I have struggled to find focus for this blog. I know I have not written new posts as frequently as I’d like, but a big reason for this is that I have never settled on a focus for this blog. Is this going to be a collected of far-ranging thoughts? Am I going to focus my content around ministry? Or philosophy? Or theology?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this problem since the year’s beginning. A goal for this year is to grow my readership. But all the advice I can find––and my own intuition––tells me that I need to find a focus for this blog before I spend considerable time each week writing new posts.

A few days ago, an obvious solution hit me, and I’ve celebrated it like it was a Nobel-Prize-winning idea: focus the blog on helping college students deal with the spiritual and intellectual challenges of college.

Why is this an obvious solution? Because I’m a campus minister, and my thoughts do not stray far from helping college students grow in their faith.

Time for Change

I need to redesign and refocus this site. So I am setting aside the next two months to do that. What do I plan on doing?

1. Looking into a new design.
2. Developing a new site layout and navigation.
3. Reworking old and relevant posts around the new focus.
4. Moving or removing old and irrelevant posts.
5. Planning future series and posts.
6. Possible rename the blog.

So expect to see a lot of changes on the blog over the next two months. But I will not be posting any new posts until June 1, 2013. I am going to develop new content and rework older content. (For this reason, many of my older posts will begin to disappear.) All the new and recycled material will begin appearing after June 1st.

New Goals

What are the goal of the new site?

1. Help college students mature in their faith.
2. Help college students deal with the intellectual challenges to their faith (i.e. apologetics).
3. Provide some reflections on college ministry (for other ministers).
4. Provide some resources for parents of college students (or soon-to-be college students).

I hope that any regular readers I might have would continue to read the blog regularly. Even if you aren’t a college students, I think you’ll find the content helpful.

I have no trouble talking about the Father. And I have no trouble talking about Jesus Christ. But the Spirit is a different story.

I am preparing to teach on the Holy Spirit in my campus ministry. No, I’m not merely mentioning Him in a lesson. I am planning a teaching series. Soon I’ll have to stand in front of college students and talk intelligently and helpfully about the Holy Spirit.

And I’m a little scared.

Why?

Because I don’t like to talk about the Holy Spirit. And that’s a bad thing for a minister.

I spent some time today meditating on these fears. I thought I would share them with you. I am only going to tell you why I am scared to talk about the Holy Spirit. I’ll let others tell you how to overcome these fears.

Five Reasons I’m Scared to Talk About the Holy Spirit

1. I haven’t experienced the Holy Spirit like I would like. I know the Spirit should be a strong presence in my life. And I can see the effects of His work in my life and in my ministry. It’s just that I can only point to a handful of times I “felt” the work of the Holy Spirit in my life.

I feel uncomfortable talking to others about something I haven’t fully experienced. But I have to throw off any pride and allow myself to speak as a fellow traveler, not as a tour guide.

2. I’ve never heard the Holy Spirit talked about much. I grew up in churches that were not merely uncertain about the work of the Holy Spirit. They were certain He didn’t do almost anything anymore. He did a few miracles in Bible times, inspired the Scriptures, and then flew back into heaven.

As a result, any time I make a statement about the Holy Spirit, I instinctively feel defensive about that statement. I imagine being challenged on that statement by old preachers. This makes talking about the Spirit quite a chore for me.

3. I don’t see others experiencing the Holy Spirit like people do in the Bible. As Francis Chan says in The Forgotten God, the lives of most Christians don’t show the Spirit’s power like we see in the New Testament. Some are uncertain whether miraculous spiritual gifts still exist. And the churches that still clam that the miraculous spiritual gifts sometimes display them in ways you don’t see in the New Testament (showy and man-centered).

Even apart from the miraculous spiritual gifts, you often don’t see the moral changes that one would expect to see in people empowered by the Holy Spirit. In some Christians, I don’t see the love, joy, peace, and other fruit of the Spirit.

Since many Christians haven’t obviously experienced the Holy Spirit, I sometimes feel that talking about the Holy Spirit would make them uncomfortable.

4. I am aware that the Holy Spirit is a controversial topic. Okay. This point should be the easiest for you to see and agree with me. When it comes to the Holy Spirit, you would be hard pressed to find two people who have the exact same beliefs about the Holy Spirit.

Some people think the Spirit still works miracles. Others don’t. Some think the Spirit speaks to them and directly guides them. Others see this as dangerously subjective. Some think that the experience during a Christian concert is the Spirit moving. Others think that is is simply emotions, similar to what one would feel during a secular concert.

And these disagreements can become nasty. One party says the other is questioning, or outright denying, their religious experiences. The other party believes that all the talk about the Holy Spirit is too focused on misleading feelings and dangerously close to challenging the unique authority of the Bible.

Who would want to talk about the Spirit upset others because you are too “charismatic” or because you are “quenching the Spirit”? No one…especially ministers, since some have been fired for being on the wrong side of the debate.

5. There are many misuses of the Holy Spirit. You don’t have to do much research to begin finding story after story of charlatans who have claimed they were doing great works through the Spirit, when all the while they were deceiving their followers. And in the process these “ministers” got rich.

Some abuse the Spirit because they wrongly attribute their feelings and wishes to the Spirit. People often claim that the Spirit has placed a burden on their heart to go somewhere or do something or marry somebody. Sometimes this is true. But sometimes it is just their own wishes and feelings, evidenced by how quickly they turn aside from their previous plans or dreams. The Spirit is not fickle, but listening to some Christians gives you that impression.

So I’m afraid that when I talk about the Holy Spirit, people will assume that I am misusing the Spirit.

Conclusion

I hope no one mistakes what I’ve written as encouraging others not to speak about the Spirit. I rather hope that Christians will talk about the Spirit more.

Sure, the ways we talk about the Spirit needs to be formed by the Scriptures. But we need to talk more about the Spirit.

I hope that this article helps unearth some of the reasons you are reluctant to speak about the Spirit. After all, you will not freely talk about the Spirit until you remove these barriers to doing so.

A few months ago, I finished my second year of full-time ministry. As a campus minister, my job differ somewhat from a youth minister’s job or a preaching minister job. But I still think I have learned a few things from two years of ministry that might be helpful for any minister who is just starting out.

Five Crucial Lessons

Here are the five crucial lessons I’ve learned in my first two years of full-time ministry.

1. Teach the Word of God. When I was a ministry intern, I spent a lot of time thinking about all the things I would do when I became a full-time minister. I thought about programs I would start, evangelism initiatives, fundraising, and so on. Without knowing it, I was creating a ministry philosophy that focused heavily around my efforts and ingenuity to grow a ministry. What was wrong with this? I didn’t make the center of my ministry teaching the Word of God.

Thankfully, shortly before I was started my current job, I came to see the true importance of teaching God’s Word. I have been amazed at what God has done through His Word. God has developed leaders in my ministry, created a passion for outreach, transformed the students, and given many students a passion for studying His Word.

This didn’t happen because I’m a great teacher. I’m still an inexperienced teacher, cramming too much material into my unstructured lessons. But God works through His Word.

2. It’s easy to dilute your efforts by overcommitting. Time management experts advise people to learn to say “No” to taking on extra projects at work. Otherwise, so many things will consume your time that you will be overworked but performing poorly.

I’m guilty of not taking this advice. When I started this job, I wanted to do well and get noticed. So I overcommitted. In my ministry, I taught 2-3 times a week. I promised a lot of people that I would have coffee with them or go to lunch with them. I tried to talk with everyone that wanted to talk with me. I tried to take visitors out for coffee or lunch to get to know them. I did a lot of things for my church that fell outside of the sphere of my college ministry.

And none of these tasks were bad tasks. But I overcommitted. And what gets cut? Study. Prayer. Proper preparation for lessons and sermons. Intentionally discipling student leaders. Rest. Family time. God has blessed my ministry these last two years, but I was so overcommitted that I didn’t give him much to work with. Now I’m in my third year, and I’m doing a much better job of focusing my efforts.

3. Spiritual leadership is more than just making good decisions. In my job, I am supposed to teach the Bible, model a godly life, and disciple students. These tasks make up my spiritual leadership role.

But I am also the administrator and the event planner at my ministry. And I have to oversee our ministry programs. So I have to be a leader in these areas. Each week I juggle all these tasks.

And this makes it easy for me to deceive myself about the quality of my leadership. The leadership I exercise in my administrative tasks is primarily displayed in making good decisions. It is easy to equate all leadership with making good decisions. But this is not true of spiritual leadership. Spiritual leadership is much more about modeling the Christian life in my actions, faithfully teaching the Word of God, and discipling students.

Both administrative leadership and spiritual leadership are important, but spiritual leader is certainly more important than the other. And if I look back over the year and think of all the good decisions I’ve made, I could conclude that I’ve been a good leader. But if I haven’t lead a godly life and discipled and taught students, I’ve been a poor leader in the more important area of spiritual leadership.

This year, I’m trying to be more intentional about ensuring that I’m being a good spiritual leader and not just making good decision.

4. Energy management is as important as time management. My first point was about time management. But even when I’m focusing on the right tasks and not overcommitting, my work is low quality when I am not managing my energy well. If I’m not getting enough sleep or letting my sleep habits become irregular (which is easy for a coffee drinker to do), then I am inefficient when writing Bible lessons or sermons, planning, and talking to students.

And there is another dimension to this too: the spiritual dimension. When I’m exhausted and burnt out, I’m less inclined to pray and study the Word of God. I tend to become less caring with students and less passionate when I teach.

If I have been slow in learning any of these five lessons, it is this one. But I’m trying to do better. And I think I’ve done better in the last few months than I ever have.

5. It was easy for me to become so involved with my job that I neglected my own spiritual life. Older ministers nearly always warn advise younger ministers to take care to “feed yourself.” But it is easy for me to neglect prayer and reading one’s Bible. And though I spend so much time talking and thinking about where others are spiritually, it is easy to spend almost no time talking and thinking about where I am spiritually.

I must admit that I’ve found it difficult to maintain good study habits and prayer habits. Reading my Bible makes me think about my next lesson. When praying, I begin thinking about all the people I need to meet with or talk to.

I still need my personal habits to mature more, but I do believe I’m doing a better job of this than I was when I started. I just hope and pray that I can continue to improve this area of my life.

Conclusion

I find it hard to believe that my first two years of ministry are past. God has not only blessed my ministry, but he has blessed me by allowing me to learn a lot about ministry without too much pain or disruption. And I am grateful for that.

I hope my reflections will help other young ministers grow as ministers. If you are not a minister but you read this anyway, I hope this will give you a little insight into the struggles of a minister. It is a peculiar job, burdensome yet full of joy. I count it a blessing from God to spend my days in ministry.

For those of you who don’t know, MacFarlane’s jokes were, unsurprisingly, inappropriate and insensitive. A CNN article reported that he opened with a song that was considered sexist and inappropriate, made jokes about Jews running Hollywood, referenced Chris Brown’s abuse of Rihanna, made light of Lincoln’s assassination, and made a joke about a six-year-old actress not being too old for George Clooney.

So, many people, from feminists to the Anti-Defamation League, have commented on his inappropriate jokes. And from what I’ve read and heard, I think a lot of his jokes were over the line. (Remember: I didn’t watch the Oscars, so perhaps I’m wrong about what happened.)

But here’s what both baffles and angers me: how could he have been invited to begin with?

Let me confess: I used to watch Family Guy. In fact, I thought it was one of the funniest shows on television. But I haven’t watched it in several years. I’m not sure how long it’s been.

And I refuse to ever watch the show again. If you are curious about my decision, if you want to know more than just a vague reference to offensive and insensitive jokes, let me give you an example.

In 2010, an episode of Family Guy aired that had one of its characters go on a date with a mentally disabled girl who claimed that her dad was an accountant and her mother was the former governor of Alaska. Besides its offensive portrayal of a mentally disabled person, the episode clearly used the fact that Sarah Palin has a Down’s syndrome child to attack her family.

I don’t care what you think of Sarah Palin (and I never was a fan, though I didn’t despise her like so many did), her Down’s syndrome child did not deserve to be mocked just to attack Palin. I find such a thing so dishonorable, immoral, and insensitive, that I don’t see how Fox could keep the show on the air.

Furthermore, it was not that long ago that there was a minor uproar because the NRA decided to reference President Obama’s children in an advertisement. Where was the outcry over Family Guy’s mockery of mental disability and Palin’s disabled child? Is what the NRA did worse than what Family Guy did? No!

From my memory of the days surrounding the Family Guy episode, I don’t remember a media backlash. I read a few posts about the episode from the Huffington Post, but the articles are somewhat neutral about the appropriateness of the episode.

MacFarlane has made a career out of inappropriate and insensitive jokes. And, yet, he can still be given the honor of hosting the Oscars. I just don’t understand it. But I’m not surprised people found him offensive. What did they expect?

As a minister, teaching and preaching occupies a lot of my time. How much time? I don’t know exactly. But a rough estimation would be that I spent around 100 hours last year either teaching or preaching. Almost every talk I give is unique; I almost never reuse my material. So in addition to that 100 hours, another 600 to 800 hours were spent preparing for teaching and preaching. So I spent 700-900 hours last year preparing to give a speech or actually giving a speech.

Ministers probably spend more time giving and preparing to give public speeches than professional speakers do. Since it is an important element of my job, I know that I need to make sure I’m always trying to improve. So I try to read several books on preaching each year. Rarely, though, do I read a book that is about general public speaking rather than specifically preaching.

But I stumbled across the blog of Scott Berkun, a professional speaker and writer, and I was impressed with what I read. So I ordered his book Confessions of a Public Speaker on my Kindle. I read it in a couple of sittings. Scott is an entertaining writer. And I learned much from the book, even if it is wasn’t written with ministers and preachers in mind.

A Quick Summary

Confessions of a Public Speaker is Berkun’s advice on being a public speaker. It covers a wide range of topics, from preparation and pacing to overcoming the fears of public speaking and earning a living as a professional speaker. The book is very practical, though it’s not dry. He weaves his advice in with stories from his own experience. This makes for a quick and entertaining read.

Advice I Found Helpful

For me, the value in Berkun’s book was in bits and pieces of advice he gave. Of course, that’s what you’d expect in this type of book. But rather than summarize the helpful points, I thought my readers would be most helped if I just quoted what I considered to be the most helpful pieces of advice. (Since I read this on my Kindle and the Kindle version of the book didn’t have page numbers, I gave the Kindle location instead.)

On the fears of speaking in public:

“Most people listening to presentations around the world right now are hoping their speakers will end soon. That’s all they want. They’re not judging as much as you think, because they don’t care as much as you think. Knowing this helps enormously.” (Location 214)

“It’s the mistakes you make before you even say a word that matter more. These include the mistakes of not having an interesting opinion, of not thinking clearly about your points, and of not planning ways to make those points relevant to your audience. Those are the ones that make the difference. If you can figure out how to get those right, not much else will matter.” (Location 308)

On working on the thoughts you’re expressing and not your visuals:

“The problem with most bad presentations I see is not the speaking, the slides, the visuals, or any of the things people obsess about. Instead, it’s the lack of thinking.” (Location 1141)

On the value of practicing your talks:

“To create a similar advantage, I, like George Carlin or Chris Rock, practice my material. It’s the only way I learn how to get from one point to another, or to tell each story or fact in the best way to set up the next one. And when I say I practice, I mean I stand up at my desk, imagine an audience around me, and present exactly as if it were the real thing. If I plan to do something in the presentation, I practice it. But I don’t practice to make perfect, and I don’t memorize. If I did either, I’d sound like a robot, or worse, like a person trying very hard to say things in an exact, specific, and entirely unnatural style, which people can spot a mile away. My intent is simply to know my material so well that I’m very comfortable with it. Confidence, not perfection, is the goal.” (Location 460)

“The most pragmatic reason for practice is that it allows me to safely make mistakes and correct them before anyone ever sees it. It’s possible I’m not a better public speaker than anyone else—I’m just better at catching and fixing problems.” (Location 471)

“When I practice, especially with a draft of new material, I run into many issues. And when I stumble or get confused, I stop and make a choice: Can I make this work if I try it again? Does this slide or the previous one need to change? Can a photograph and a story replace all this text? Is there a better lead-in to this point from the previous point? Will things improve if I just rip this point/slide/idea out completely? I repeat this process until I can get through the entire talk without making major mistakes.” (Location 473)

“Remember: if you’re too lazy to practice, expect your audience to be too lazy to follow.” (Location 1578)

“And if they give you an hour of their time to talk to them, they expect you to be confident in what you say and do.” (Location 1630)

On being insightful rather than comprehensive:

“Good lectures are never comprehensive because it’s the wrong format to do so. I might as well read the dictionary to someone for six hours—it would be just as ineffective. People really want insight. They want an angle. A good speaker or teacher finds it for them.” (Location 1247)

On how to decide if a prop or slide is needed:

“Unless slides are essential and the clearest, simplest way to make your point (which they almost never are), use fewer of them. If a prop does not support your point, it has wasted your audience’s time.” (Location 2952)

On how to be interesting:

“The easiest way to be interesting is to be honest. People rarely say what they truly feel, yet this is what audiences desire most.” (Location 2604)

On building and releasing tension in your talk:

“The simplest kind of tension to build and then release is the one I mentioned before: problem and solution.” (Location 1677)

On an easy and effective way to get good feedback:

“You have nothing to lose by asking a student the simple question, ‘How could I have made this lesson more effective for you?’” (Location 2442)

On the way to get a difficult and inattentive audience’s attention:

“Here’s a deal. I’d like you to give me your undivided attention for five minutes. If after five minutes you’re bored, you think I’m an idiot, or you’d rather browse the Web than listen, you’re free to do so. In fact, I won’t mind if you get up and leave after five minutes. But for the first 300 seconds, please give me your undivided attention.” (Location 3047)

What I Didn’t Like

There wasn’t much about this book I didn’t like. I do wish that the book had been more comprehensive. Berkun’s advice was helpful, but it felt like an appetizer rather than the full meal. For example, he talks about creating tension in your talk and having a good rhythm in it. But he didn’t explain much about either of those two concepts. I was left wanting more.

But, to be fair, Berkun didn’t intend his book to be comprehensive. It’s just that Berkun is such an insightful an entertaining writer about public speaking, I wanted more rather than less of the book.

Would I Recommend It to Other Ministers?

Yes. I would recommend it to people who want to be better public speakers. But be aware that you still need to read more comprehensive books. This alone won’t be very helpful to you, I think. And you probably won’t find any value in keeping it for a reference as you write talks. You’ll want other books for that.

Still, it is an entertaining read, and most ministers and preachers would find something of value in it. If we just took to heart his encouragements to avoid wasting time on visuals when our thinking needs work, I think more sermons and lessons would be bearable. If we were do think clearly about our topics and practice our sermons and lessons, more people might actually look forward to our lessons and sermons.

But I found her arguments less than convincing. So I want to write a brief response to her seven arguments. I merely want to point out the problems in her reasoning. Please note that I am not trying to argue that one must raise her children to believe in God. I do believe that. But in this article I only want to show that her arguments for not raising her children to believe in God are flawed.

Argument 1: God is a bad parent and role model.

The author says:

“If God is our father, then he is not a good parent. Good parents don’t allow their children to inflict harm on others. Good people don’t stand by and watch horrible acts committed against innocent men, women and children. They don’t condone violence and abuse. ‘He has given us free will,’ you say? Our children have free will, but we still step in and guide them.”

The author of the article uses and reuses the Problem of Evil in her article. How can God be good if there is evil? Her statement is a little more specific in this first argument – how can God be a good parent if he allows his children to hurt others? – but she is still using the Problem of Evil.

But many philosophers, including skeptics and atheists, have been convinced that the existence of evil does not contradict the existence of a morally perfect God. Why? The arguments on both sides get complicated. I am no expert in the topic. The gist of it, though, is that the atheist needs to show that there is no possible situation in which God could allow evils to exist in the world. And this has been more than a difficult task for the atheist and the agnostic. It has (seemingly) been proven impossible. As William Lane Craig and J. P. Moreland write in Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview, “After centuries of discussion, contemporary philosophers, including most atheists and agnostics, have come to recognize this fact. It is now widely admitted that the logical problem of evil has been solved” (541).

This author simply assumes that the Problem of Evil shows that a good God cannot exist. She seems to conclude that God is either evil or non-existent. But since she doesn’t show that the Problem of Evil actually works – especially since there are some compelling arguments that it is not incoherent to believe in a good God while evil exists in the world – her use of the Problem of Evil is not convincing at all.

The author seems to know that theists often appeal to human free will to explain how evil exists in a world created by a good God. But, she says, this is no defense of God. A good father would “step in and guide” his children.

But Christians do believe that God steps in and guides His children. But He doesn’t do it by intervening in every situation. His guidance leaves a lot of room for mistakes or pain, but the Christian message is that God will restore all things. Greater good will come.

Many of this author’s arguments depend on the Problem of Evil. But, as I discussed earlier, it is not clear that the Problem of Evil actually works. So I don’t think her casual appeals to the problem of evil accomplish what she thinks it does.

Argument 2: God is not logical.

The author says, “How many times have you heard, ‘Why did God allow this to happen?’ And this: ‘It’s not for us to understand.’ Translate: We don’t understand, so we will not think about it or deal with the issue.”

I am a minister, so I am around churches and Christians more than most people. And I have rarely, if ever, heard a Christian use our lack of understanding to curtail thinking or action. Many Christians and churches are actively involved in relieving the suffering of this world. Whatever you think about Christians, you cannot deny that the church has been a powerful agent for social change in the world.

Plus, even if what the author said were true, why would it show us that God is illogical? It might show that His followers are not logical. But it does nothing to affect God’s logic.

She has another argument that is supposed to show that God isn’t logical. What could it be? You guessed it. Evil exists in a world controlled by a good God. That’s illogical, right? Again, there is a strong emotional appeal to the problem of evil. But this author’s repeated mentioning of it doesn’t overcome the problem that atheists have making the argument actually work.

This author falls far short of showing that God isn’t logical.

Argument 3: God is not fair.

Why does the author think that God isn’t fair? She has two reasons, and by this point you won’t be surprised to learn that both are versions problem of evil. I tire of pointing this out, so this will be the last time: the author needs to show why the notion that God is loving, good, just, or fair contradicts the existence of evil. She doesn’t do that. She doesn’t show that God cannot be fair and suffering exist in His creation. She just asserts that it is true, and I’m not rationally required to accept her assertions – only her sound arguments.

Argument 4: God does not protect the innocent.

The problem of evil again. Enough said.

Argument 5: God is not present.

The author simply assumes that God does not exist. I know that her article is intended to give the reasons she chooses to raise her children without God. I know that she isn’t trying to prove God doesn’t exist.

But I do want my readers to recognize that her fifth point is only true if God doesn’t exist, and she gives no compelling reason for a believer to change his or her mind.

Argument 6: God does not teach children to be good.

The author argues, “A child should make moral choices for the right reasons. Telling him that he must behave because God is watching means that his morality will be externally focused rather than internally structured.” Most Christian theologians and philosophers would never say that a person should be good only because God is watching. The question “Why should I be good?” is a complex question within philosophy, and Christian philosophers find it complex also. The discussion about this involves several concepts, including human flourishing, rationality, social obligations, God, the ultimate good, etc. What respectable Christian philosopher has ever said: “You must be good because God is watching. Enough said. Don’t worry about your internal motivations.” None.

Also, the Bible doesn’t teach that we should be good simply because God is watching. We are to be good because we are made in God’s image, to further God’s glory, to gain a reward from God, to have joy and pleasure from the goodness, to dwell in God’s goodness and mercy, etc. The author simply caricatures the Christian faith and then argues against the caricature. That’s not a fruitful form of argument.

And how does the author explain the existence of moral values in her naturalistic worldview? Can she? Many Christian philosophers and theologians have argued that the existence of God is the best explanation for the existence of moral values and laws. How would this mother explain to her kids why it is true that no one should murder or no one should hate? Just because? Because that’s what our society teaches? It’s noteworthy that she doesn’t attempt to provide a reason for her children to be good, and then she criticizes theism for not being able to do that.

Argument 7: God teaches narcissism.

The author saved her worse argument for last. She thinks that teaching children that God has a plan for them makes them self-centered. Why? Because they will come to think that they are special, and they will disregard their equality with other human beings.

But some of the most selfless people are the ones who have fully submitted themselves to God’s will. The history of social activism shows that many of the greatest fighters for equality have had a deep faith in God.

Christianity doesn’t teach that your plan is God’s plan – that is, whatever you want or desire is what God will do. That would be narcissism. Rather, it teaches the much more difficult idea that our wishes and desires ultimately do not matter. Only God’s will matters. As the Psalmist says, “For He knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust” (Ps. 103:14). There’s nothing more humbling and anti-narcissistic than that.

Christian theism also provides a better foundation for equality than atheism. After all, Christian theism teaches that we are all created by God, that we are all made in His image, and we all depend on Him for our existence. Atheism cannot come close to providing this type of support for human equality. In fact, I struggle to see how atheism can provide a convincing foundation for human equality.

Conclusion

I appreciate this mother’s attempt to think through her parenting principles. I really mean that. Most parents never really think critically about how they are going to raise their kids – much less write an essay defending their views.

I don’t fault this mother’s attempt to reach conclusions about how to raise her children. I do find fault with the conclusion she draws, because her arguments leave a lot to be desired.

I hope she’ll continue to think through the issues she raises in this article. I hope she comes to see the need to raise her kids with God in their lives.

My favorite thing about books is reading them. I don’t care about collecting vintage books. I care little about first editions or fine covers. But I do love the look, feel, and smell of books. So I’ve always been wary of using e-readers or tablets for reading.

I did buy an early version of the Barnes & Noble Nook, but it didn’t do it for me. I used my iPad for a few weeks to read books, but it didn’t work for me either. It was too bulky,  and I just didn’t like reading off its screen.

Enter the Kindle Paperwhite

But I was intrigued when I saw some ads for the Kindle Paperwhite. It seemed to solve all the problems I had with my old Nook.

The entire screen was a touchscreen, which made highlighting text as easy as dragging my finger across a line. I can read it in the dark, thanks to some nifty technology that lights up the screen. And since it is a Kindle, it has a wide range of books available from Amazon.com, including plenty of theology and philosophy books.

So I went out a few days after Christmas and bought a Kindle Paperwhite with some Christmas money. I’ve been using it for two weeks now, and I couldn’t be more pleased.

How Does It Look and Feel?

The Kindle Paperwhite looks and feels well-designed. It is lightweight. According to its specs, it weighs around half a pound. The screen is six inches, which is large enough to read comfortably and still make the device very portable. And the screen has a nice glow to it makes it easy to read in whatever lighting you’re in without being so bright that it hurts your eyes.

Is It Easy to Use?

In short, yes. It only took me a moment to figure out how to navigate around its menus. I don’t think it would be hard for anyone to figure it out.

It did take me a little longer to get used to the touch screen. You turn the page forward by touching one section of the screen. You turn back a page by touching another section on the left of the screen. You bring up the information about your location in the book by touching the bottom of the screen. And you bring up the menu bar by touching the top of the screen. It didn’t take me long to learn it, especially since the Kindle has a helpful tutorial that runs when you turn on the Kindle for the first time.

Kindle advertises that the battery life is around 8 weeks, according to the average user’s use of the device. Unlike all the other electronics in my life – iPad, iPhone, and Macbook – I never have to worry about whether it is charged when I take it with me.

A keyboard pops up on the screen whenever you select a text box (whether to search the Kindle store, search a book, write a note, etc.). I don’t have any big complaints about it. It works about like I expected it to: adequately, but not perfectly. The lag between touching a key and the character appearing is too annoying. I frequently type a word and then realize that the device is lagging behind, skipping some of the letters I’d pressed.

Reading on the Kindle Paperwhite

The big question that any reader would have is whether it works well for reading. It does. There are several reasons for this:

• Great selection of books that are just a click away. A little too tempting for someone on a tight budget.
• Very portable. I can take it anywhere and read from a wide selection of books.
• Pick up where you left off. It saves your place in every book. You don’t have to spend time looking for your place.
• Adjustable font, margins, and line-spacing. It is nice to get to alter the appearance of the text to suit my reading preferences.
• Reading at night. I’ve always stayed up later than my wife. I don’t have to worry about bothering her by keeping our lamp turned on.
• Searches a dictionary and Wikipedia for words or phrases you select. It’s nice to be able to highlight a historical figure and search for more information about it. It helps me better understand older books that mention people and places I’m unfamiliar with.

Conclusion

Anyway, I couldn’t be more happy with my Kindle Paperwhite. Maybe the iPad Mini would be better. But I’m not looking to spend that much money. I hope the Kindle line of products will be around for a while. They are well-designed for book-lovers.

CNN Religion Blogs recently ran an interview with Matisyahu. He has recently left Hasidic Judaism.

The interview was pretty wideranging, but one bit interested me very much. The interviewer was asking Matisyahu about his reasons for leaving Hasidic Judaism.

In Judaism there are a lot of rules – everything from which fingernail you cut first to which side you sleep on in bed, to the way you get dressed in the morning, to actual ideas, like ideas about being chosen people or ideas about female/male and how to interact with people from the opposite sex. So all those things that I tried to mold myself into that never really jibed. When I’m talking about all the heaviness, I’m really talking about the rules. So at a certain point … I basically said, “I don’t need to do all these things. It’s my life, I can choose how I want to worship God, what words I want to say. I can say less words.” And once I let go of that, just sort of like a freedom that opened up that I began to taste, this freedom in my life that I had been missing.

(You can read the rest of the interview here.)

Why did I this interesting?

It is interesting to hear someone’s testimony about feeling “heavy laden” by religious rules. It is easy for me to disregard how many people really do feel burdened and deadened by religion. It reminds me about how refreshing many people find the gospel, not the false gospel of moralistic therapeutic deism, but the true gospel of free grace. And notice that he mentioned that he grew tired of trying to “mold” himself by these rules.

Memverse’s “Review” page.

I have been trying to memorize sections of the Bible over the last seven years, though my efforts were off and on. Even though I have been undisciplined in sticking to it, Scripture memorization has help me. Verses run through me head all day, helping me as I deliberate about decisions, helping my prayer life, and helping my teaching and preaching. The only regret I have about this memory work is that I have not consistently done it.

Three years ago, I discovered an invaluable resource: Memverse.com.

On Memverse, you can create an account and track your memory work. Once you have an account, you choose the verses you want to memorize. Then you just log in every day, go to the Review tool, and work on the verses that you are scheduled to memorize that day.

Without a system like this, it would be difficult for me to keep track of the hundreds of verses I am memorizing. Memverse handles this for you. It track the verses you need to review and when. And it spaces out your verses using spaced repetition, which spaces out the reviews to the optimal time. (Read more about it here.)

Memverse.com has several great features. Here’s a few that I like:

• When reviewing verses, it groups verses together if they are from the same passage. This way you review John 3:17 right after you review John 3:16. It really helps you learn passages rather than just individual verses.
• A “Learn” mode, which round after round replaces words in a verse with blanks, so that you start reviewing the verse with it only having one or two blanks. By the tenth round, you are faced with nothing but blanks, but you are well prepared for it by this time.
• Several leaderboards, so you can see how you are doing stacked up against the other members. It also compares churches with churches (when you register, you tell them your church’s name and location) and state with state.
• Several translations to choose from.
• A “Chapter Review” mode, where you can review an entire chapter at once.

It is free to create an account and start memorizing. There is no paid memberships to the site, so you get all the features for free. I hope you’ll consider using the site. Just in case you do, here’s some advice that I’d give you to make the best use of it.

1. Early on, focus on completing sessions every day. Don’t worry about the number of verses memorized. A verse is defined as “Memorized” when your interval between scheduled reviews (when you get a verse right, the interval is increased) reaches 30 days. You have to review it correctly several times – it differs based on several factors – to reach that threshold. So it’ll take you a few weeks of work before you ever memorize a verse. That can be frustrating. So just focus on completing review sessions every day. Trust the system.
2. Don’t use the first-letter prompts. When you first start memorizing a verse, you are given first-letter prompts. So, if you were learning “Jesus wept.”, you would see “J w.” After you get it right a few times, those disappear. When I first started using Memverse, I loved this feature. But I recently turned it off, and I’ve discovered that I learn a verse better without it. Why? The hardest thing about learning a verseis the word order, specifically what word starts each verse. Using first-letter prompts encourages me not to focus on word order early when memorizing a verse. This created problems as I advanced in my learning of each verse, when Memverse.com removes the first-letter prompts, and I didn’t know the word order.
3. Pick a translation and stick with it. Memverse.com has a lot of Bible translations to choose from. But you cannot switch from one translation of a verse to another without starting all over with that verse. Say I’d memorized a lot of verses in the NIV 1984 translation. If I want to re-memorize my verses in the updated NIV (2010) version. I’d have to deleted all the verses – losing all my stats relating to those verses – and add again all theses verses, this time in the new translation. I understand why they do it this way. After all, the translations differ enough to complicate memory work. So it’s best to treat each translation of a verse differently. But this could be frustrating if you’re not initially prepared for it.

So go ahead and join. You won’t regret it.

(And, no, I was not asked to make a review; nor am I affiliated with Memverse.com in any way, except I’m a registered user who wanted to praise a great site.)

But I cannot get away from it. It is too much of the routine – no, the joy – of my life.

Therefore, I’m excited to learn that coffee isn’t just enjoyable, but it’s good for you.

A month ago, The Atlantic published “The Case for Drinking as Much Coffee as You Like” by Lindsay Abrams. In the article, she explains the resent reseach into the health benefits of coffee. Basically, coffee is very good for you, and there are no known negative effects. In fact, coffee is so good for you, some say it should be considered a nutrient! Abrams writes:

“What we know goes beyond small-scale studies or limited observations. The past couple of years have seen findings, that, taken together, suggest that we should embrace coffee for reasons beyond the benefits of caffeine, and that we might go so far as to consider it a nutrient.”

Okay. Coffee is good for you. But only in moderation, right? Wrong. Abrams also reports that, regarding the risk of heart failure, coffee didn’t stop being beneficial until one’s daily consumption exceeded ten cups of coffee a day.

So go ahead! Brew you a cup of coffee, take a seat, and read this article. It’ll be good for you. Well, the coffee will, but the sitting down won’t.