Christnology

Lending to God

2010-02-13T13:56:00.000-05:00

I'm a big fan of both tasteful typography and wasabi-punch-to-the-gut Bible verses, so I thought I'd share this one here:

Resurgence Blog

More Coptic Persecution in Egypt: Christmas Eve Shooting

2010-01-11T10:44:00.002-05:00

I hate posting about somber news, but I feel compelled to do my part to raise awareness.

This sort of persecution should be more widely documented in the West. In America many Evangelical Groups feel they themselves are being persecuted by more liberal Christians and political parties. Ironically while crying out for conservative practices in the face of persecution " in America, their Christian brothers and sisters in less fortunate lands are truly being persecuted, with violence and terror. For Christians in the West, the severity of the abuse done to the Coptic branch should be taken less lightly "as one of the first established Christian groups it is possible that without them, Christianity might not have spread as effectively in Europe in the first place.

Judyth Piazz

There was a recent drive-by shooting by three Muslim men outside St. Mary Guirguis Coptic Orthodox Church in Nagaa Hammadi, Egypt this past Coptic Christmas Eve (January 6) at 11:30pm. Six Christians were killed plus one Muslim guard and many more were injured.

Prior to the shooting, Bishop Kirollos of the Nagaa Hamadi Diocese received a threatening text on his phone; he also stated that local residents were threatened prior to the festivity. H.H. Pope Shenouda III has asked for calm in light of these attacks and prayer instead of retaliation.

Our deepest sympathies and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of those martyred and we pray that God may forgive those who commited this henious act.

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Feeding the Faith

2010-01-01T11:00:00.000-05:00

Train yourself in the practice of faith. Feed and nurture your faith by starting a one year Bible reading plan.

I've spoken about the YouVersion Bible App before and I can't recommend it enough. Now, it's easier than ever with the new update to the app available for most smartphones. Reading plans are now synced with YouVersion.com and you can pick and chose from 31 new plans.

"Behold, I make all things new."

Revelations 21:5

May God bless you and yours and I wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Garbage Dreams: Returns to NYC

2009-12-23T16:37:00.004-05:00

I previously spoke about Garbage Dreams, a documentary about the Zaballeen community in the Egypt slums and am happy to report that the film has since received several awards and is now one of the 15 films shortlisted for the upcoming 2010 Academy Awards.

It's so nice to hear the film doing so well. There will be another screening in New York right around Coptic Christmas (January 7th). If you missed the showing last time, do yourself a favor and make sure you check out the film this time around. You will not be disappointed.

The film will be screened at the IFC Theater (323 Sixth Avenue at West 3rd St) from Janunary 6th-12th. If you plan on going, try to make one of the first two nights as the director, Mai Iskander, will be available for a Q&A after the film and t-shirts and Zaballeen arts and crafts will be available for purchase. A portion of the proceeds go directly to supporting the Zaballeen community.

Best of luck to Mai Iskander and God bless the positive awareness and revenue being generated to help out the Zaballeen community. And a Merry Coptic Christmas to all the Copts out there! :)

Google Donates $20 Million

2009-12-22T16:53:00.004-05:00

Either in an effort to thwart the dwindling charitable contributions amidst this recession or a ploy for positive PR exposure in light of recent negative news or both, Google has decided to donate $20 million amongst a handful of very deserving charities.

Regardless of motive, Merry Christmas! :)

Only By Him Do We Create Masterpieces

2009-12-18T08:35:00.007-05:00

A shot of the beautiful Sisteen Chapel, from my recent trip to Italy.

He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as craftsmen, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them master craftsmen and designers.
Exodus 35:35

How to Transfer One Gmail Account to Another

2009-11-30T17:11:00.006-05:00

Alright, so this week's post isn't exactly on topic. It's a how-to guide for migrating from one Google Account to another. This question has been asked thousands of times on the interwebz and some of the answers are a lot more helpful than others. I recently migrated my own Gmail account to a new one and wanted to write up a comprehensive guide on how to do so.

Hmm... I am offering my help. Jesus helped people, right? So, in a way, I'm following Jesus' example -- using technology. Hey, that's it! Yeap, it's not so off topic after all. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Anyway, enjoy...

I researched most of this online and also stumbled across a few tidbits here and there by experimenting myself. I've gone ahead and documented my migration all the way through, and I hope the following information will be of use to anyone who wishes to tie their online identity to a new Google Account. I'm quite happy to say that the transition is fairly seamless and easy to do if you follow the correct steps that I'll be outlining here. At the end of all this, you will have all (or most) of your Google Account associations and preferences tied to your new Google Account username. I will also show you how to consolidate all of your e-mail addresses into one Gmail Inbox, including how to forward your Yahoo! Mail for free (or how to get free POP Yahoo! Mail access) and how to send and receive your Hotmail e-mail from within Gmail as well.

The full guide is available after the jump...

Transfer / Migrate from Gmail to Gmail

Currently, it's fairly easy to import e-mail from other e-mail accounts. In Gmail, under Settings > Accounts and Import, you can import mail and contacts from Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL and other webmail or POP3 enabled accounts. Oddly enough, Gmail is not listed because Google doesn't "officially" support migrating from one Gmail account to another.

But I have some good news! Although undocumented, there is a way to import all of your e-mails from your old Gmail account to your new one. There are a few basic steps that you will need to take:

Configure POP Access for Old Gmail

Disable any current POP e-mail programs that may be accessing your old Gmail address (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc). This is to ensure that no e-mails are marked as "retrieved" during the import process. The best sure-fire way to do this would probably be to change your old Gmail's password so that programs with access that you may have forgot about can no longer fetch e-mails.

Then, in your old Gmail account, go to Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP and select "Enable POP for all mail (even mail that's already been downloaded)". This will allow you to import all of your e-mail into your new Gmail account, keeping all dates and timestamps intact!
Enable POP Retrieval in New Gmail Account

Login to your new Gmail account and go to Settings > Accounts and Import and add a new POP3 e-mail account. Using the settings documented here, we can bypass Google's restriction of importing from Gmail to Gmail.

The settings are pictured below, but basically, you must use your full e-mail address (including @gmail.com) as the username and to leave smtp.gmail.com as the POP server (not pop.gmail.com).

Click Add Account and let it do it's thing. It will take some time (it took about 2 days with 15k e-mails for me), but once it's done, we can "flip the switch". You can check its status by going to Settings > Accounts and Import in your new Google account and clicking on View History. Once you see "No mails fetched." a couple of times, then it's done importing and we can "flip the switch".
Flip the Switch

Once everything is done transferring, I'm going to recommend that you delete the "Check mail using POP3" account. Why? Because we're going to have all mails from now on be forwarded from your old account to your new one. This is so that e-mails arrive instantly, instead of waiting on the POP3 checker to poll your new account. This also ensures that the newly enabled Push access to Gmail is actually Pushed and not delayed by POP3 checking.

So, in your new Gmail account, go ahead and click "Delete" under Accounts and Imports in Settings for your old Gmail account. Then, login to your old Gmail account and start forwarding all of your mail to your new Gmail account. You can do this by either using the Forwarding option under "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" in the Settings panel, or by creating a filter. I recommend the filter method because it gives you more control over how the e-mail is handled on the old account.

For example, I wanted to have my old Gmail account retain all the e-mails in the inbox, but I wanted them marked as read and labeled "Forwarded" (not possible with the standard Forwarding option). So I created the following label:

The asterisk (*) in the From field means that we want to filter messages that are from anybody (ie: all mail).

We want this filter to keep the e-mails in the inbox, mark them as read, label them as "Forwarded" and forward them to the new Gmail address.

In the new Gmail account, we can then create a "catching filter" that will label all e-mail that was sent to the old Gmail account so that we can differentiate which e-mails were sent where. This is especially useful when you begin to consolidate all of your e-mail accounts into one Gmail inbox (detailed later in this post).

That's it! That is arguably the most difficult part of this whole process, but even that wasn't too bad. Now we can begin migrating all of our Google Account associated permissions and make your new account feel like home again.

UPDATE: It looks like Google has recently allowed importing from one Gmail account to another using the standard Import tool in Gmail. You can try this for yourself as I haven't had a chance to test it out, but if not, you could do the longer process outlined above.

Migrate One Google Account Permissions to Another Google Account

Now that our e-mail is all spiffy and such, we can then transfer the various Google Account permissions to our new account. This is usually fairly straightforward, so I'll be concise, but If you have any questions or difficulties, be sure to post in the comments, I'd be happy to help.

Transfer Blogger Account

To transfer your blogging permissions, all you need to do is login to the Blogger.com Dashboard and then, under the blog you want transferred click on Settings > Permissions > Add Authors. Then simply add your new Gmail address there and assign Admin Privileges. Easy schmeezey!
Transfer Analytics Account

This one is even easier, just click to add a new user for access on the main Google Analytics page.
Transfer iGoogle and Google Reader Subscriptions

Another easy one, you can export and then import your iGoogle and Google Reader subscriptions from your old account into your new one. You'll lose some settings such as previously starred and tagged items (in Google Reader), but I'd say it's a small price to pay.
Transfer FeedBurner Account

This one is a bit more "permanent" than the others, since it actually transfers access rights to the new account (instead of allowing additional access), but it works just the same.

On the main FeedBurner page, click "Transfer Feed ..." and enter your new Gmail address. You'll have to click through the e-mail that is sent to initiate the transfer within 72 hours.
Transfer AdSense Account

Unfortunately, I am not aware of any way to transfer AdSense Accounts, however you can enable Reporting Views under Blogger if that is what you use AdSense for. Otherwise, your best bet is to just create a new AdSense account and re-associate your Ads, not a big deal and invisible to your end-user. Still, you always have the option of using your old Gmail account for AdSense / Analytics access since Google usually re-prompts for login credentials when accessing these portals anyway.

Personally, I opted to enable the AdSense Reporting View from Blogger while logged in to my new Gmail account. Upon entering the information pictured, you'll receive a verification e-mail asking you to allow access for Blogger to see your AdSense information. Once you verify there, you should be able to see your AdSense reports right from Blogger like you could with your old account.

Transfer Google Account Preferences and Settings to Another Google Account

Now that we have the proper permissions, we can begin to transfer over all of our preferences and settings to the new Google account. This step is usually self-explanatory (you're basically utilizing any Import/Export options available), so I'll detail the two most popular as an example.

Gmail Filters

Since you'll be forwarding all of your mail from your old Gmail to your new one, it makes sense to have the same filters in place. Luckily, you don't have to manually create these.

Head on over to the Labs page in Gmail and enable the "Filter import/export" labs feature.

Then just go to your Filters page in your old account and select the filters that you want to explort and click "Export". This will create a downloadable file with all of your filters ready for import to your new Gmail account. Login to your new Gmail account, go to the Filters page and scroll down to click on the "import filters" link and select that file. Now all of your filters are ready to go, nice!
Google Reader / iGoogle RSS Subscriptions

Your Google Reader and iGoogle RSS subscriptions work much the same way as the Gmail filters procedure. Just select to export your filters from your old account and then import into your new account. Unfortunately, this only works for transferring your subscriptions. I currently don't know of any way to transfer your followers or people you were following, or how to transfer your shared / starred items. Of course, you could always subscribe to them from your new account so that you have a reference should you need to look something up.
Google Docs

Transferring Google Docs is fairly simple. You just bulk export from your old Google Docs account to create a file that you save on your hard drive. Then you bulk import into your new Google Docs account and everything is transferred. The permissions and sharing settings will most likely need to be transferred manually, however.
Google Contacts

Contacts import/export work much the same way, just be sure to select Google CSV to ensure maximum compatibility when importing into your new Google Account.

One thing you will lose during the transfer are the pictures assigned to each contact, I don't know of any way to carry those over currently. Maybe some round-about way with your smartphone or something, but that's up to you to decide if it's worth the hassle.

Consolidate Your Inbox with Gmail

Once that is all done, the next logical thing is to consolidate all of your inbox's to one glorious inbox in your spiffy new Gmail account! I'll cover the two most popular alternative free webmail providers, Yahoo! and Hotmail here, but all other accounts should be easily accessible through Gmail's POP3 checker.

Access Hotmail from Gmail for Free

I would have liked to have Hotmail forward all of my e-mail to my new Gmail address so I get them instantly, but unfortunately, Hotmail does not allow you to forward mail to other free e-mail accounts (only custom domain names). If you have a Google for Your Domain Account, then you're in luck and you can just enable forwarding in mail.

For the rest of us, however, there is some good news. Hotmail recently allowed free POP access to their accounts worldwide, so we just have to configure Gmail with the proper POP3 retrieval settings.

You can follow the pictured settings below (basically, username is the full e-mail address, POP server is pop3.live.com on Port 995 using SSL):

You can also send e-mail using Hotmail's SMTP server, smtp.live.com on Port 25. Using Hotmail's server instead of Gmail's built-in server avoids the "on behalf of" ugliness. Also, "Always use secure connection" must be unchecked, or Gmail won't be able to connect for some reason.

Access Yahoo! Mail via Forwarding or POP from Gmail for Free

Yahoo! is a bit trickier. Unfortunately, reports of Yahoo! soon opening up and allowing free POP access have all but quieted down as of late. After some research, I came across this post and learned that Yahoo has enabled free POP access in certain regions. So, apparently setting your preferred content to Asian should do the trick.

Here's how to do it: Change your Yahoo! Preferred Content settings to Yahoo! Asia by following this link.

Now, you can login to your Yahoo! Mail and go to Options > Mail Options > POP & Forwarding and then click Setup or Edit POP & Forwarding.

At this point, you can set up Yahoo! Mail for POP access and then enter the POP settings (pictured) in your new Gmail account.

Gmail will then begin the import process, bringing over all of your Yahoo! Mail with dates and timestamps intact. After the import is done, again, I recommend you setup Yahoo! Mail for Forwarding (instead of POP access) so that e-mails arrive instantly. The downside with this, however, is that Yahoo! deletes e-mail that is forwarded. So if you would rather retain an archive in your Yahoo! account, I'd keep the POP setting and live with non-instant e-mail delivery.

Now for some bad news: Yahoo! currently does not support TLS and therefore you cannot setup Gmail with Yahoo!'s SMTP settings to send mail from your Yahoo! address without the "on behalf of" stickler. There are reports that Google is working with Yahoo! to resolve this, but I wouldn't count on it.

Bird's Eye View

Now that all that is done with, you can see the bird's eye view of your account and all of its associations and data form the new Google Dashboard page.

And that's it! If you have any questions or have some experiences to share, please post in the comments below.

(Pic Credit)

Logos 4 Bible Software

2009-11-18T15:40:00.003-05:00

It's one thing to do a Google search on a verse and hope you stumble upon a valid commentary or interpretation useful for a Sunday school lesson or Bible study group. The search results usually end up only going so deep. To get to the real meat of a Bible verse and make it applicable to yourself or the the group you're studying with takes hours of personal meditation and reflection, research from commentaries and papers and listening to sermons while taking notes.

Recently, however, Logos has released Logos 4 Bible Study software which puts countless hours of Biblical research right at your fingertips.

Everything from the lineage of David to the exegetical studies and maps relevant to the timeline of passages. I can't even begin to explain the wealth of knowledge available in this software suite, it's best to discover it for yourself and a good place to start would be the video tour.

Of course this doesn't replace the time that it takes to get to the heart of a verse or passage, but it certainly helps!

Oh, and yea, there's an app for that.

Star 99.1: A Light in the FM Airwaves

2009-11-12T23:11:00.000-05:00

When we think of charitable donations, what immediately comes to mind? Donating money to the church? To the poor? Maybe donating some clothing to a shelter? Or maybe even donating our time to help with various services around our church and community.

What most of those have in common, however, is that they all directly relate to helping the poor or the needy, one way or another; basically those "less fortunate". Yet, there is another sort of charitable donation that doesn't always come immediately to mind. It still involves donating money, but what it's put towards isn't exactly what you usually think of when you think of donating money to charity.

Several months ago I was introduced to the FM radio station Star 99.1, a non-profit (501(c)(3)) organization that is really a breath of fresh air in the FM airwaves. I was so pleased to hear the positive and uplifting words in the morning, the Bible-or-Not trivia, the contemporary Christian music played throughout the day and the sermons late at night.

After listening to Star 99.1 for a while, you begin to realize how truly filthy the other stations have become. Morning talk shows are rarely about anything other than sex, the lyrics for many of the songs are questionable at best and none of them provide any sort of positive words to start your day. Put aside any biases you might have against contemporary Christian music and give Star 99.1 a chance. You may be pleasantly surprised how enjoyable you'll find it.

Unfortunately, the audience for such a station is minuscule compared to the behemoths that are Z100 and other Top40 pop stations. Put that together with the fact that Star 99.1 is a non-profit organization and you have a huge lack of resources for them to stay on the air. They need their own charitable donations and right now they're holding a shareathon to gather donations.

Consider making that donation to help keep the Word on the air. There are countless stories of people who have come across Star 99.1 by chance on their radios and have taken what they heard to heart. Stories of people who have completely changed their lives. If not to shield your own ears from the filth of the alternative, then consider doing it for the spiritually poor who thirst for such a Word.

The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
       Because He has anointed Me
      To preach the gospel to the poor;
      He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
      To proclaim liberty to the captives
      And recovery of sight to the blind,
      To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
       19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.
Luke 4:18-19

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Winterfest 09: Lifehouse Everything Skit

2009-10-26T19:22:00.001-04:00

I loved this video and just had to share it with you guys. Enjoy!

Google Wave: Get Your Invites Here!

2009-10-13T13:34:00.001-04:00

I just got invited to preview Google Wave, the new beast of a web-app from Google said to replace/integrate e-mails/IMs/Tweets/Online Collaborative Environments/Chat Rooms and all other sorts of internet communication. Whether it actually will or not is a topic deserving of another post entirely, but for now, I'll be glad to hand out a few invites so you can judge for yourself.

I'm not going to give these out randomly, I want some creativity on your part! So, how do you get one of my invites/nominations? Simple, comment on this post with how you will use Google Wave in a Christ-centric fashion. The more creative (yet practical/useful), the better your chances of getting added to the invitation list.

Maybe you're a priest that sees real value in the collaborative features of Google Wave and can explain how it will help your church. Or, maybe you're a software developer who can think of a really neat Google Wave Extension to develop that integrates into Christianity somehow.

Whatever your idea may be, just post it in the comments below along with the e-mail address of where to send your Google Wave invite to (be sure to use scr.im to avoid spam-bots) and I'll pick 7 of you to nominate. Deadline is about a week or two, depending on number of submissions.

Good luck!

UPDATE: Be sure to provide some sort of credentials. Eg: If it's for a ministry, link to it. If you're a software developer, show some stuff you've made, etc. Be creative!

The End is Near: Thanks to Free Audio Bibles

2009-10-09T13:29:00.004-04:00

It looks like the nice folks at Faith Comes by Hearing are ready to meet their maker.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Matthew 24:14

All kidding aside, Faith Comes By Hearing is an awesome service set up to spread the Word of God to every single country in every single language. They have free audio Bibles available in virtually any language you can think of so that no corner of the globe is left uncovered. Head on over to their beautifully designed website to learn more about this great service and to see how you can help as well.

Free Streaming Audio Bibles

You can go on their website right now to stream the New Testament in any language in both drama and non-drama formats. Personally, I prefer the drama style since it helps keep your focus, especially when commuting to and from work/school every day. Although the non-drama versions are just as good, spoken with changing pitch and emphasis so as not to be too dry; excellent for studying and/or preaching.

Download Free Audio Bibles

If you'd rather download the MP3 versions for burning to a CD or loading up onto your iPod or Zune player, they offer this for free as well. There is a slight catch, though, you will have to download their Audio Bible Ambassadors software. Don't worry, no spyware or malware here (I've been running it myself and all looks good). So why the required software download? Well, they want you to be an ambassador, helping spread the Word to as many people as possible.

Audio Bible Ambassadors

When you download the software, you can download up to two complete versions of the audio Bible in any language you choose. After that, you'll have to sign up for a (free) account. Once you're signed up, you can choose to be an Ambassador for the versions of the audio Bible that you like. Being an ambassador is basically being a "seeder" in a controlled BitTorrent. What this means is that while you have the ABA software running, you'll help spread the audio Bible to other users that want to download. This helps alleviate the massive bandwidth costs it would take to serve up these large files from a private server. With thousands of ambassadors (or seeders/peers) across the globe, it costs this charity organization practically nothing to spread the Word.

Other Forms of Distribution

Faith Comes by Hearing also has a few other forms of distribution available of all languages and translations. You can purchase an Mp3 Disc, BibleStick (basically an iPod Shuffle-type of device with the Audio Bible preloaded), or a Proclaimer (basically a stereo-type device set up just to play the Audio Bible.)

His name shall endure forever;
His name shall continue as long as the sun.
And men shall be blessed in Him;
All nations shall call Him blessed.
Psalm 72:17

I just wish they had some Old Testament audio Bibles to offer, but the amount of New Testament versions available are simply astounding! Hundreds of different languages in different translations are all there for your benefit. Truly a great service!

Visit: Faith Comes By Hearing

Newspaper: Egypt's New Garbage Problem & Stony Point Church Festival

2009-09-23T10:25:00.006-04:00

I just wanted to quickly mention two newspaper clippings that were of interest/relevance to this blog and my church.

Zaballeen

The first is a New York Times article regarding the new garbage problem in Egypt as a direct result of the slaughtering of all the pigs in the land in a highly controversial effort to thwart the swine flu. The neighborhood that is suffering is of course, the Zaballeen, who would collect the garbage and then feed them to the pigs.

I have spoken previously concerning Garbage Dreams, a documentary about the Zaballeen, but there is another documentary that was produced earlier called, Mariana of the Zabbaleen (sic), a film by Engi Wassef. This film documents the life of a little girl, Mariana in the same society. Although I unfortunately missed the opportunity to view a screening myself (surprise bridge--long story), I'm interested to see it and learn from the distinct perspective of a younger aged little girl. As a matter of fact, the DVD is now available and 10% of all gross earnings are being donated by Torch Films to help the Zaballeen community.

Church Festival

The other newspaper article was one written for the Journal News by reporter Akiko Matsuda who visited the Stony Point church during the Egyptian festival last weekend. I had the pleasure of meeting with Akiko during her visit and am gracious for the exposure to the church. Hopefully she can make it out again next year and bring along some more traffic to our festival! ;)

7 Deadly Sins

2009-09-10T12:48:00.001-04:00

WIRED ran an interesting article about the 7 Deadly Sins as mapped out in America from Kansas State University Geography research.

Curious where the "Se7en" Deadly Sins originated from, I did a bit a research, specifically from a Coptic Orthodox stand-point. Apparently, the 7 Deadly Sins were originally 8 in number, as established by the monk Evagrius Ponticus. He was a trusted friend of some of the most influential fathers of the Orthodox church, including St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Macarius and St. Basil. It wasn't until the 4th Century that Pope Gregory I revisted this list to create the more common 7 Deadly Sins we know today.

But this brings along the question of whether some sins are worse than others? By what standards are these sins more "deadly" than others? Are they the sole sins that lead to Hades? I would think not, as is explicitly written in James 2:10, "For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all."

To understand this we must delve into the root meaning of "sin". From Isaiah 59:2 we read,

"But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
And your sins have hidden His face from you,
So that He will not hear."

And from that, we can conclude that all sins are "deadly" as they introduce a separation from God, because the lack of God is sin, and without God there is nothing. These seven are specifically deadly in name because they spark the path of sin, a slippery slope, if you will.

23 Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.

24 Put away perversity from your mouth;
keep corrupt talk far from your lips.

25 Let your eyes look straight ahead,
fix your gaze directly before you.

26 Make level paths for your feet
and take only ways that are firm.

27 Do not swerve to the right or the left;
keep your foot from evil.
(Proverbs 4)

(Photo)

Stop IE6... Now! Feed people.

2009-09-01T12:14:00.003-04:00

Internet Explorer 6 is the bane of all internet web developers world wide.

And now, this is the icing on the cake...

"If you're still using Internet Explorer 6, you're stealing food from starving people."

Yea, that's right. It's true. There's people. Starving. Because you're still using IE6!

Do your part and just download Internet Explorer 8 and Microsoft will donate $1.15 to Feeding America. Furthermore, if you're upgrading from IE6, their contribution doubles.

It's simple, it will take you literally 1 minute and won't cost you a dime. Not only will you help feed starving people, but you'll also be helping web developers around the globe reduce their stress level. Now, please consider being a good Samaritan and do your part, won't you?

(Via Gizmodo; Photos 1, 2)

Lazarus: The Firefox Extension, Not the Dead Guy

2009-08-27T14:02:00.002-04:00

I stumbled across an interestingly named Firefox extension the other day, on the recommended screen in the Firefox get add-ons window: Lazarus.

We all know the story of Lazarus, a man Jesus wept for and then rose from the dead. It's a momentous event in which Christ not only showed his emotional connection with us and his complete humanity in that he wept for Lazarus, but it also demonstrated Christ's divinity in his power over death when he raised Lazarus from the dead. (Photo Credit)

With that in mind, you can see why this curiously named add-on caught my attention and piqued my interest immediately. How could you possibly connect such a powerful story and use the name for a simple Firefox extension? Okay, so you might think it's a bit blasphemous, but I think the author had good intentions in mind and for that, I decided to post. Although a bit of a stretch (hence this post's tag), I think this kind of thing is in line with the Christnology blog; if not just in good humor.

The Lazarus Firefox extension is an aptly named add-on that will "resurrect" your lost form data upon a browser crash, server time-out, session expiration, etc. If you have been using the internet for any length of time, you have undoubtedly come across the common annoyance of having filled out a lengthy form and hitting submit only to find that your session has expired, or the web server just went down. Your only hope of recovery is to hit the back button and hope that the form is still filled out -- unfortunately, most of the time it's not. This extension is set to appease your woes.

Resurrect those forms with Lazarus, the Firefox extension.

Marquee Answers

2009-08-13T16:39:00.002-04:00

"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear."
(1 Peter 3:15)

(Photo)

Garbage Dreams: Egypt Slums Documentary

2009-08-05T15:01:00.003-04:00

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a screening of the award-winning Garbage Dreams documentary about the Zaballeen (Arabic for "garbage people") who live on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt and make their living off of recycling the city's trash. You can view the trailer here.

It is a very well directed non-narrated documentary that tells a compelling story of three teenage boys and how the entire Zaballeen community has been disrupted by recent government contracts with foreign waste management companies. Ironically, the story is told with an allure of fresh air and light hearted undertones that really draws the audience in and allows them to connect with the Zaballeen. The spiritual steadfastness of the faithful Coptic people is also uniquely expressed via their optimism and determination as they attempt to take on their new contenders.

Although I won't go as far as saying this is a life-changing, eye-opening documentary there were a few scenes that really caused one to ponder. Apart from the constant optimism and gratefulness towards God expressed throughout the documentary, one incident in particular really hit home. The scene was of Osama, one of the Zaballeen teenagers, folding his tonya (altar boy garment). He had folded it with such treasured attentiveness that it immediately had my friend and I thinking about how we take such things for granted. It was a simple, short scene, but one which helped characterize the entire film in my eyes.
(Pictured at left, Zaballeen Recycling School).

If you live near one of the theaters that are showing this documentary, I highly recommend going to see it. With some luck, the producer/director/cinematographer, Mai Iskander may be in attendance to take some questions after the viewing. Mai was in attendance at the IFC showing last night and I was fortunate enough to find H.G. Bishop David in the audience there as well. Afterwards, we asked H.G. what he thought of the film and were given a very warm, "I enjoyed it very much," response. So did we. :)

Below are some shots I took with my phone after the viewing, please excuse the quality.

Director Mai Iskander during a brief Q&A session following the screening.

H.G. Bishop David and Director Mai Iskander exchanging contact information after the film.

The Littlest Lamb Breaks Ground for Orphans

2009-08-04T14:04:00.010-04:00

I just received word that The Littlest Lamb foundation has broken ground in Egypt for a new orphanage!

From their announcement e-mail (my links added):

We are thrilled to inform you that on Friday, July 17th, 2009 ground was broken on the Littlest Lamb Orphanage site!

The event was a tremendous success, with everyone from the architects, to the engineers, to the families and friends of the project in attendance. The excitement doubled when Pope Shenouda III, leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the largest Christian sect in Egypt, arrived to bless the land and lay the first bricks (beneath which he buried items such as a cross, a coin, and a mini lamb)!

This is great news indeed. It's really humbling to see the direct result of the generous supporters and hard work of The Littlest Lamb organizers making progress. But it doesn't end here, funding and support is needed now more than ever and I encourage you to make a contribution or help out in any way possible. No matter how big or small, your contribution will help tremendously. You can be sure that the very bright and capable minds behind The Littlest Lamb will do the absolute best in making every dollar count.

Right now, you can donate through their usual donation page via Littlest Lamb-paigns (as low as $1, monthly or one-time), or support one of my close friends, Nader, who is looking for sponsors in raising money for the Hamptons Marathon (26.2 mile race) he is running in September. If his goal of $5,000 is raised, an anonymous donor will match the donation.

So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity;
for God loves a cheerful giver.
(2 Corinthians 9:7)

Sony Seeking Spiritual Sales Support?

2009-07-29T14:02:00.001-04:00

Ignore the alliterative title, I couldn't help myself, but I did find this amusing. I don't know if it's the fact that Sony seems to be looking for some religious endorsements for their products, or the fact that the video camera was handed over on a silver platter (literally), or maybe it's because Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso looks a little too happy as he's handing over this Sony handy-cam to Pope Benedict XVI before the G8 summit. It all seems a bit ridiculously to me and I couldn't help but chuckle:

Reuters via Japanprobe

Perhaps we'll be seeing some viral Pope videos on YouTube soon... for sure I'd hit the subscribe button.

Answering a Deist: Mark 16 Discussion

2009-07-22T11:31:00.002-04:00

Although clearly on the disrespectful side, Tracks has argued that I did not answer his question. Of course, the risk here is that I will never answer his question since he seemingly has already made up his mind as to what that answer is. For if that were not the case, he would have cared enough to do the research on his own. Nevertheless, I'll humor him a bit more, then perhaps we can move on...

Tracks claimed that he tried posting his response via the comment system but that it didn't show up (accusing me of "censoring" him). Why would I? "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." (Romans 1:16)

Anyway, his e-mail:

Jeremy,

I will try not to embarrass you. But Your post concerning my question concerning Mark 16 15-19 does not even come close to any kind of answer. Now the referenced chapter and verses in Mark 16 concerns the signs for those that follow Jesus. It has nothing to do with "Why do bad things happen to good people" I post the verses here in case you have never read the Bible:
Mar 16:17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues;
Mar 16:18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover."
Now how do you get to your answer when the context is SIGNS OF HIS FOLLOWERS. You must follow someone other that Jesus. You could learn a lot from my site but you would not have to loose face by telling others.

Now forget trying to baffle me with BS. It may work for others but not for myself.
I responded on your site but have no idea if the post went through.

Warmest Regards
Bob
Tracks

And my response (which I'm opting to post here rather than e-mail back in hopes that this discussion will generate some thought/comments from readers):

~~~

Greetings Bob,

I appreciate the time you took to read my post. Unfortunately, I do not see that you have posted a comment on the blog; you can try again if you'd like, but we can just as well continue the discussion ~~here (although I'd hate to miss out on having a general audience keep us both in check)~~ obviously, I opted to post.

I felt that I actually did answer your question, although I geared the post towards the more general and much more common basis question of why bad things happen to good people / why evil exists in the world. I hope we can both agree that those questions are the basis to what your original question posed.

However, there was a paragraph within the post that directly answered your question, I will abbreviate here for posterity, but please see original post:

This is also why you don't really hear about miracles. As you asked, "if his follows are who they claim to be ... " why don't we hear about miracles (healing the stick, etc). There are many reasons for this ...

In addition, the Bible teaches us that miracles occur only when the proper amount of faith is present. As in Matthew 13:58 "He did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith." And also in the very verse you cited, Mark 16:17 "And these signs will follow those who believe." How can you expect to see miracles in the name of Christ when you don't believe in Christ in the first place? Unfortunately, the worldly saying of "seeing is believing" is counterproductive in this sense.

The second paragraph being the more direct answer.

I could certainly have gone into more detail but due to the nature of such an answer and the fact that I would like to keep the general tonality of my blog more on the light side (since it is about using technology to find Christ, after all) I decided against it. However, I'll gladly delve into this here:

Mark 16:17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues;
Mark 16:18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover

From the book of Acts, we see these specifically mentioned:

Speaking in tongues, Acts 19:6 "When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied."
Healing the sick and casting out demons, Acts 5:15-16 "As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed."

The Bible Handbook to the Acts of the Apostles is a good book discussing such topics in much greater detail, written by numerous Biblical scholars.

These are also examples in post-Biblical events:
Poison: St. Photini ; St. Abanoub
Casting out demons: Coptic Exorcisms ; A simple Google / YouTube search also turns up countless results
Healing of the sick (linked to in the original blog post: Miracles of Pope St. Kyrillos VI and St. Mina)

Ah, does this mean that you can take a bottle of bleach, gulp it down and expect not to die? Surely not, for "You shall not tempt the Lord your God" (Deut 6:16) and as exemplified by Christ himself when he refused the devil's temptation in Matthew 4:7 (and also cited this scripture).

So, Bob, read into my original answer and this one outlined in more detail here for you and tell me again that I'm "BS"ing you. However, if you expect me to take any of our discussions seriously, I'll also ask you kindly to show a little more respect. If you have no interest in doing so, then it's probably best if we just don't waste each others time.

But I do sincerely hope we can keep things respectable, for as the Bible reminds us that "a word causing pain makes anger to come up," (Prov 15:1) but by contrast, "pleasant sayings are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and a healing to the bones" (Prov 16:24); I'd enjoy further discussion (perhaps moving onto one of your other questions?) since Prov 13:10 teaches us that "with those consulting together there is wisdom."

In Christ,
-Jeremy

~~~

(Photos 1 2 3)

Answering a Deist: Why do bad things happen to good people?

2009-07-21T09:00:00.008-04:00

I stumbled across a very vocal and seemingly respectable deist on the interwebs the other day, calling himself Tracks. He has created a WordPress blog for himself where he poses some good, honest questions to various religions, one of which of course is Christianity.

Now I don't consider myself a Biblical scholar by any means whatsoever, but I enjoy comparative theology and Biblical debates as long as they are on honest and respectable grounds. This is mostly because it pushes me towards learning more about religion in general, especially my own.

Tracks has posted several questions on his Discussion on Christianity page and, while there are certainly answers to all of his questions, I will attempt to discuss only those conducive to online discussion. Some of the questions posed, although popular amongst Christians and nonchristians alike are simply fire starters to heated debates that end up getting nobody anywhere. But we'll see how this first one goes and we'll proceed from there.

I also don't plan on changing anyone's mind here, please understand that. I am simply looking for some healthy discussion. After all, I sincerely doubt my crude ramblings would sway anyone, never mind a self proclaimed "old fart and deist of 52 years."

Please, if you notice any mistakes in my answers or if you have alternative answers (or questions) yourself, by all means post them in the comments below. I only ask that you stay honest and, most importantly, respectable. Thank you.

Tracks says:

June 16, 2009 at 8:20 pm

I have a question for any Christian which cares to answer it. It concerns Mark 16: 15-18. You know the contract between Jesus and “his followers”. If his followers are who they claim to be then why do we still have hospitals? Why do they not heal the ill, the terminally ill, Why can they not perform the signs of his followers as promised by Jesus?

Tracks

This question stems from the age-old "Why do bad things happen to good people?" That is, of course, a very popular question among skeptics and believers alike. The answer, however, seems to be simple enough: the existence of pain, suffering and cruelty in this world is a direct side effect of our God-given free will.

Of course, God has the power to prevent all evil from happening, but chooses not to so that our free will can exist. Man's will overrides God's will on Earth because God allows it to. If God were to decide what actions we take, whether we are to do good or bad deeds, then we are as remarkable as robots. Love suddenly loses its flavor and the meaning of life rendered irrelevant. It is the choice -- the free will -- given to us that breathes life and meaning into love and in turn, life. Unfortunately, because of this choice that we are accorded, you see the suffering around you. Why that suffering is so apparent and seems to eclipse the otherwise good that does indeed exist is the same reason why you only hear about bad news; it is what is most "interesting" and thus what garners more attention.

This is also why you don't really hear about miracles. As you asked, "if his follows are who they claim to be ... " why don't we hear about miracles (healing the stick, etc). There are many reasons for this, one of which goes along the same lines as bad news is the only news that really gets reported. That doesn't mean miracles don't happen, for they certainly do, however, because of skepticism and political reasons many of these miracles aren't seen as miracles -- there will always be ways of explaining them scientifically, or even mathematically but does that necessarily mean that they aren't miracles? In that regard, it is up to each person individually whether to categorize the occurrence as a miracle or not. By that token, we delve into the discussion of what a miracle is and what defines a miracle; that is a whole separate post by itself. If you ask me, the mere fact that you and I are still living and breathing for this many years beyond birth despite all that is around us is a miracle in its own right.

In addition, the Bible teaches us that miracles occur only when the proper amount of faith is present. As in Matthew 13:58 "He did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith." And also in the very verse you cited, Mark 16:17 "And these signs will follow those who believe." How can you expect to see miracles in the name of Christ when you don't believe in Christ in the first place? Unfortunately, the worldly saying of "seeing is believing" is counterproductive in this sense.

Fair enough, in the simplest terms this answers persecution, burglary, murder, etc, but what about illnesses and natural disasters? At first, I was a little perplexed by this myself, but with a little research a surprisingly simple answer presented itself. Remarkably, it is answered in a likewise manner. The physical world around us has its own sort of free will -- natural law. The natural law exists to establish physical properties; it allows animals, plants and even ourselves to live and thrive in this world. They exist in a constant, unchanging perpetual state without exception. The very fire that we use to kill bacteria in our food so that it is edible is the same fire that can destroy forests and houses. The same hot and cold air that heralds the changing of seasons around us also creates tornadoes and hurricanes. Rain water that allows plants and trees to grow and animals to drink is also responsible for flooding and destruction of villages (AP).

But why doesn't God prevent the bad natural disasters from happening and permit the good natural occurrences? Suspending the natural law intermittently would actually end up destroying the world around us, making it impossible to live (not only ourselves but the life around us). If the natural laws were to only be occasionally observed, then they would essentially never be observable. We could not realistically expect anything to happen with any real level of certainty and the Lord's hand would be required to act ever increasingly: not only to save us from natural disasters, but to also save us from "unnatural" occurrences -- a manufactured salvation that was unnecessary in the first place.

ApologeticsPress.org has some great articles about this exact topic (and others that you have questioned) here and here (pg. 7-20).

The answers to your questions are out there, it simply requires an open mind and a true desire to learn more. Interestingly enough, as I was doing a bit of research on this and other topics I stumbled across a very intriguing book, The God I Don't Understand: Reflections on Tough Questions of Faith by Christopher J.H. Wright. It seems like it could be a great read, so I've queued it up for some summer reading. I'll try and post a reaction here when I can.

(Photos 1 2)

OrthodoxSermons.org 2.0 Launched

2009-07-17T09:30:00.000-04:00

I'm very happy to pass on the news that OrthodoxSermons.org 2.0 has launched! Ever since their initial announcement that they were going to totally revamp the website, I've waiting to post about them here.

From the official launch e-mail announcement:

Dear Friend of OrthodoxSermons.org,

By God’s grace and on the feast of our holy fathers the apostles, we are very happy to finally announce the launch of OrthodoxSermons.org Version 2.0! We have many new features to be excited about including the following:

Audio and video podcasting

More powerful search engine, filters and tagging

Ability to download and embed all video content

Subscription to our newsletter to keep you up-to-date on all the happenings at OrthodoxSermons.org

Ability for registered users to upload their content

Website optimized for the iPhone

Please be patient with us as we continue to upload all of our content from the old site and are still working out some bugs. If you cannot find any content on our new site, you may still visit the old site now located at old.orthodoxsermons.org.

May the Lord reward all those who contributed to this project in anyway.

In Christ,
OrthodoxSermons.org

The site is absolutely beautiful and the new RSS and Audio/Video podcast functionality is superb. It's also optimized for use on the iPhone! There is an iPhone-friendly version which transcodes the audio files for listening right on the iPhone.

The site was made by mustardseed media using the open source Drupal content management platform. This is also a technology that I'm currently configuring for my church's upcoming website redesign. (I've actually been configuring both a Drupal site and a Joomla site and will end up going with whichever proves itself to be the better fit overall.)

Excellent work by the Orthodox Sermons team, God bless them for funding and maintaining this incredible service. I urge anyone out there looking for quality audio podcasts on theology (especially Coptic Orthodox) to visit OrthodoxSermons.org and subscribe to some of the RSS feeds. There is a huge library on various topics currently and it's growing all the time!

If you need a suggestion on where to start, I highly recommend any sermon by Father Anthony Messeh if you're looking for some very concrete, easy to relate to discussions. For some of the best factual and studious sermons, I'd recommend any talk by His Grace Bishop David.

Of course, those are just some suggestions of where to start, you really can't go wrong with any of the sermons on there. You could also consider the Most Viewed sermons, or even dive right in to the Most Recent ones.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
(Romans 12:2)

Suffering Succotash: Is Swearing Healthy?

2009-07-16T13:14:00.004-04:00

A recent study that has been making the rounds lately, claims that swearing is a natural way for us to deal with pain. The study showed that test subjects were more tolerant to pain (putting their hands in ice-water for as long as possible) when they were allowed to curse rather than when they were forbidden to.

I don't understand how they could realistically link the two, in my opinion, they're missing a critical layer. Those who were acclimated to cursing have probably done so for their entire lives. It has become second-nature to them, of course they will be more tolerant to pain when they are allowed to do what comes naturally to them. In anything and everything that we do, if we do it in what feels more natural or more comfortable, we are most likely going to do it better or faster. If we are restricted one way or another, our initial result will most certainly be suboptimal.

The study should have included students who do not normally curse under such circumstances. Their tolerance to pain should have then been measured when they were told to act naturally versus instructed to curse (going against their natural inclination). I would have been very surprised if they were more tolerant to pain when told to curse in that case.

Ah, but unfortunately, finding such students would have been a study in and of itself.

Personally, I detest cursing. It really irks me when I hear someone curse casually in a conversation, using it as a way of describing or emphasizing one thing or another. I find it extremely unnecessary and rude and I know I'm not alone. Regardless of religion, I know there is a good amount of people who hate cursing just as much as the next guy, but alas, it has all but been completely socially accepted. Everywhere from your local restaurant, to the grocery store and even in the workplace, cursing is rarely given the subtle backlash or look of disapproval it deserves.

Regrettably, the habit of cursing is largely adapted at a young age. I'm always amazed at the potty mouths I hear from young children, both behind the veil of internet anonymity as well as in person. Needless to say, the fault lies solely on us -- the youth group leaders, parents and older siblings -- who have a direct influence on these spongebob minds.

Whether you, personally, believe that cursing is or isn't a "big deal" (although I'm not sure why you wouldn't), we all need to be careful when we're around children and those younger than us. I know we all slip here and there (myself included), but we need to remember that whether we realize it or not, those kids look up to us as an example. We are a direct influence to those around us and when we slip with a word here or there, you can bet that you've opened up the door and made it "not a big deal" in their eyes as well. The blame cannot be put anywhere else, especially as a parent or older sibling (we're even more responsible in that case). So don't blame the duck.

Pastor Ed Young has a great video on this exact topic here.

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

(Ephesians 4:29)

Masterpiece

2009-07-11T15:00:00.004-04:00

Stumbled across this as I was reading the "i can read" tumblr. It made me smile (:

So God created man in His own image;
in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them.
(Genesis 1:27)