You can get to all of these by clicking here or just follow some of the links below.
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spirit west coasting in neutral
Well, we made it safely back from Spirit West Coast alright – alright physically but kinda not too well spiritually. The music that we managed to hear was great, but...
Of all the vendor booths this year (almost a googol), nearly every single one was full of… well… my parents would say a word that I can’t repeat here, my kids might say “yucky stuff.” Even Dan, the less cynical of us two, was depressed by the vendors and their almost in-your-face crudola parade.
We saw almost no ministries represented, few colleges and universities, and we were the only apologetics place in the whole serpentined Laguna Seca Raceway. We? the sole representatives of Christian apologetics? That can't be good. We did, however, count more than 40 places selling T-shirts! Boy howdy! And of all those, One Truth was almost alone in that it didn’t rip off corporate logos and spin them into trite Christian sayings, or fall into the next temptation...
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the plug shirt
A trend we saw this year was The Plug Shirt; as in, this shirt we’re selling at 15-20 bux a pop has only the name of my company and some cool logo, but absolutely no meaning whatsoever. Just our name. I imagined Paul on Mars Hill in a booth with shirts which read Paul Clothing on the sleeve or on some hat or bracelet or sticker or anklet or skateboard. Suddenly I was hoping Keith Green would rise from the dead and make an appearance. He’d have cleaned some clocks that need some deep cleaning, by gum!
But the music was good. |
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the sudan
One of things we were saddened by at Spirit West Coast was the near total absence of interest and support for ministries like Far Reaching Ministries. These guys make no shirts or kitsch or Jesus skateboards, oh no! They just risk their lives training up indigenous pastors to minister to the tortured people of the Sudan - you know, that country in Africa bent on killing all its own people through the standard Hussein-type torture methods. Please, if you can, go by their site and support a pastor or two. Someone has to.
But the music was good. |
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unorthodox connection
In making available (via any donation, I’ll have you know!) our own shirt, the (un)orthodox Christian shirt, I felt we needed to have a handy dandy paper explaining the meaning behind it. (get the pdf file here) It saved us from having to verbally explain it all, thus saving our voices in case the Newsboys flaked and they asked us to fill in again. But it also opened people up.
Several people read it and then proceeded to share with us their own experiences of being mistreated by Christians because of their “unorthodox” ways. You know, those backslidden reprobate activities like not being registered as a Republican! spending time with nonbelievers in hopes to win them to God! believing the universe is older than 6000 years! listening to rather than berating a homosexual colleague at work! In one conversation we had, the person who recounted his story nearly came to tears because of the treatment he received from people in his own church! Sigh.
But the music was good. |
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note to self: don’t ask for prayer too often
In an interesting bit of trivia, more people unsubscribed to our newsletter after we asked for prayer than after any other noozletter release I can remember, even the ones with really bad humor in them. Go figure. But thanks, never the less, to those who did send us words of encouragement and prayer! They were deeply appreciated! |
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genesis and dinosaurs
Our apologist buddy at godandscience.org has a fine paper on why those terrible lizards, the dinosaurs, aren’t mentioned in Genesis One - Why aren't Dinosaurs Mentioned in the Biblical Creation Account? There are those who actually lose sleep and discredit the Bible because something as ferocious as those Raptor things on Jurassic Park ought to have at least been a footnote in the Bible, and therefore their absence proves - proves, I say! - the Bible is all full of bologna (with a side of mayo). On the other hand, there are Christians who see as many dinosaurs in the Bible as Percival Lowell saw canals on Mars. ha! ha! ha! (sorry, astronomy humor; shoulda warned you)
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we are yours
We know firsthand, and have known for a decade plus, that the issue of the age of the universe is a touchy subject - like the war in Iraq or who the real King is, Elvis or Michael. We don’t require for you to believe like us on this subject in order to be a Christian, and never will. But we know a lot of adversarial feelings concerning the age of the earth are built upon some strong and bogus propaganda coming from certain ministries. We would like to be your resource for the Old Earth view. You have a question about all this that needs clarification? Ask away! Want to know about how a belief in an old earth does not mean a belief in evolution? Shoot your concern this way! Then make up your own mind on the issue. We trust you are big people with God-given brains in your God-given head.
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giving it a rest!
Charlie Lehardy has an essay hot off the press about what true rest is all about. In his words: To Sleep, Perchance to Dream: We need more sleep. Life makes us weary and bone-tired. Is the problem a worn-out mattress, or have we simply misunderstood what rest is all about?
Aaaaaah, that feels better. Thanks, Charlie - again!
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a passionate preview
Jimmy the Mole has tuned us into a preview of Mel Gibson's The Passion. Go here and see the preview and get ready for controversy a-plenty! |
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donations for español
We have this crazy idea. We'd like to translate our prolife material into Spanish. I crud you negatory. We have a buddy in South America, Alejandro, who translated our powerpoint presentation Womb with a View into spanish. It is the third most downloaded powerpoint we have. There is a muy grande(?) Spanish-speaking population out there. Here in southern California we have more native Spanish speakers than English speakers. We thought we'd start with the prolife and then move into our other stuff. Whaddayathink? Could you help by making a donation to us and earmarking it translation so we can get it to our translator Alejandro? Righ now he's working pro bono, or gratis or... whatever! Thanks! |
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bottom line
* donation flow! the donations we collected at SWC for all the books and tracts and T-shirts paid for our gas there and back! (ahem.)
*Kutless - don't get front row center for these guys thinking you can get good pictures. I forgot that although they are a tight band, the crowds in the front are, shall we say, hyperactive slammers. I know now how a bowling pin feels when someone lays down that perfect strike and then it gets yanked up in the sweep of death. (Could you please pick up my kidney? It's that one there.)
*Pics of SWC - they're coming up on our SWC2003 page, with pix of us, bands, silliness, and lots and lots and lots of kitsch! |
Thanks for your kind words of support and encouragement. We don't expect to please everyone with what we say and how we do it. So prayer and encouragement are always welcome. Thanks very much from the two three of us! |
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