EP*C

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. – Jesus

Perspective is a powerful thing.

Persecution in India: Francis’ Response from Cornerstone Church on Vimeo.

Great blog post by Francis Chan over at Catalyst website.

“If I were to ask those closest to you about your relationship with God, what would they say? If I were to ask God the same question, what would He say? If your family, friends, and congregation have better things to say about you than God, it’s because you give them that impression. We do this because we can. God gifted us with an ability to communicate. Too often we use this ability not to convey who we are, but who we want others to think we are.”

You can read the rest here.

1 Peter 1:10-12 is a clear description of what we look back to during Advent.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. (1 Peter 1:10-12 )

For four weeks, it’s as if we’re re-enacting, remembering the thousands of years God’s people were anticipating and longing for the coming of God’s salvation, for Jesus. That’s what advent means—coming. Even God’s men who foretold the grace that was to come didn’t know “what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating.” They were waiting, but they didn’t know what God’s salvation would look like.

You can read the complete article from Noel Piper here.

Here’s a great panel discussion about theology (the study of God) from a young adult ministry called CHANGE out in Sydney, Australia. Carve out a few minutes and work through the videos – really interesting and relevant stuff discussed here.

 This tune is way too good!

The oldest Bible in the world can now be found online! The Codex Sinaiticus, a copy of the Bible from over 1600 years ago can be read on the web, although you’ll have to learn how to read Greek to understand it all.

What’s amazing is that the Codex Sinaiticus contains the entire New Testament, and is only missing small portions of the Old Testament. When you add this on top of manuscripts and parts of manuscripts we have from the first century A.D., the case for the reliability of the Bible in terms of it’s content is pretty strong.

So much for the theory that the Bible has been re-written over the years…

It seems like a useless question, but in reality, God could have made human beings to work 24hrs without needing to rest for nearly 1/3 of our lives. So why did God invent sleep?

John Piper has a brief,  interesting article on the Theology of Sleep - here’s a short excerpt:

“Sleep is a parable that God is God and we are mere men. God handles the world quite nicely while a hemisphere sleeps. Sleep is like a broken record that comes around with the same message every day: Man is not sovereign. Man is not sovereign. Man is not sovereign. Don’t let the lesson be lost on you. God wants to be trusted as the great worker who never tires and never sleeps. He is not nearly so impressed with our late nights and early mornings as he is with the peaceful trust that casts all anxieties on him and sleeps.”

Check out there rest of the article here.

An interesting article from Relevant Magazine on how iPods have completely changed the way music is made, and the way we listen to it.

Check it out here.

Let’s just say people are crazier than I ever thought.

It’s now possible to enjoy church in the ‘drive-in’ format. Check it out here.

Here’s an interesting article on how to go about finding your first apartment from the Art of Manliness site.

While the website is designed specifically for men, there’s some pretty solid advice for anyone looking into this. There’s also some not-so-good advice, such as moving in with your girlfriend/boyfriend (not a good idea!) – basically take the good and leave the bad.

R.O.O.