Learning

I recently took my family to visit the Oklahoma City Museum of Art for a special, one-of-a-kind new exhibit. Called “Passages,” the display “brings the pages of the Bible to life. This worldwide traveling exhibit allows people of all interests to experience the dramatic and insightful inner workings of the book that has altered history, shaped cultures, inspired minds and changed lives.”

It was nothing short of a five-star experience for each of us. If you have any regard for the Bible–or even if you do not–you will want to check this one out.

Click here for more information.

One of the most common questions Christians ask is “How do I ‘do’ quiet time?” It’s a simple question, but one for which this no simple answer. The most effective “recipe” for a quiet time will vary from person to person, of course, as different people learn differently, are more attentive at different times of the day, etc. It is helpful, though, to see how other people manage their quiet times, as it’s a great way to get ideas fro tweaking one’s own. I was quite excited, then, to catch an older podcast with Dr. William Lane Craig of Reasonable Faith where he shares his quiet time schedule, and it was full of great ideas. Read the rest of this entry »

A person who is pondering a vocation as a Christian missionary came to me, asking what reading (aside from the Holy Bible) they ought to pursue. Off the top of my head I recommended these works:

In addition to the Bible, I recommend these:  

1. Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis
2. The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis
3. The Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan
4. Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton
5. Why We Love the Church, by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck
6. Confessions, by St. Augustine
7. Church History Made Easy, by Timothy Paul Jones
8. How to be a Christian in a Brave New World, by Joni Eareckson Tada
9. The Faith, by Charles Colson
10. The Bible Answer Man Book: Collector’s Edition, by Hank Hanegraaff

What would you recommend?

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In an interview with USAToday, author Charles Murray says too many people go to college today. Read the interview here.

From Act I Scene II of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare:

Soothsayer
Beware the ides of March.

CAESAR
He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass.

“We may, indeed, indulge in sport and jest, but in the same way as we enjoy sleep or other relaxations, and only when we have satisfied the claims of our earnest, serious task.”

-Cicero

“To be bred in a place of estimation; to see nothing low and sordid from one’s infancy; to be taught to respect one’s self; to be habituated to the censorial inspection of the public eye; to look early to public opinion; to stand upon such elevated ground as to be enabled to take a large view of the widespread and infinitely diversified combinations of men and affairs in a large society; to have leisure to read, to reflect, to converse; to be enabled to draw and court the attention of the wise and learned, wherever they are to be found; to be habituated in armies to command and to obey; to be taught to despise danger in the pursuit of honor and duty; to be formed to the greatest degree of vigilance, foresight, and circumspection, in a state of things in which no fault is committed with impunity and the slightest mistakes draw on the most ruinous consequences; to be led to a guarded and regulated conduct, from a sense that you are considered as an instructor of your fellow-citizens in their highest concerns, and that you act as a reconciler between God and man; to be employed as an administrator of law and justice, and to be thereby amongst the first benefactors to mankind; to be a professor of high science, or of liberal and ingenious art; to be amongst rich traders, who from their success are presumed to have sharp and vigorous understandings, and to possess the virtues of diligence, order, constancy, and regularity, and to have cultivated an habitual regard to commutative justice: these are the circumstances of men that form what I should call a natural aristocracy, without which there is no nation.”

-Edmund Burke

“The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.”

-Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

by Morris H. Chapman

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)– I am truly amazed at the excellence of many of our Christian colleges and universities. I serve as a trustee of Union University in Jackson, Tenn., and we have remarkable students from around the world and a first-class faculty to train them. Several times throughout the year we send out graduates who will elevate the professionalism in their respective fields but also who will transform the world with the message of the Gospel.

But in celebrating accomplishments like these, I now wonder if our focus in the evangelical community should shift at least in part from training our children during the transition to adulthood to placing greater emphasis on training up a child in the way he should go. I’m not advocating the neglect of what we have already established in higher education, but simply a course correction in an area that seems to have suffered neglect — the protection and nurturing of the spiritual health and growth of children and adolescents. In far too many public schools throughout the country our children are being bombarded with secular reasoning, situational ethics and moral erosion.

Read the rest here.

“The Darwin 2009 Project at the University of Oklahoma will mark the anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of publication of his On the Origin of Species with activities and speakers throughout 2009, including a March 6 speech by atheist Professor Dr. Richard Dawkins, of Oxford University, in England.

“Professor Dawkins was featured in the 2008 documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, featuring Ben Stein.

“Ahead of the Darwin 2009 Project, Trinity Baptist Church in Norman is hosting the Designed for Faith: Science & Religion in Conversation Conference tomorrow, Sat., February 7, from 8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.”

Source: Oklahoma Family Policy Council Email Newsletter.