Chasing the Wind

It’s National Bailout Day, seeing as how our illustrious US Congress has allocated $700 billion for Wall Street bankers. As Christians, I think we probably could put $700 billion to better use, don’t you?

But I got to thinking that our lives are not ours, we have been purchased at a cost. How much did it cost for Jesus to bail us out? In that view, $700 is mere paper. The Son of God sacrificed Himself.

Chasing the Wind is please tonight to host the 244th Christian Carnival, this week’s collection of the best Christian writing found on the planet. (Hey, if you find better, at least you’re looking. Halleluiah. 🙂 )

In order they were received, here they are –

• Minister Mamie L. Pack presents Called to pray posted at The Life I Now Live. Instead of just watching somebody fail – why not pray for them?
• FMF presents Is It Ok for a Church to Accept Credit Card Donations? posted at Free Money Finance. Are credit cards themselves either good or bad?
• Renae presents Feeding my Pride posted at Life Nurturing Education. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize the tangled weight of expectations.
• And Michael (that’s me) presents Hearing God posted at Chasing the Wind. God wants you to put it into practice. Are you just listening?
• Messy Christian presents The Shack: Is it heresy? Wayne Jacobsen’s answers posted at Messy Christian (2.0). Messy Christian interviews the publisher of The Shack, Wayne Jacobsen, and asks him what he thinks about the controversy swirling around William P. Young’s bestseller.
• Raffi Shahinian presents Top 10 Things I’ve Learned Re: Emerging/Emergent Over the Last Few Weeks posted at parables of a prodigal world. There’s been a lot of internal dialogue about “Emerging Church” / “Emergent” over the last few weeks. Here are some things he’s learned by following that dialogue.
• Daniel Partin presents Defending The Shack: Black Madonna posted at Prophet For Hire: A blog for those seeking relationship with God. Daniel defends The Shack from charges of promoting goddess worship.
• Casey Petersen presents Financial Crises for Dummies, Part 1: Wu-wu-What just happened? posted at The Limitless. The beginning of the Financial Crises for Dummies series, which will examine the basics of what makes our economy work, and how we got into our current financial crisis, leaving out all the Wall Street mumbo-jumbo and buzz words. While this post is strictly about the economy, future posts will be looking into biblical views on money and finances.
• From Weekend Fisher, Did Jesus testify to his identity? posted at Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength. Have you ever talked to a Muslim who challenged, “Where did Jesus say, ‘I am God’?” or a non-Christian who challenged, “Where did Jesus claim to be the Christ?” Weekend Fisher reviews what Jesus said about what testimony on our own behalf is worth — and what witnesses he called on his behalf.
• Diane R presents What is Masculinity Anyway? posted at Crossroads: Where Faith and Inquiry Meet. A lot has been written about the lack of masculinity in our church men. But is the new men’s movement going too far? And is it really true, especially of the younger men?
• This week at Light Along the Journey John thinks about what to do when you see that red Audi convertible drive past you and feel that tug to make a trip to your car dealer in his post Four Ways to Deal with Desire.
• Jeremy Pierce presents Dover Intelligent Design Design Decision posted at Parableman. An evaluation of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, a case back in 2005 that declared an intelligent design curriculum in the Dover school district unconstitutional.
• Henry Imler presents An Evil, Bipolar God posted at Hundie Jo [dot] Com. How do scholars interpret Old Testament commands to destroy other cultures?
• Claudia presents Get Out of That Shell posted at Standing Straight. Claudia hates confrontation, even watching it on TV makes her want to run and hide. We can be like turtles, but it may be necessary to stick our necks out on occasion.
• Annette presents All is in Subjection to him posted at Fish and Cans, a study of Hebrews 2.
• ChrisB presents Half a Blue Parakeet posted at Homeward Bound. An unfortunately negative review of Scot McKnight‘s new book The Blue Parakeet .
• Wickle presents Defining the Pharisees posted at A True Believer’s Blog. Wickle was explaining the Pharisees to his sons, and recaps that conversation, along with some other thoughts about who and what Pharisees do today, and why.
• andriel presents The Purpose of the Law (Part 2) posted at ReturningKing.com. This is part five, the latest installation, in an ongoing series examining the question, “how is a believer to relate to the Old Testament Law of Moses?”
• MedicineMan presents Firmly By The Blade posted at Gladio Mentis – The Sword Of The Mind. A look at how Occam’s Razor really works…and how atheists tend to mishandle it.

And that” wrap up this week’s edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of christian carnival ii using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.