Reasons to Belize!
A couple of us here at swordandspirit are planning on going down to Belize from 30 June to 5 July. Why, you may ask? To teach basic apologetics to some of the local people at Machaca Discipleship Training Camp in southern Belize. If you have been blessed by anything here or feel that maybe our brand of apologetics might be a blessing to these people, would you consider helping us out financially? It will be a little over $1000/person and at least two of us are going. And our day jobs are not exactly what one might call "CEO salary" status. ;) IF you can, please go to our Donation Station where you can donate via check or PayPal. THANKS!!! Here is our dedicated Belize 2009 page. (Our last trip is here. Go take a look!)

You think you have problems?!
Our Persecution Updates have been reformatted and made purtier than ever before. What are the Persecution Updates, you may ask? They are weekly powerpoints showing what is happening to Christians throughout the world merely because they believe in Jesus. Go and be sobered, and like us, learn for yourself that things could be worse here - way worse. The free presentations are here.

Blah blah blah.
We have started up again our conviction that the world needs to hear our opinions on everything. (Humor us here.) Our infamous blog, now renamed The Hilt to keep with our sword theme, is up and running. Recent elections have fired us up a bit and we feel the need, the need for blowing off a little steam. Care to read? Care to be indoctrinated? Dare to tell us we are wrong? ;) Go here and fire away! :)

Sword and Spirit goes to war - kinda.
A couple of our blessed troops in Iraq sorta like what we are doing here and are using our Apologetics Booklet in Iraq. Yay! Moreover, they are wearing our shirts. Yay squared! C'mon, admit it... there is a certain "special feeling" attached to the fact that at least a couple of our men and women in harm's way, the ones we pray for daily, are active in a spiritual way, ministering to other troops in the ways of spiritual warfare. Go team!!! Pictured here is 1st Lieutenant Hallie Becker. Here is another of her. And here is a picture of Captain James Jardin wearing our new shirt (see below). Thanks Hallie and James! You are in our prayers. :) :) :)

Kickin' some new shirt!
This one is a Bruce Cockburn lyric we have been wanting to do for a millenium. And now... well... we have. It is part of our tiny attempt as followers of the Man from Galilee to be active participants in this mess we call Planet Earth. Active, rather than the passive non-agressors we can be. Take it at whatever level you want: spiritual, relational, intellectual, moral, political, any -al you want. Just do something to make a change and make sure you include Jesus as part of your message! (Derp!). In the next day we'll update the shirt page to include details, but you can have one for a donation. We ain't selling this thing. We're giving it away as a thank-you for people who help the ministry.

Ka-Boom!
Well, finally! This talk was a long time coming. One of the most misunderstood phenomena in the history of science and faith, to wit, the creation of the universe, is an apologetics tool like few others. Yet for some bizarre and illogical reasons many Christians will not touch it. Here we talk about what the Bible says about the beginning, what nature says about, and see that they are one and the same. And - added bonus! - we shoot down some tired myths we Christians carry around like so much stinky B.O.
Go here to get it!

Paper your walls.
You need a fine wallpaper or background for your Mac or PC, don't you? Say yes! Well, we have a couple of them for you. One is our Gaelic version of Your Love is teaching me how to kneel. The other is Bob the Knight, our mascot, so to speak. They come in all sizes for all displays. They are hi-res, they are purty, they are yours. Go here. :)

Our hero.
Alright, we know you may not like this guy here for any of a number of reasons, like his bug glasses, or his rock 'n roll music, or his smoking, or his onstage antics, or his occasional sailor mouth, or - worst of all - that he is Irish. But you cannot ignore that he is one of the few celebrities in the world who is actually doing something constructive with that celebrtity status - like trying to end extreme poverty and AIDS. Wow, it's almost Jesus-like, this love for the poor and outcast.
Just recently Bono (the guy we're talking about, a confessed Christian) received the NAACP's Chairman Award. You can see it here. The first five minutes are typical award bantor - blah blah blah - but by the end of Bono's sermonette, if you aren't welling up with tears and motivated to be more like Jesus, we diagnose you with acardia - you have no heart. Give it a look and be inspired!!!

Do you know Him?
We are embarrassed to admit that we have never heard of S. M. Lockridge before. Shame on us. And to make matters worse he was from San Diego!!! But what a preacher he must have been to deliver a sermon like "That's My King." Here is a small video which puts just 4 minutes of the slightly longer sermon to pictures. Wake up every morning with this and if you aren't moved, you're dead.

Bail ó Dhia ort. You like foreign languages, huh? Try this on. We wanted to make a shirt that said Your love is teaching me how to kneel, from U2's Vertigo, since that's pretty much what we want to be about. But we thought we'd do it in Gaelic in honor of U2's Irish heritage and c'mon! where are you ever gonna see an Irish shirt outside of Ireland or an Irish festival?
Our friends at The Daltai Discussion forum couldn't EXACTLY match the phrase without massacring the language so they took some poetic liberty and ba-da-bing! we get this expression of celtic beauty. It really means both (a) that your example teaches me humility, and (b) that I am humbled by the generosity of your love". Cool, eh? that double-meaning thing? Go here and see it in more detail and order one. Come on, you know we practically give our stuff away. [by the way, it's pronounced iss oola-di may duh ghrah, plus or minus] Better, it sounds like this. Thanks Aonghus!
Here is the new art for the shirt. (here).