeps things varied and allows for interesting serendipities. On the other hand, the reading can seem fragmented and it takes a while to get through the long books.

2011 - The Book-at-a-Time Bible Reading Plan (pdf). This one is also from Discipleship Journal. It allows a few catch-up days each month, but provides:

two readings for each day. The first reading alternates between Old and New Testament books, giving you three or four chapters a day. The Gospels are spread throughout the year. The second reading takes you through a chapter or so of the wisdom literature and Isaiah. Combined,these readings will take you through the entire Bible in one year.

2012 - The Daily Bible Meditation Guide (pdf). This provides much shorter selections, curated by Doug Wolter at  life2getherblog.com. The selections are short, but the idea is "not to read less, but to meditate more." 2012 was the year in recent times (after having children) that I meditated most and journaled most. The short, well-selected readings were helpful for that.

2013 - My plan is to read the New Testament four times (once every three months) in four different translations.

I'm starting with The Message, and will probably read the ESV, Phillips, and the NASB or NRSV. I have all of these translations in paper, and these and many more are available for free on biblegateway.com and youversion.com. Both of these sites have free audio Bibles if that is what you're into. Various smartphone and tablet apps are also available. Many people like the youversion Bible reading app.

Here are some recent blog posts about Bible reading that I've found helpful.

• Justin Taylor's Reading the Bible in 2013

• Trent Hunter's The Bible Eater: A Plan for Feasting on Christ in 2013 (This one looks good. I'll probably use it next year.)

• Trent Hunter also recommends books as Help for Understanding the Bible in 2013. To this list I would add Henrietta Mears's What the Bible is All About. It's a good book-by-book overview. Recently Eugene Peterson's Eat This Book was recommended to me. I haven't read it yet, but it's on my wish list.

• Good words from Matt Smethurst on How Not to Read Your Bible in 2013.

Whatever plan you use, remember that we don't read the Bible to check it off our to-do list or to attempt to gain merit. God loves us and wants to speak to us through his precious word!

Want To Be Blessed in the New Year?

5 ^1-2 When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:

³ “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

⁴ “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

⁵ “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

⁶ “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

⁷ “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

⁸ “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

⁹ “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

¹⁰ “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

From Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of the Bible, called The Message. This famous passage from Matthew 5 is known as the Beatitudes.

Reading THE Good Book Well

This blog is about reading good books well. Most would say that the Bible is a good book, even THE Good Book. I read the Bible every day, and like many others, I read a study Bible. Jen Wilken at the Gospel Coalition questions the helpfulness of study Bible notes. She says that depending on the commentary in a study Bible can be like depending on a GPS. You get where you're going, but you don't really get to know your way around. She says that sometimes it's good to get lost.

Wilken follows up with thoughts about the right use of a study Bible and concludes with this exhortation.

So use your study Bible as it is intended to be used: as a reference point for your own conclusions, but not as a substitute for them. And get lost a little bit. Allow yourself to feel the extent of what you don't understand. It's a humbling feeling---but if your destination is wisdom and understanding, humility makes an excellent starting point for the journey. Seek with all of your heart, trusting the promise that those who do so will find that which they seek.

Read the rest.

Blog Merge

If you are one of the (very few) people who subscribe to this blog, you probably noticed a bunch of new posts. What I've done is merge my "Read Good Books Well" blog with this one. Sorry for the flood of posts after a long silence. Happy Week-between-Christmas-and-New-Year! We'll see what happens here in 2013.