Christian Carnival CLXIII

This week’s Christian Carnival is up, and it’s being hosted this week… here, at Chasing the Wind!

I’ve decided to categorize the entries this week into posts about Jesus, posts about our relationships, and posts about us. Jesus tells us we are to love him and love our neighbor as ourselves, and that reminds me all three of those categories are important. So love should bring you J-O-Y if you love Jesus, Others, You. All three, and in that order.

• Nancy Geiger presents What Nehemiah can teach us about prayer at What I Learned Teaching Sunday School.
• At Veracity-The Way, Purim has prophetic implications for us. Like Chanukah, it is considered a minor feast, but that does not mean we have nothing to learn from it. There are many lessons to be learned from this Feast, one of the most joyous ones in the Hebrew calendar.
• If the Jews were God’s “chosen people” wouldn’t there be something special about them. As it turns out, there does seem to be something. Read God’s Chosen People? at Church Hopping.
• Brian Russell from the Real Meal blog offers a study of Jesus’ call, “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” and the calling of the first Christ followers in “Change Theology: Matthew 4:17-22“
• James Cameron has a documentary that will try to show that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, and had a son, according to finds in a tomb that was discovered 27 years ago. Jesus will not be debunked! at Tidbits and Treasures.
• Richard at dokeo kago grapho soi kratistos theophilos demonstrates the source and significance of the title The Righteous One used by Luke.
• Lent has begun. There are lots of interesting bits in Mark’s Gospel that describe Christ’s involvement in Creation during his baptism and temptation in the wilderness. There are also some great ways you can “green” up your Lent and establish some good stewardship habits that will turn your heart toward God. Don covers both of these and more in a post called “Anticipating the Restoration” over at The Evangelical Ecologist.
• Martin’s entry for the week at Sun and Shield is “Genesis 4-6: what we DO know.” There is one thing, among many we might like to know, that God seems to have wanted us to know from this passage.
• The discussion of the “Jesus Tomb” began a discussion at Brain Cramps for God on “The Tomb of Jesus and Falsification: A Reply” to a comment in a thread in another post.
• Jeremy Pierce presents The Lost Tomb of Jesus posted at Parableman. Some quick thoughts and a bunch of links on the forthcoming documentary “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” that seeks to argue that Jesus’ remains have been found.
• Jan from The View From Her weighs in on the recent “discovery” of Jesus’ family tomb, and provides a perspective on “Finding Jesus’ Body.”
• Matthew Anderson examines the relationship between Jesus and Scripture, pointing out the potential shortcomings of conceiving of Scripture as a “second incarnation.” Read The Analogy of Jesus: The Hypostatic Union of Scripture at Mere Orthodoxy.
• Mike presents The God of Hebrew Scripture: Unjust and Evil? posted at THEOdyssey.

• Mick of the Romans 15:4 Project updates his series on the value of life with Fetal Farming: When Life Has No Value, concerning the investigation of babies being stolen from their mothers after birth and being harvested for stem cells in the Ukraine.
• At Tantalizing if True is a tongue-in-cheek game that proves that if Christians don’t stand against everything… something bad might happen, in Six degrees of Bob Jones, Sr.
• Kathleen’s answer to a difficult Small Group question: What should we do? Our small group, which used to be so loving and kind to one another, has somehow become prickly and ouchy with each other. How do we fix this? We Don’t Like Each Other Any More at Vegetable Soup.
• Janet Evans presents Love may be blind, but it isn’t stupid at Married & Catholic.
• At Crossroads, Diane notes there might be a downside for churches to go emergent or seeker-sensitive that no one has thought of. Read Evangelicals - Is This Your Future?
• Matt at Random Acts of Verbiage was asked to find out a bit about The Secret which is getting a lot of talk time on the Oprah show and specifically how it related to Christianity. What he found was a great article by Professor John Stackhouse. It is a great read for anyone that has had their interest peaked by The Secret. Read Oprah and the Secret.
• The VeggieTales inadvertantly teach us a lesson about the nature of selfishness, market exchanges, virtue, and love. The Tale of an Englishman and a Swede at Acton Institute PowerBlog.
• Mark of Kingdom>>> Church>>> Culture has written a post titled The “Jerry Springerization” of America … or … Celebrating Stupidity. He discuss our nation’s slide into the celebration of the foibles and foolishness of our fellow members of the human race … “America has become a voyeuristic nation. Paparazzi stalk celebrities, hoping to catch them in an embarassing moment. After all, there’s big money to be made. Who knows, maybe the picture taken today will be on the cover of The Enquirer tomorrow?” Mark closes with a look at Ham, the son of Noah, who exposed his father’s nakedness, and the resultant curse he suffered because of it.
• William Meisheid presents Lent 07: Day 6 posted at Beyond The Rim…. In his ongoing Lenten meditation on love, this posting is an examination of agape and what it means to embrace it.
• Michael at Chasing the Wind (hey, that’s me!) wonders Why So Quick to Believe? Non-believers don’t believe Jesus ever existed, but then when fictional “truths” like The Da Vinci Code and the upcoming tomb of Jesus Special, they’ll believe *that*.

• Dana presents Give me liberty or give me debt posted at Principled Discovery.
• Rev Bill has found a Church for folks who have not discovered that “It’s Not About You“!
• Mark Olson presents Race, Reconciliation, and Communion posted at Pseudo-Polymath. Can we learn to trust the other?
• Laurie Bluedorn presents Rolfe Barnard posted at Trivium Pursuit.
• Rey from the Bible Archive plays along with Rebecca and considers some alternate wording for propitiation with two possible deliveries here and here.
• Where can wisdom and understanding be found? Job searches for the answer. Read Wisdom and Understanding at Fish and Cans.
• This week at Light Along the Journey, John continues his blogging through John Piper’s classic book Future Grace with the post The Victory of Grace Over Shame.
• Patricia presents 5 Steps to Overcome Fear of Failure posted at A Better You Blog. Let God show you how to overcome fear of failure and accomplish your life purpose. Here are 5 practical steps to success.
• Continuing the series, Henry at Participatory Bible Study Blog outlines the difference between glosses, collections of glosses, and definitions in Word Study Dangers: Glosses and Definitions.
• Jim Cottrill writes a guest post at the Money Missions Blog titled So you’re the one spearheading that next mission trip. Nervous? He covers 4 things you need to believe if you want your mission trip to be successful.
• Dr. Trudy Veerman of A Christian Counselor shares a short poetic writing called Mirror of The Soul.