3/21/2008

Freebie Friday: Free Online Theology Classes



Reclaiming the Mind Ministries has an awesome resource online:
They call it "263 Theology Questions and Answers on Videos."
This part of the ministry is basically free online theology classes. It comes with a free PDFs (like this one) file and powerpoints (like this one) and other vocabulary quiz/activities (like this one) that you can follow along with. I try to go to this website once a week and watch two or three videos. It is great! I am learning a lot of stuff here and thought you might like it too.
Reclaiming the mind also has several other cool ministries:
1. Conversing with Scholars - live chat/audio conferences with top scholars/theologians
2. Parchment and Pen blog - this blog has a lot of great deep stuff, I get articles from them a lot
3. Online Theology Classes (that you pay for) for certification and credit
4. Theological papers and article archive

I encourage you to check out Reclaiming the Mind

In Christ
Alex Dolin

3/20/2008

The Christian Bubble Cycle

Unusual Rant from Alex Dolin: Illustration and concepts from Dan Kimball


Christian One: "So what did you do Tuesday night?"
Christian Two: "Went out with Brother Tom, Pastor Bill, and my wife to Applebee's."
Christian One: "Interesting Wednesday night, did you do anything special?"
Christian Two: "Brother Tom, Pastor Bill, my wife, and I went to go see that new movie."
Christian One: "How about Thursday night?"
Christian Two: "My wife and I played cards with Brother Tom, and Pastor Bill."
Christian One: "And Friday night?"
Christian Two: "Brother Tom and Pastor Bill, and I had guy's night at his house."

.......You get the idea! A problem I am discovering, of Christianity, as a whole, (as well as in my life) is that we are in constant fellowship with ourselves - Christians! If we do not INTENTIONALLY sharing our faith, we have a problem!

Fellowship is good, yes? But you can do too much of it...remember that there are many aspects to our faith while Fellowship is a part of it. But so is evangelism. Think about what too much (or a life completely filled with fellowship) does to our attitudes of sharing the gospel. Especially if we not only live around Christians, but are trained well in theology and discipleship...our heads get bigger but our heart for the lost gets hard and smaller. We say to ourselves..."God is Sovereign, I mentioned my faith..." and that is it.... that is sad.

A heart of evangelism, a heart of worship. A heart for the lost....that is what we need! Never give up on sharing your faith!

There are a lot of people in this (ever-turning towards a post-Christian) American society that get this bitter edge when they hear that I am a Christian. Or they get uncomfortably awkward. They say that most Christians they have meet are hypocrites or too extreme. They have a false-dichotomy of the Christian faith. And Unfotunately both sides of the dichotomy are negative. Have you ever considered/wondered why people think they way they do about Christians? They think such negative things because they do not understand us. They don't know what the Gospel is, they are not hearing it enough from humble hearts. From Christians who care and are intentional about their faith.

What we should do? Well that is why I started this blog. I am all about learning more about theology and finding other really great Christian fellowship, discipleship, training, and ministry tools online....but I will never stop sharing my faith. The Lord gives us each opportunities in our lives, to go into the World and make disciples. I want to help others do this! As I am journeying to do the same.

The Christian Bubble Drama

Illustrates my point even furthere....

Reflecting on the past: Summer Project

So I was looking through some DVDs and CDs in my apartment the other day and I ran across one that was marked "TC." or Traverse City, MI- where I was the Summer of '05. It was a Summer Project with Campus Crusade for Christ. It was the best summer of my life. That summer was a piece of what Heaven will be like! I recommend that if you are college-aged Christian and want to challenge your faith and have a lot of fun- go on a summer project! Here are some of the highlight videos I found randomly:


This was me, getting my long hair cut by friends




This is a skit my Bible study created




This is an accident during men's time on a boat...good times

Enjoy,
Alex

3/19/2008

The Bible and media

So I located a really neat website online:
http://www.youversion.com/
On this website you can log in on a free account and read the Bible in many versions as well as see videos/media that relate to verses of the Bible. It is a community of contributions. After you sign up you are allowed to contribute videos, links, articles, or anything to help illustrate or drive home points made in the Bible....

Which leads to a great question: How do you feel about mixing Media and the Word of God? One extreme would be that the Bible is a double-edge sword that illustrates itself enough. The other side is that the Bible is old, dry, and hard to understand so it needs media to "modernize" it, if you will...

Personally, I believe that the Word of God is absolute truth and that media is not. Media such as videos can sometimes be helpful to further the points already in the Bible. I use them a lot to get students attention in my youth ministry messages, but I believe that the Bible is the Sword of our faith. What do you think?

3/18/2008

Scientology

Scientology has been in the news recently for a couple of reasons:
  • More and more celebrities are turning to it. One of my childhood heroes, Will Smith, being one of the latest

  • Enturbulation.org reports that Hubbard stole Scientology from someone else...

I would love take the time to explain more about Scientology and give a theological discussion on it, but I will save that for a later post.

What do you think about Scientology as plagiarized material?

3/17/2008

New And Dangerous Drug Alert

Salvia Divinorum - (AKA Mint Magic, Sally-D, Divining Sage, herb-of-the-virgin)

Salvia divinorum is an extraordinary visionary herb.It is a species of sage and part of the mint family. It is a powerful hallucinogen. The drug is entirely legal right now, unregulated, and relatively cheap.


I want to warn people about this drug. I am no expert, so I am providing some resources for others to look at and consider carefully.
Center for Parent and Youth Understanding Guide
Sage Wisdom User Guide
Stop teen drug addiction website


The question:
Is Salvia the "new marijuana?"