Happy Monday

No, we’re not doing another snow day collection. (If you missed it click here.) Let’s get on to the scriptures, quotations and comics you’ve come to know and love, now with 90% less snow.

(click image for larger) 

From Saturday Rambler Daniel Jepsen via Internet Monk:
The toy maker Playmobil is getting ready for the 500 year anniversary of the Reformation.  The first item produced is a Martin Luther action figure, holding a quill and a German Bible.  It quickly became the fastest selling item Playmobil ever produced.

There is more stuff in the Happy Monday folder than we can publish in 5 weeks! So enjoy the bonus image below and in spite of everything HAVE A HAPPY MONDAY! 

The Master’s Table Tutorial

If you are well acquainted with The Master’s Table then you probably don’t need the tutorial. I’m not trying to insult anyone’s intelligence but new subscribers still trickle in from time to time and search engines bring visitors daily. After blogging these many years I decided a tutorial for first time visitors might be a good place to start.

The Read and Share File: Ronnie Floyd on the SBC

I read a lot of stuff. Each week I check out most of the links on Paul Wilkinson’s Wednesday Link List and Daniel Jepsen’s Saturday Ramblings. I visit Church Leaders .com several times frequently as well as subscribe to several WordPress blogs via their built-in reader. Baptist Press is the newsletter of the Southern Baptist Convention and it comes to my email inbox daily. I share relatively few of the many news articles and blog posts I read each day. Most of what I publish is my own stuff, the Master’s Table is more than an aggregator. My readers know how to find the Internet, duh. But every now and then I find something particular enjoyable, very informative or rather important and pass those things along in a bit I like to call The Read & Share File.

Ronnie Floyd has been the president of the Southern Baptist Convention for less than one year but has observed a few things. He also has a few concerns:

Lesson #1: Change is in the air

While many imagine that our convention never changes, this is just not the case. Churches, associations, state conventions and Southern Baptist entities are changing. Are they all changing? Probably not, but I would say many are changing because they know they must change to stay or become relevant. Some are changing rapidly, but most change is incremental.

Whatever level or pace, there is definitely a spirit of change in our convention. This is tremendous and highly commendable. Just a couple of years ago, resistance to change was probably more embraced than friendliness to change.

Let’s pray for one another to be so open to God’s leadership that we will change as He wills and directs.

Read the full article via Baptist Press. Floyd’s concern for the growth of healthy churches and the priority of evangelism are not unique to Southern Baptists.

 

Happy Tuesday?

Happy Tuesday? I don’t understand. I’m sorry, I… I do not know what that means.

:-D

Happy Monday

Happy Monday? More like Happy Snow Day! Whether you got 12 more inches this weekend (sorry Boston) or your first measurable accumulation of the season (we thought that would be Atlanta today) enjoy it while it lasts. We’re marking the occasion with a special all snow edition of Happy Monday.

Book Review: A Christian Survival Guide

There’s an old saying that goes something like this: People don’t plan to fail, they just fail to plan. The goal of A Christian Survival Guide: A Lifeline to Faith and Growth by Ed Cyzewski is to help Christian believers make a plan.

Cyzewski points out in the introduction that former Christians that have left the faith are often most aware of the serious issues Christianity presents. The last book I reviewed by Mike Hamel asks serious questions that the author doesn’t have good answers for; while he hasn’t left the faith he is no longer as certain as he used to be about the tenets of the Christian faith. A Christian Survival Guide wants readers to anticipates issues that will arise and be prepared ahead of time. From the introduction: This book aims to help the saints persevere, and so we’ll focus on answering that last question—what will help you survive as a follower of Jesus? Surviving as a Christian depends on having the right beliefs, putting them into practice in community with other Christians, and most importantly, meeting with God regularly. If we fail to address basic survival matters such as understanding God’s story from Scripture, defeating sin, or living in step with the Holy Spirit, we run the risk of missing out on the abundant life Jesus promised us, if not losing our intimacy with Jesus and leaving the faith altogether.

Aaron’s Golden Calf

“Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 

Begin by reading Exodus 32:1-6. The Hebrews demanded that Aaron make gods for them to worship and remarkably Aaron did so. Up until this point of the Exodus narrative Aaron had been as the spoken voice of God to the people of Israel. God would instruct Moses, Moses would share the commands with Aaron, and Aaron would in turn relay all that God had said to the people. They had all witnessed the plagues in Egypt, miraculously crossed the Red Sea, and trembled in fear as smoke and fire descended onto Mount Sinai. They had not yet received the written tablets but the words of the Ten Commandments had been spoken by God in Exodus 20. Before and after the commandments were listed all the congregation of Israel said together “All that you say we will do.” So why after all that would they risk provoking the anger of God by making an idol to worship?