Place Holder: See NewPhilly.org
I wish to thank my son for setting up this site for me. It has been a wonderful testing site, useful for testing new themes before using them at NewPhilly.org, and for that reason we have left it intact. However it is primarily a placeholder against the day that it will be used. By contrast NewPhilly.org is very active, serving up tens of thousands of pages each month. A number of us post articles on the site, and our goal is that it should be “a daily newspaper,” and “discipleship resource,” for our congregation and friends. Please visit NewPhilly.org. WNG
Windmills of Change and Hope in Malawi
Follow this link to an interesting story about William Kamkwamba. At age fourteen, barred from school for lack of money for tuition, and bent upon making a better life for his family, he learned how to make a windmill from looking at books in the library, and then made one, using discarded junk and jury-rigged tools. At first his neighbors laughed, but then they were amazed to hear the radio powered by his creation. This is an inspirational story, and includes text and video. I saw it first on Gizmodo.com . WNG
Psalm 30: Diary of an Illness
1 A Psalm of David. A Song at the dedication of the Temple. I will extol thee, O LORD, for thou hast drawn me up, and hast not let my foes rejoice over me. 2 O LORD my God, I cried to thee for help, and thou hast healed me. 3 O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit. 4 Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. 5 For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. 6 As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.” 7 By thy favor, O LORD, thou hadst established me as a strong mountain; thou didst hide thy face, I was dismayed. 8 To thee, O LORD, I cried; and to the LORD I made supplication: 9 “What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit? Will the dust praise thee? Will it tell of thy faithfulness? 10 Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me! O LORD, be thou my helper!” 11 Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; thou hast loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, 12 that my soul may praise thee and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to thee forever. Psalm 30:1-12
Psalm 30 is the diary of an illness. The short version is found in verse 2, “O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.” The long version adds additional details.
John 3: Did Nicodemus Become a Christian? (3 of 3)
As we have seen, Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews who came to Jesus by night because he thought he was “a teacher come from God,” i.e. “a prophet.” But did Nicodemus become a follower of Jesus, i.e., in our words, “a Christian?”
John 3: A Failure to Communicate (2 of 3)
2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. “
This passage is about “a failure to communicate.” This failure takes place because of one Greek word with a double meaning. The word is a preposition, “anothen.” It can be translated “from above.” It can also be translated “anew,” or “again”
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John 3: A Comparative Darkness (1 of 3)
Text: John 3:1-17
Today: “John 3: A Comparative Darkness”
Everybody is familiar with the story of Nicodemus, the Pharisee, the ruler of the Jews who comes to Jesus by night, saying he is a teacher come from God. Everybody is familiar with the response of Jesus. He tells Nicodemus that it requires “a birth from above” to enter the Kingdom of God. All this is prelude to our favorite Bible verse, John 3:16:
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish but
have eternal life.
For the next several days, I am going to add a few notes on this passage, dealing first with what John actually says, and then adding a few comments about how you and I respond to what he says.
(To view the Bible links without loosing your place in the text, right click on them, and then open them in a new window.)
First, note that Nicodemus “came to Jesus by night.”
Leaving Microsoft to Change the World
John Wood was a well placed executive with Microsoft on vacation in Nepal when a man made a request of him that changed his life. The headmaster of a small school he visited on his trek said to him, “Perhaps, sir, one day you will come back with books.” This started Wood on a quest that would lead to the founding of Room to Read and the discovery of his true vocation. For those interested in business, the book offers wonderful insights into the work style of Bill Gates and Steve Balmer. Wood also explains why entrepreneurs cannot afford to think small. As one advisor said to him, “You, John Wood, can’t scale. Only organizations can scale.” That means leaders must think great thoughts, and leave it to their organizations to scale them back only when absolutely necessary. There are enough governors on the bus of life, dynamic leaders can’t afford to be their own governor. Since launching Room to Read, John Wood has been instrumental is establishing 7,000 libaries in the developing world. The book is available in paperback from Harper Collins. Visit the Room to Read website by clicking on one of the links. By the book at Amazon
The 8th Essential: The Definitive Revelation of God
We have come to the end of our journey. In this sermon we deal with the 8th and final Essential, “The Second Advent of the Lord in Glory.”
No aspect of Christian theology has become as controversial and as layered with competing opinions and arguments as the doctrine of the 2nd Advent of Jesus Christ. I am going to cut right to the chase, and give you what I believe to be the simplicity on the far side of complexity:
The 7th Essential: The Unity of the Church
For almost 15 centuries, the church possessed a visible unity in the form of the Catholic Church. In 1457 the Unitas Fratrum, or Moravian Church, became the first protestant church. Since that time 38,000 (FN1) other protestant churches have been formed. Today protestant churches are forming at the rate of 300 a year. These numbers do not include the many fiercely independent congregations that are scattered all over city and world.
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Updated
On Monday the 1st of June I updated this blog to WordPress 2.71. I use this blog as a test site for the church site www.NewPhilly.Org. It worked. Someday soon, I may just attempt “…a daily dose of encouragement.” WNG