Thank you all for joining me for this week’s Christian Carnival. We have many wonderful entries so let us jump right in!

Kicking it all off are a couple of movie and book posts. Nehring over at Nehring the Edge offers a review of Namesake Entertainment’s production of Frank Peretti’s novel The Visitation. Mick over at Romans 15:4 Project encourages everyone to go see Facing the Giants. Adam’s Blog has an interesting article on Life, Man, and God on the Silver Screen. Then John asks if you could give only one book to a new Christian (besides the Bible) to show him how to walk with Christ and lead a life pleasing to Him, what would it be? This week at Light Along the Journey John discusses his new choice with his review of the new Piper book What Jesus Demands from the World.

Now we look at our faith and the world issues. A Penitent Blogger has a poignant reflection on evil and mercy, current events and the book of Job with Murder and Suicide. Surly Dave over at Surly’s Soapbox has a piece on School Shootings and Forgiveness. Tim at Life In Student Ministry says he used to give and help homeless people without assuming responsibility for enabling possible addictions, but then an actual homeless man says to stop. The Homeless Guy encourages donating food to homeless people since it’s harder to obtain meals now, but not to donate money. So now, what should be the extent of our on-the-spot giving? So to what extent should I help the homeless? Jon Swift talks about the debate over torture illustrates how Christians can get back to traditional values by changing with the times in Traditional Torture Values. Boring Made Dull presents At LEAST We A’re Safe From posted at The Boring Made Dull about the scrubbing of God from the VeggieTales that are being aired on NBC. They even reference a comment from Instapundit on Kanye West and how he should oppose Islam.

Going from just culture to church groups we have a couple of good posts. Matt at Random Acts of Verbiage sees the effectiveness of the XXXChurch with XXXchurch and a Pornographer’’s Conversion. Diane at Crossroads continues in her series on helping those over 50 to understand the postmodern generation and the implications for their churches, the postmodern worldview is the subject of this post in Postmodernism for Old Folks: Bridging the Generation Gap. Parableman has a Roman Catholic friend gives an interpretation of Catholic theology on works and merit that sounds surprisingly consistent with Protestant views on the subject in Roman Catholic Merit. Sometimes all is not hearts and flowers in the church. Rev-ed at Attention Span looks at what can happen when bitterness fills the heart of a church member in Bitterness.

We have quite a few enlightening posts on christian living. Kim Anderson of Mother-Lode thinks It’s About Time to consider the harvest of our year’s inner work as we enjoy autumn. She invites us to think of time differently than our clock-punching culture. Then there are 2 different posts on controlling our mouths and showing Christ through us, so I guess that means I am not the only one that struggles with this;). First is Annette at Random Thoughts with Heart and Mouth. She says that people often say that they are Christians, but their lives don’t show this. She talks about what is really needed to be a Christian. Then Leslie at Lux Venit makes herself vulnerable by talking about God dealing with her sin of gossip and slander in The Diagnosis. Then Andre at Every Square Inch submits Stewarding Our Ambition. Dreams and ambitions are gifts from God. The topic of stewarding our ambitions is important to every Christian and something many struggle with. Some pursue their unbridled ambitions while others eschew any hint of ambition in their lives, viewing it as unspiritual. This first post in a series of three explores what godly ambition looks like and how to steward our ambition with responsibility. Karen at From the Anchor Hold presents Transitus: how to go to the Father, which is a historical example of how to die right. With all these great posts on developing our own Christian walk, Spritibee reminds us Even Kids Need Purpose!

When looking at the doctrine posts, I know we will all have plenty to contemplate. Does anything ever happen by chance? Nancey Murphy 2 on Sun and Shield is a great place to start. Martin has been occasionally musing on the suggestion, by some, that quantum uncertainty is the physical basis of human free will. Murphy has written on this subject, and doesn’t believe that can be the whole story. Tom over at Thinking Christian wonders if Questions Allowed? He wonders is it safe to ask questions about the faith in most churches? Should it be? Well we respond immediately with a question;). How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Intellectuelle begins an exploration of the question includes commentary on the nature and identity of angels. Beyond The Rim… has a beautiful piece on how to view God with Our Father Who? I think it is a great start to prayer. Henry at Participatory Bible Study Blog asks, God: Nice or Not? He says the incarnation shows God at his most merciful, compassionate and “nice” while at the same time giving us a challenge that is very hard. God’s niceness has a sting to it, but that makes it real! Weekend Fisher at Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength presents us with Two Views of Predestination. Is there more than one way to understand predestination? Weekend Fisher reviews both a sovereignty-centered model and a Christ-centered model of predestination. Veracity over at The Way offers us Ten Days of Awe, without Teshuvah-meaning literally to turn away, from our sin, God will not hear our prayers.. Then Vons Takes presents The (Missing) Message where he asks, “Is ‘The Message’ translation missing part of The Word when it mistranslates I Peter 3:1-4 and related passages?”

Finally, we wrap with a beautiful poem from Poetic Pilgrimage called Dawn of Deliverance.

That brings an end to all of our wonderful entries. Thanks to Dory at Wittenberg Gate for keeping all of this going. Please submit an article and join us for the next Christian Carnival. With that I bid adieu. May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ shine upon you all. Amen.