Posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
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In America adolescence is taken for granted, but until recently, the idea of adolescence was unknown in many parts of the world, says Cynthia B. Lloyd, author of Growing Up Global, a National Research Council and Institute of Medicine report. International demographers are worrying about economic, cultural, and political implications of a population boom among the world’s youth. Currently, the total population of 10- to 24-year-olds is estimated at 1.5 billion, of which 86% live in developing countries. The growth is most rapid in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia. Previously, young people tended to move directly from childhood to adulthood. Spurred by improved health care, the onset of puberty is also declining for young people - from about 15 to 12 years of age. This along with economic and technological gains, has affected cultural practices tied to puberty and delayed employment, marriage, and childbearing while increasing time spent in school. Researchers suggest the possibility of a critical and potentially dangerous global generation gap as their political and economic expectations rise. Nearly half of all unemployment in the world is among young people.
Bend Weekly 1/5/07
Let me hear from you on this. A very interesting question considering that Mary, the mother of Christ, was likely about 15 when the Lord was born. Are we training our children to wait too long to get married?
Let me hear from some of you that were married young. I was married at 21, Cindy was 19, and have never regretted it for a second (Cindy on the other hand . . . ).
Posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
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172,000 book titles were published in ‘05, yet only 6% sold more than 5,000 copies. For example, best selling author Seth Godin gave away 2 million copies of his book Small Is the New Big on his website, yet it remains in the top 5 on Amazon. He attributes this to word of mouth. Today publishing consists of 3 segments (printed works, print-on-demand and inventive entertainment) in which authors create personas through multimedia channels, all of which are marketed by search, by social communities on-and offline and by continuous workflow. Publishers must leverage these channels to create books and engage users. David Warlock, Electronic Publishing Services Ltd., says, “We’re not living in discrete product worlds or distributed worlds. We’re in a world where users can connect things otherwise unconnected.”
DM News 1/22/07
What is shocking about this is that my little book on Greek grammar has sold about 5,000 copies! That this puts me in the top 6% of book sales is really unbelievable. Stephan King I am not, but it is nice to know that my sales are not as bad as I thought. On Stephen King, I will try to dig up and post an old message called “The Gospel in Stephen King.” That’s a topic you don’t hear every day.
Posted on Sunday, March 25th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
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As many of you know I have been filling the pulpit for Dr. D. James Kennedy in his absence. For those of you who have never seen the beauty of this wonderful sanctuary here are a few photos; please excuse the short bald man that shows up in them. 
Overall shot of the Alter I am standing underneath the sound board (it looks kind of like a snake, but it meant to be symbolic of the hand of the Lord which stands over the preacher over the word).
A close up of me preaching. As you can tell it is not by might or power that the Lord is building his church here, but only by the pure work of his hand.
Posted on Wednesday, March 14th, 2007 at 11:51 am
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The 10 Most Redeeming Films of 2006 according to Christianity Today: 1-The Nativity Story 2-The New World 3-Sophie Scholl: The Final Days 4-Joyeux Noel 5-The Second Chance 6-Charlotte’s Web 7-Tsotsi 8-The Three Burials of Mequiades Estrada 9-Akeelah and the Bee 10-Children of Men
CT 2/07
Of these films I have seen Sophie Scholl, a dark film about the final days of the Nazi regime and a girl and her brother who stand against Hitler. The film is in German with subtitles. The Second Chance is a Christian film that is well done (unlike many Christian films). The Three Burials is a violent film that has some very redemptive aspects, but also has a very dark premise. For my review of The Children of Men see some past blogs on the movie.
Posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
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For those of you who are interested in the latest sermon or powerpoints from the Sunday school class, a new sermon is up and should be followed by another very quickly. The last two Sunday school powerpoint presentations are up as well. Simply click on the right side button for Matthew Sermons or Sunday school.
Posted on Thursday, March 8th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
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Have you ever wondered why God allows other religions to exist and sometimes even flourish? A new book by Gerald McDermott attempts to answer this question and we will take a look at his answer during the next couple of weeks.
McDermott begins in the introduction to the book by telling us that he believes (as do I) that there are many false gods in the world who long for worship. These evil beings are called gods (false of course) in the Old Testament, and principalities and powers in the New Testament. While the idea of other gods may be troublesome to some of you, think about the fact that Satan is called “the god of this world.”
The fact that these religions are the effect of evil beings does not rule out, however, the fact that there may be some truth in these religions. It is this tension that McDermott wrestles with in this book and that we will examine during the next few weeks.
Next week we will look at chapter one: The Scandal of Particularity: Why Has the True God Come to Only Some People at Some Times?
If you would like to read along, just click here and help support the website at the same time.
If you would like to read along
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