Christian Carnival

Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s Christian Carnival. We have received many interesting and thought provoking entries so let us jump right in!

The first group we are looking at is ones pertaining to church life and body issues. Martin at Sun and Shield asks a thought provoking and scary question. Is your church ready to have a child molester attend? He looks at it both from the aspect of forgiveness and protecting our children. Tantalizing if True presents us with the idea of The Hidden Gospel of Indices. Is this the extra gospel that even conservative Christians use? Bounded Irrationality takes a look at Biblical Justifications for Killing. He even compares the Old Testament exceptions to the New Testament. Then John at Brain Cramps for God asks “Are Evangelicals ‘Owned’ Politically?” Then Steve at An Accidental Blogger discusses Christians – the Reluctant Greens. Next up, Pseudo-Polymath gives us Essence and Energy from the East. Mark attempts to explain the essence/energy distinction, a feature of Eastern theology which is not practiced (or understood?) in the Western church.

In the area of personal growth we have many insightful posts. Let us first look at Lucas Vaden on The Power of Gratitude. CatHouse Chat presents us with Love Gifts. Basically, it’s a discussion of Psalm 103, and all the reasons we have to be grateful to God. Annette at Fish and Cans clearly states I am a Servant of Christ. She then presents us with a series of questions. Is it important to consider how Paul introduces himself when he writes the various epistles? In Philippians he calls him a “servant of Christ”. What does that mean for us? Romans 15:4 Project gives us the 2007 Bible Challenge. Mick points out that pagans go to great lengths to build their god’s temple, can we spare 15-30 minutes a day to read the very Word of the true and living God? Then Threads from Henry’s Web provides us with Hearing God’s Voice Redux and deals with the difficult subject of hearing God’s voice. Thinking Christian offers us The Beauty of Explanation: The Solution. All worldviews save one tell us it is up to us to solve our problems. Moslems, Hindus, and Buddhists tell us we must work our way toward the final solution, be it Paradise or Nirvana. Secularists know we are hurting ourselves and each other, and offer nothing beyond ourselves for hope. They all say it’s up to us–all but one…

As usual we have many great Bible Study posts where we are dealing with Scripture and what it means. First the Evangelical Ecologist looks at an issue that came up in Bible Study with his son in Death of the Firstborn Camel. Then Chasing the Wind looks at I Peter with Christian Submission. God’s plan is that as Christians, we are to lead lives of submission in service to one another. Our submission first is to God and to God’s Word. But when we think about submission to others, it can make use feel uncomfortable because we are voluntarily surrendering authority to somebody else. The Bloke in the Outer discusses what type of fishers the disciples were called to be in Fishers of Men? At Crossroads they ask us Who’s Narcissistic? She tells us about a book out detailing what the self-esteem movement in schools has done to the postmodern generation. And sadly, the news is not good. Perhaps it’s not all about ME? Then Church Hopping discusses The Messianic Secret where they ask an interesting question. What was Jesus’ occupation and why was He always requesting that His identity be kept secret? Then dokeo kago grapho soi kratistos theophilos asks, “Is Matthew a pyromaniac?”. He looks at what Matthew may have thought the consequences for the Temple should be.

That brings this carnival to a close. Please go, read and comment. Make sure that you submit your articles for next week’s carnival at BlogCarnival! Go in grace and peace!

Welcome to the March 23, 2007 edition of carnival of pregnancy.

Praveen presents Tao of Simplicity: Little Bo Peep – Taoist Nursery Rhyme? posted at Tao of Simplicity.

Lisa presents Pregnant and Waiting posted at My Thoughts, Ideas, and Rambligns.

The Positivity Blog presents Take the Positivity Challenge! posted at Henrik Edberg.

Alvaro Fernandez presents Stress Management Workshop for International Women’s Day posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution, saying, “Both being pregnant and having a little kid can be both a joy and a major source of stress…here we share some exercises and tips for better stress management based on a recent workshop we gave in honor of International Women’s Day”

Alvaro Fernandez presents Training the brain with a computer workout program: MindFit posted at SharpBrains, saying, “May programs like this help deal with the “placenta brain” and typical memory/ concentration issues during the third trimester?”

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Curriculum Freebie!

I admit it. I have a hard time picking out curriculum over the internet. I would love to hold, feel, read these books before spending lots of money on them but I don’t have a homeschool store around. Well, Rod and Staff appear to have a solution. They have a variety of freebies that you can request. You can choose from curriculum packets from 1st to 6th grade, verse memorization and scope and sequence packets. Just click on Free Stuff, pick out what you want and there is no shipping or handling. I haven’t received mine yet but I hear they are very generous.

Color Seperated Pep Talks

Last week I talked about concerns some people have about homeschooling, one of which is that kids are limited as to the types of people they are around. Apparently one public school think that separation is good, at a race level. Mount Diablo High School in the bay area separated students by race for a pre-exam pep talk. Personally I find this reprehensible as did some of the students. The students attended assemblies complete with flags of their heritage (or country of heritage) and they were told to do their race proud. They were informed how much better white kids on the whole do on these tests and were using race as a motivation. Now my kids are only in school with one race (at least the everyday stuff) but that is only because my husband and I only can make one race of child. But my kids are in groups with many different ethnicities and if I ever heard my kids making similar white comments, well you can’t even imagine what kind of trouble they would be in.

(HT: Joanne Jacobs)

Pregnancy Carnival

Welcome to this edition of the Pregnancy Carnival. We have some very interesting and insightful posts so let us jump right in. First up is The One Year Exit Plan with “Congratulations, You are Pregnant!” Personalized Fertility Mantras. They point out the power of positive thinking when it comes to IVF. Then we move onto More4Kids and What Are Some Danger Signs Of Pregnancy? This would have definitely answered a lot of my questions when I was pregnant with the first 2. Jigsaw HC’s Rants and Reviews shares with us the Top Reasons to Fly with a Baby or Child. And yes, that means there are some;).

Then we move onto headlines with my own post about the 22 Week Miracle Baby. Venomous Kate over at Electric Venom asks Pregnancy: The Latest In Teen Fashion?

Next we move onto some great personal posts. We start with Dana at Principled Discovery with Pregnancy Update, or prayers answered before requested about a moment of worry and its moment of joy at its resolution. Next, PixelRN submits Switching Teams about going from an OB practice to a midwife practice.

Then the stories that tell us what it is all about. Emily’s Blessings offers Pregnancy Photo’s Blessing # 5 – Sierra Michelle that tells the story of her youngest daughter, including the years of praying by an older child. Then Homeschooling Hints announces Our baby is here!

That brings us to the end of this Pregnancy Carnival. Please read, share and comment on our many fine contributions. Then, submit an article and join us for our next edition on March 16th!