Posted in June 2010

The World Turned Upside Down

The book of Acts records the conflict between the first Christians and the pagan communities they were evangelizing. Those communities said they were advocating customs unlawful for Romans to adopt (Acts 16:20), that they were “turning the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). Have you ever wondered what they meant by that? An article in the … Continue reading »

PC(USA) ordains 1st Iranian Pastor

Hey, this is a small world. Mansour Khajehpour was just ordained by Seattle Presbytery as the first Iranian to become a PC(USA) minister of Word and sacrament. I knew Mansour (a little) in seminary. He was in the class two years after mine, so we didn’t have any classes together. One of my kids was … Continue reading »

A Catholic Martyr

I was vaguely aware that Pope Benedict XVI recently visited Cyprus, but I missed this story about the martyrdom of Luigi Padovese, on June 3 of this year.

Atheist Recommends Christians Convert Muslims?

MacLeans has an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali woman who was raised as a Muslim but who has become an atheist. In the article, she said Christians should proselytize Muslims, at least in the West:

Does anyone still have a Hi-8 camcorder?

Does anyone has a Hi-8 camcorder I could borrow? I’ve got some old tapes I’d like to convert to DVD. Our Hi-8 camcorder is busted, so there’s no way to play the tapes back, and that’s step one of any conversion. I don’t want to pay a service to convert them. I’d rather borrow a … Continue reading »

Barzillai’s Legacy

Barzillai was one of the people who helped King David during the period when David’s son Absalom was trying to usurp the throne. (See 2 Samuel 17:27-29.) Later, when David had regained the throne and was rewarding people who’d been loyal during the rebellion, Barzillai shows up. He’s there to help David get back across … Continue reading »