myopic pilgrim

I kind of dig this. You can build a prayer service based on the Book of Common Prayer (which itself is a worship service builder). I know some folks may see this as mechanical and cheap, lacking life, but it’s not like the prayers or Bible passages it spits out are untrue. If the worship service (any worship service) is dull (even lacking power), I maintain it’s not necessarily the fault of the pastor or worship leader. I think it’s mostly because of what we ourselves have brought to God.

Listen up. This is important. a softer world is selling prints again.

via Jonny Baker:

Marcus Curnow rewrote the worship song classic of our generation, Shout to the Lord, to express the under utilized emotions and tones we read in the Psalms. His angry version of Shout to the Lord was used during the first meeting of Urban Seed, a young missional Melbourne church. With wonderful lyrics such as

Why Jesus? Why favour
Those who do not like You?

and

Let every breath … never cease to question You

and

Nothing to hold
But the promise I have in You

… you get sense these people are not afraid to be angry with God. Or better, they understand God is not afraid of us getting angry with Him.

I was pleased to see them pair the original version with this one.

I’m not posting about this excerpt from the book
Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas to try prove that the U2 singer is a Christian. I’m posting because I’m excited that someone so prominent that people pay attention to is talking about Jesus and grace and is getting it right. Basically.

Bono says:

Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I’m absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that “as you reap, so you will sow” stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions…

Not too long ago I blogged about an exhibit of children’s drawings depicting the violence still rampant in Darfur, Sudan. Thanks to The Ugly Evangelical who found a CNN.com article on the children’s drawings, we can see what three of those drawings look like.

[tags]activism, Darfur, genocide[/tags]