Remote Wrangler straps remotes, gizmos to your noggin

Check out this Engadget Story. I really like the chin strap :)

Were Jesus Christ's Bones Found In Tomb?

A recent documentary claims to have found the bones of Jesus and his family in a tomb in Jerusalem.

There really is no conclusive evidence other than Jesus' name being on the tomb. The thing is, Jesus was from Nazareth, not Jerusalem. If he was to be buried, it would be in Nazareth and not Jerusalem. Another thing...Jesus was a common name at the time of Christ. There's a reason he was called "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus was the Aramaic equivalent of the Old Testament name "Joshua."

Do you know of any Joshua's? How about in Latin-America where there are thousands of people named "Jesus" (hey-zoose)?

This documentary proves nothing really. There are 3rd party historians who have spoke about Jesus' death, burial, and alleged resurrection. If Jesus had a tomb and was buried there, these historians (especially Josephus, who was a Jew) would have wanted to include that information. Also Christianity was not popular at all when Jesus died and rose again. If Christianity's detractors wanted to stop Christianity in it's tracks, all they had to do was produce the body of Jesus.

Click here to read the whole story.

What brings you hope?

The last week and a half has been an emotional roller-coaster for me. Fortunately, my week has been much better than the last. As I was sitting here this morning, I was thinking to myself about things in my life that bring me comfort and hope in hard times. Here is a short list.

• Friends
• Rachel
• A great song or CD
• Extended time with God
• Laughing at myself or at a great joke or story. This works the best when it's the kind of laughing that makes you hurt.
• Encouraging words or seeing the fruits of your labors (especially in ministry)
• Sleep
• Video Games (winning in video games...loosing makes things worse ;)
• Getting outside and being active
  

So what about you? What brings hope and comfort to you when you are down?

Simplify your Web, use a feed reader

Many of you might have noticed how blogs and news sites use this nifty thing called "rss" or "Really Simple Syndication." Most of you have no clue what that means. Well, let me explain it for you.

In a effort to make the internet more simple and streamlined, news and blog sites have a striped down, easy to read text file for computer programs to read. What does that mean for you? That means you don't have to visit every website you want to follow or read. Much like you can subscribe to a e-newsletter, you can subscribe to websites so you will know when things get updated. How? You might ask. Simple I say. You just need a feed reader/aggregator. It's a web service that does all the work for you.

Here are some simple steps to using a feed reader (Google Reader).

#1. Visit http://reader.google.com

#2. Sign up for a Google account if you haven't already

#3. Click the "Add a Subscription" link

#4. Find a web page that you want updates from and copy the address from your address bar and past the web page address into Google Reader.

#5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 for each blog/website you want updates from.

#6. Make a link to Google Reader in your favorites or bookmarks (I like to keep my link on my bookmark toolbar for easy access).

Now every time you want to see if someone you know has updated their blog or any of your favorite news sites have made updates all you have to do is go to Google Reader. Simple.

*Note: Any page that has one of these images in your address bar or on the page has a news feed you can add to your feed reader. Some sites say "rss" or "news feed" or similar things. All you are looking for is a link to the small *.xml file that has the information your reader is looking for. Google Reader is usually good about automatically detecting a feed on a site when you enter in the site address to add a feed. In rare occasions you may need to copy and past the direct link to the "rss, xml, or atom" feed.

A Rotten Week

This week has been extremely trying for me. Monday started of great because I got to spend the day with Rachel and celebrate V-Day.

There has been growing conflict in our student ministry as of late and to be honest, I feel me and our student ministry have a big red target on our backs. On top of all of that, I have a yucky cold I'm dealing with making me stuffy and tired. Oi!

Please be in prayer for me, my student ministry teens, and adult leaders.

"More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans 5:3-5)

Beatbox kitchen

Thanks to YS Marko for cluing me into this amazing clip:

Making an Impact

Student ministry has it's ups and downs. Lately it's been very busy for me and the teens at Brewster Road. We have all kinds of meetings, get-togethers, and programs. Yet through all the busyness, it's hard to tell whether or not I'm making any difference.

Here is some great advise for those of you who are considering full-time ministry- don't evaluate your ministry when you are tired or burnt out. All you see are the negatives.

I can see where God is using me and He is having an impact on the teens that attend Invert. My question to all of you is this... What is the one thing that has made the single most impact in your life while you were apart of a student ministry (youth group)?