parables of a prodigal world

Audio/video seemed to dominate the blogosphere (or that slice of it on which I keep an eye) this week. Well, mostly video. The inclusion of "audio" here is just blatant self-promotion of the N.T. Wright / Bart Ehrman debate audio that's been bringing in so much traffic here at Parables that I decided to put it front-and-center (or front-and-right shifted, more accurately) for a while until the brouhaha dies down. As for the unusual number of really interesting video posts this week, here's a sampling: Blatant self-promotion once again. YHWH speaks through a classic Sesame Street clip . Hard to pin down a one-liner for this one over at iMonk , called Awake O' Sleeper . Michael's at it again, this time via the TommyMertonHead persona from the Tavern . I found this one from Mofast's site, though. A desperate McCain hires a few well-known film-makers in a last ditch effort . BW3 gives us the biblical narrative for a hip-hop, sound bite culture . By the way, ...

I've got the big picture now. I've immersed myself in getting the big picture for some years. And I think I've got it. Not got it, but, you know, I get it. It's about God's plan to save the world , not just me. I get it. I'm not to sit back content with my ticket to heaven. This is a missional thing. Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Life after life after death. I get it. Unity. No finger-pointing. Its not an us-versus-them thing. We're all in this together. One family. One humanity. One church. One love. I get it. I get it. And there was a very real, very important reason why I needed to get it. Not getting it was destroying my new-found, fledgling faith. It couldn't have been all about me. It couldn't have been all about how I could get to heaven. It just couldn't. None of it made sense if that's what it was all about. It had to be something else. Something altogether different. Well... It's not. It's not black or w...

Grace and Peace, YHWH

I spent the weekend pondering/praying through some of the issues raised during last week's debate between N.T. Wright and Bart Ehrman on " The Problem of Evil ." Given the time restraints and the format imposed by the organizers, Wright and Ehrman could really do no more than to give their overarching views on the issue. I was hoping to see more interaction, more dialogue than debate. Nevertheless, this is such a huge topic, perhaps the hugest of all topics, maybe we were all expecting more than could have been delivered in a single evening (or in a single lifetime). But enough points were raised, enough new angles offered, to keep me busy, spiritually and intellectually, for the greater part of the weekend. Here's what I came away with, in no particular order other than the order in which these pop to mind. I'll start with my most controversial discovery: 1. Some professing atheists are more Christ-like than many professing Christians. 2. We tend to pose "T...