Ever feel like things are getting worse? Afraid your values are for yesterday and that all the power is in the hands of tyrants?
Fear not! It has been worse. . . imagine being a Greek or a Jew at the end of the fourth century . . .
Socrates begat Plato, Plato begat Aristotle, Aristotle begat Alexander and the world of the classical Greeks came to an end. Alexander destro...
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Jesus Christ, risen and at the right hand of God, continues to speak for himself. The story of Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus, retold in Acts 26, shows this in two different ways.
He speaks for himself directly, personally, in red print if your Bible prints things that way. This is special informatioon provided here in Acts 26. From the versions of the same st...
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An American in Paris . . . and Britain X
British people often laugh at American Christian reverence for C.S. Lewis and American Christian academics are generally sensitive to this laughter. Nothing makes an American academic more insecure than the well modulated sneers of his British counterpart. Americans are (it appears): loud, overly religious, patriotic in a brash way, ...
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This golden banner signifies that cats and birds can live together in harmony. At the world-famous cat theme park Meowsyland, the cats all promised not to eat the birds, instead hosting the first annual Bird Tuesday.
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When Jesus Christ confronted Saul on the road to Damascus, he showed himself to be the greatest teacher, the ultimate rabbi. The ascended Christ is that teacher "than which none greater can be imagined."
He taught so much in so few words. Look at Acts 26:14: “It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’” It’s easy enough to know what that means if you've w...
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It is easy for teachers and administrators to focus on the task of teaching outcomes (assessment and evaluation) and not on the students themselves. The problem is that it is difficult to think about a classroom full of students as 25 discrete people with radically diverse learning styles and personal needs. It is much easier to see them as one or maybe two categories. Class...
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An American in Paris . . . and Britain IX: On Seeing Julius Caesar: Shakespeare and the Noble Tyrant
Hugo Chavez rolled up to the podium at the United Nations and did what modern tyrants in the making do.He ranted and he roiled up the crowd by hating George Bush, but he fed nobody, helped no one, and gained nothing.
He is the people's god, of the moment, hated by the wor...
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Paul’s encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus was unique, probably because of the unique ministry he was called to.
We live in "the church age," the age when Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Father --the martyr Steven in his dying vision looked up and saw him there-- from which he shall come to judge the living and the dead. In this ...
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Dead men do not keep working –but Jesus does. Dead men do not add anything to their list of accomplishments, but Jesus has extended his. The gospels end, and Jesus goes right on working. Choosing the apostles was something Jesus did very early in his ministry, but in Acts 26 we see him laying hold of a new apostle, Saul/Paul, and teaching him a lesson.
But the entir...
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This story is why elaborately constructed reasons that Pope Benedict XVI was wrong in the most recent flap with radical Islam are wrong.
Radical Islam wants no criticism of its major figures or of its truth claims.
I do not believe that we should gratuitously insult persons others revere. There is no place in a multi-cultural society at war for thoughtless offense.
...
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I made some predictions at the start of the year on KKLA. Here they are. . . with my comments below the original post in italics.
KKLA gives me a chance to host a monthly radio program with three other fine folk!
I love doing radio. . . and if anyone wants a fill in host (cough, cough) I am here and talking.
My shift happened to be on the last day of the old year....
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Stonehenge is a good reminder that early English culture was, well, primitive. Compare Stonehenge to the Roman baths in Bath.
Christianity was good for England. It added no new problems, cured many old ones, and was capable of change under pressure.
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In the twenty-sixth chapter of the book of Acts, Paul makes his defense before king Agrippa.
“Speak for yourself, Paul,” said king Agrippa.
Paul was hardly the kind of person who needed a special invitation to speak for himself. He was outspoken by nature, and he’d been warming the bench in prison for a long time now, waiting for a chance to make his case to...
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