The Late Great

The Wall Street Journal, ran a center column piece recently about the continued popularity of J. Vernon McGee and his "Thru The Bible", radio broadcasts. He is carried on over 800 stations in the US and Canada, despite the fact that he died fourteen years ago. I suppose that this is a testament to the lasting power of the man and his teachings, but it is still a little creepy.

Religious Tolerance

To hear some pundits opine, the US is not a tolerant society. Homophobia, racism, religious conflicts, etc . . . But compared to the rest of the world, the US is by far the most tolerant society on the face of the earth. We can actually discuss religious topics without resorting to violence. Harsh words, accuastions, and so on we certainly have. But based on the reactions in Nigeria (which was once considered a shining light of Africa) to the presence of and comments about the Miss World Pageant, we are light years ahead of the Moslem world. Violence erupts very occasionally, and the episodes are few and far between. But the death toll in Nigeria is now over 200, and a journalist has had a death threat, issued against her by a political leader. Flawed though we are, we are the best, most diverse, most tolerant country on the face of the Earth..

The Will of God
Quote of the week, unfortunately I don't know who said it first. "It is not the will of God that people kill themselves fighting over the will of God."

There is so much angst among believers striving to discover the will of God in their lives. In some very rare cases, there may be a very particular path God intends you to take, but odds are your not that important. I know for darned sure that I am not that important, and if I miss one step in the path, God does not consider me "out of His will" and a hopeless case. God's will for your life does not include things like having the "right" job or the "right" mate. God's will for your life is this: To love, to show compassion and mercy, and to wopship. As they say, "everything else is details."

Relevant Links
I have read a few books lately from an interesting publisher, Relevant Books. As their name implies, they produce books on polular culture that reflect a biblical worldview. Among the topics for their books are U2, Bob Dylan, and Tony Soprano. Upcoming titles include a devotional that looks intriguing. Relevant? Certainly. Intersting? Yes.

The book publishing comes from the same house that produces Relevant Magazine, a mag which I have not read but from the website seems solid. Let me know if you read any of the books or the magazine.

The Remnant
I just finished up Left Behind. #10, The Remnant. I held off until #6 or #7 in the series was out before I started reading them, then got completely caught up. Within the context of the series, #10 is fine. It's not the greatest book series ever, not even the greatest book series put out by a Christian or a religious publisher, but . . . it's spent 10 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. What makes it more of a shame is that top notch work by believers has a hard time getting out of the Christian ghetto, while this stuff sells a couple million copies. It makes me wish their was a literary P.O.D. out there, a no compromise act that gets attention solely because of the quality of the work.