I came across this video from a post that George P. Wood made on his blog. Normally, when I see a video over a couple of minutes I don’t usually watch it, but I decided to settle in and give it a few minutes. Almost immediately, I realized that this was going to be well worth my time.
In it, Dr. Peter Williams provides some great insight into some evidence for believing that eyewitnesses wrote the Gospel accounts. Do yourself a favor and check it out.
Today we started a new message series at Cornerstone called, “Garmin or God: A Road Trip of Transformation.” Throughout the summer we’re going to follow the journey of the Isrealites as they wandered through the wilderness and learn from their experiences.
Right now, the plan is to create a short video element for each message in the series. You can see the first video below.
I created the graphic for the series using one of our staff member’s TomTom and a bobble head (body?) Jesus that I ordered online. In fact, I actually changed the concept after the first idea didn’t come together for me (shown below). We originally wanted to take a picture of a car dashboard with GPS and Jesus. It was just too busy and I wasn’t happy with how things were laid out.
So I scrapped all that and went with a more simple design. Granted, it’s nothing ground breaking (Myriad Pro font, white background, wet floor…Apple anyone?), but for me, it was a win.
This was the first time I did any photography for my own design, so there was a bit of a learning curve for how to take a picture and get a useable image. This was particularly true relating to the images I used for the final design. I ended up shooting them outside on a white box. I tried different lighting and darker backgrounds (like a green storage bin) but the silver springs on Jesus reflected the colors and it was impossible to work with in Photoshop.
In the end, I’m happy with it. We had a good response today and my prayer is that stuff like this enhances people’s experience at Cornerstone and gives them something to look forward to.
Several years ago I put my first website together using Mambo, a Content Management System who’s project forked and resulted in the creation of Joomla. A couple of years ago, I began working with WordPress as well.
Because I enjoy working with these programs and I was looking for a way to earn a little money on the side, I created scottpress.com (a Joomla-based site). It’s a business/portfolio site of the services that I provide to individuals, churches and small businesses.
Recently, I’ve been busy working on websites for two church clients. About a week or so ago, both of those sites went live. I thought I’d share the links here.
| Southwest Community Church | Northside Church |
|---|---|
 Southwest Community Church |
 Northside Church |
If you know of anyone who needs to update their web presence. Send them to scottpress.com and I’ll get them set up with a great site powered by a powerful CMS (WordPress or Joomla) and a great template like Standard Theme or one of the ones from JoomlaBamboo.
I just finished reading Rob Bell’s latest book, “Love Wins.” It’s been the source of quite a bit of discussion and controversy since the trailer for the book was released several weeks ago. There’s a great chronology of the events here at The Resurgence.
I’m not going necessarily review the book, mainly because there are much better ones out there already. In particular, check out the reviews from Relevant Magazine and George P. Wood, (the later being the best one I’ve seen).
Instead, I’m going to try to distill the main controversy of the book down to it’s simplest parts. The problem with some of the reviews is that they are LONG (like 20 page pdfs…) and most people (like me) don’t want to wade through that.
Here’s how I see it.
Most Christians believe that we have the opportunity to choose heaven or hell (by accepting or rejecting Jesus) here in this life. Once we die (or at the judgement when Christ returns) that is it. There are no more opportunities. We’ve made our decision and the time is up. Some go to heaven and some go to hell.
Bell’s view is that our choice doesn’t end at death. He concludes that a loving God wouldn’t limit our time of choosing to a short period here on earth. He says,
God would, in essence, become a fundamentally different being to them in that moment of death, a different being to them forever. A loving heavenly father who will go to extraordinary lengths to have a relationship with them would, in the blink of an eye, become a cruel, mean, vicious tormenter who would ensure that they had no escape from an endless future of agony.
Bell’s conclusion that choice continues on after death begins with his reading of 1 Timothy 2:3-4 “this is good and pleases God our savior, who wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.” Which leads him to ask the question, “Does God get want he wants?” In other words, will all men be saved?
Bell suggests in chapter 4, that God will reconcile everyone to himself. He’s careful though, to acknowledge that we still have choice in the matter. So, he doesn’t believe God forces anyone into heaven…we choose that (even if it’s after death)…but he strongly implies that all will eventually make that decision.
The other reviews I linked to above do a great job explaining some of the short-comings of “Love Wins.” As someone who used to listen to Bell’s weekly messages quite a bit (several years ago), I was disappointed with how it the book felt a bit one-sided. As I read it, I couldn’t help but feel that Bell was addressing some of the misunderstandings of a traditional view of hell. However, at the same time, I kept thinking he wasn’t really addressing my traditional views of heaven, hell or God. Instead, I felt like he was attacking a caricature of those things…a caricature that I didn’t ascribe to either (and I would guess that many others also don’t agree with). For someone who is known for raising questions and living in the midst of paradox…Bell doesn’t seem to be able to hold the tension of God’s love and man’s free will. Either God is loving and everyone is given eternal choice, or God is a mean, vicious tormentor who punishes people unnecessarily. For him, there doesn’t seem to be any other way to understand it.
So does Rob Bell believe in heaven and in hell? – Yes, as a present realities and ones that continue into the afterlife.
Is Rob Bell a unviersalist? He would say no…because he believes we have choice in the matter (God doesn’t just scoop everyone up into heaven). But he does indicate that God will eventually be reconciled with all men…so…kind of, yes.
My conclusion in bullet points:
Last Sunday night, Cornerstone Church held “Kid’s Got Talent,” a fundraiser for summer camp. Parker showed off his skills by telling some jokes.
