Daily Texts
The 2006 edition of the Daily Texts is now available and can be ordered online from Mount Carmel Ministries. These are Bible texts selected annually by the Moravian Church and published in book form since 1731. The edition published by Mount Carmel contains bonuses such as Luther's Small Catechism, the Lectionary, several prayer formats -- including Lectio Divina. There is also some room for journaling. This is a great little devotional book. A single copy is about $8. If you order 10 or more they are $6 (free shipping). And there are additional breaks with quantity orders.


Homemade pipe organ -- for the home
The mechanical engineer who designed and is building this five stop, five rank, all wood pipe organ for his home isn't even an organist -- and can barely play the piano. (He's a trumpet player!) But he loves music, organs, and woodworking. Link (via)

I'm thinking of all the possibilities this could have for the house church movement. :-)


Wal-Mart breaks into the luxury market
But they're only moving high-end merchandise over the Internet -- at least at this point.


Jews on the move
Large numbers of Jews are leaving France and resettling in Israel, the US, and increasingly Montreal, Canada -- where the language is familiar and the community is safe. The diaspora continues -- just in a new place.


Beyond Atheism
Comedian Penn Jillette is serious when he says that he is beyond Atheism. Atheism is the easy part -- integrating that non-belief into everyday life is work. At least that's my take on his interview. It's self-centered empiricism -- nothing really new there. He just has a new way of presenting it.


Operation Christmas Child
Last evening Anthony Salafia delivered the 52 gift- and goodie-filled shoeboxes that Cornerstone people put together for Operation Christmas Child. He got them to the Manteca drop-off just in time to catch the last truck out (If you missed the deadline you can ship your box directly to the Boone, North Carolina address on the information flyer). The boxes will eventually end up in North Carolina and from there Samaritan's Purse will send them around the globe to children in impoverished places.

Last year one of our young girls, Madi Mayol, included a letter in the shoebox she put together. It ended up in the Philippines, in a village really close to the place from which her father's family fares -- and in the hands of another young girl who has become a pen pal.

We've been really blessed to be a part of this ministry. Now the focus shifts -- not only do we do our Covenant World Relief offering next Sunday but we also start receiving the Angel Tree gifts for the children of prisoners, and the Coats4Kids, and the Turlock Together donations, and... It is just plain busy right now. It would be nice if we could spread these things out a little more so that we "never tire of doing good." (2 Thessalonians 3:13)


26 years in the making
The New Testament has been translated into Gullah, the creole language spoken by slaves and their descendants along the sea islands of the Southeast coast of the US.


Missionary opportunity
Camden, New Jersey, is again the nation's most dangerous city, according to Morgan Quitno Press, the Lawrence, Kansas-based company which publishes "City Crime Rankings," an annual reference book of crime statistics. The city, which is also among the nation's poorest, feels that the distinction, which they also received last year, has hurt their revitalization efforts.

This seems like a great opportunity to highlight the work of a fellow Fuller alum, Bruce Main, who has developed a ministry in Camden called Urban Promise. Kudos to them and all the others who follow God's leading to serve in such places. God loves Camden as much as he loves Lawrence, OC, and Turlock!


Anglican realignment
Two church bodies which left the Worldwide Anglican Communion when they disassociated themselves from the Episcopal Church USA have once again reconnected with the Anglican Communion -- this time through the Anglican Church of Nigeria. It is at this point a limited agreement of communion but significant in what it represents -- and where it is leading.

The Reformed Episcopal Church broke from the Episcopal Church in 1873 because they thought the main Episcopal body was becoming too high church. The Anglican Province of America left the ECUSA in 1968 because of liberalism in the mainline body. Both are still fairly small groups.

It is fascinating to watch the whole Anglican Communion in the process of realignment. It's like watching a repairman working on an appliance -- juryrigging some wiring around a faulty part, then adding in a piece that was old and retired a long time ago when it was replaced by something "new and improved." The machine is at least "functional" until a more permanent solution is in hand.

And while it is troubling to watch one part of the church unravel, it is encouraging to see how God raises up faithful people, congregations, and networks of congregations to simply bypass that which is for the time being broken and unusable. The kingdom of God moves forward with or without us -- whether we're Anglicans, Methodists, Lutheran Pietists, Baptists, or part of the Independent Charismatic-Dispensationalist hybrid phenomena. That's both encouraging and scary!