More than I ask or imagine. . .

Confirmation about Swine Flu Overcoverage

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Just a quick post and update about an article from the LA Times, scientists are saying this outbreak of Swine Flu is not as deadly and will not be worse than the average winter flu. The normal Flu is still a very serious disease, every year, and takes lives.  I am glad that Hesed took the flu shot this past Fall while pregnant with JD.  But the hysteria over this the past week is really surprising.  Just remember to wash your hands and take a day off when you are sick. 

Nothing to panic about!

Unfounded Swine Slaughtered at Christians Expense

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With all the hysteria from the Swine Flu,Egypt has taken a step in the wrong direction.  The country has unilaterally slaughtered pigs, mostly livlihood for Christians, because Muslims believe that pigs are unclean. The article finishes with this:

The World Health Organisation has repeatedly said, however, that the newly mutated H1N1 virus is not found in pigs - although the animals can be the vessels for the "genetic reassortment" that produces new strains - and that pork meat is safe to eat.

Joseph Domenech, chief veterinary office with the UN Food and Agriculture Officer in Rome, said the Egyptian order was "a real mistake".

"There is no reason to do that. It’s not a swine influenza, it’s a human influenza,” he said.

I guess that Ron Paul was right below, how governments can use crisises to move unilaterally with greater power.  This story is something that is blantant tyranny but will there be out cry?  I don't think so, because more people are concerned with not getting sick.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Facts on an Unusual Swine Flu Mix (grantlawrence.blogspot.com)
• Egypt slaughters pigs to stop flu (news.bbc.co.uk)

The Swine Flu Hysteria

As you may know there is a state of emergency concerning the Swine Flu.  There should be concern with any outbreak of disease, but how much is too much coverage.  When does the media in need of a story and ratings go over board in coverage actually making it a bigger deal than it should be.

Ron Paul reacts to much in the news, and this story is not much different.  Below is Ron Paul's view of the Swine Flu Emergency.

My Story with Life Transformation Groups

Image by Martin LaBar (going on hiatus) via Flickr

I have always believed in the power of two things for ministry, have coffee and food available.  No wait, that is about developing community, which is another blog at another time.  But for life change, the power must come from the Holy Spirit.  How does that Spirit work?  I usually give a list of four things that are means of God changing us: Word, Prayer, Sacrements, and Church (Community).

As a Pastor and Campus Minister, I must labor in those convictions.  I often times rely more on email, announcements, enthusiasm, the powerful ask to accomplish ministry.  But I always come back to Acts 6:4 and the disciples decision to devote themselves to Word and Prayer. 

Last Fall, Hesed and I began school with a great bunch of students but one thing was a challenge: only one male.  Hmm, so my wife has all these women to work with, but what should I do with one guy? So I decided to invest in one going over Philippians every Monday. Towards the end of the year, there were two. 

Jerry Donald Pictures for Fun

Jerry Donald is almost 4 months today, 16 weeks.  I cannot believe how fast it has gone.  Here are some photos recently taken of him.

Shakedown 1861: Cool Texas Never Has the Time

Okay, I am not dreaming and I do not think I hit a time warp. Get this: there is talk of Succession today on CNN of all places.  Check out the video which features Ron Paul talking about the principle and what the Governor of Texas said.

When in the Course of Human Events.......

Integrating Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Typepad

I am currently writing this post from my Facebook page. Earlier today I texted Twitter from my phone and it was also shown on my Facebook. My YouTube video is on both my blog and my facebook. I even took a video with my phone and can put it on YouTube and Facebook. I can post to my blog from my email or from my Verizon Wireless phone.

Why does all this matter to me? I have no idea. It is nice for my family to see pictures of my Son from Tennessee, Louisiana, and Central Pennsylvania. Twitter seems to me to be a better interface from the phone, ie, just a simple text. I have by far more people on my Facebook than the blog, but I can use the blog more with out crowding up my friend's newsfeed. It is amazing the connectivity, but what is the cost. I do not know what it is now, but I will let you know.

Day 2 of Jerry Donald's life and the Hospital

Just a slice of life, after Jerry Donald was born.  More videoes to come!

NT Wright's column for the London Times.

Here is a column given by Bishop Wright on the importance of Easter.  Excellent work and pastorally significant.

The Church must stop trivialising Easter

Christians must keep their nerve: the Resurrection isn’t a metaphor, it’s a physical fact

Tom Wright

Private Eye ran a cartoon some years ago of St Peter standing in front of Jesus's Cross and saying to the other Disciples: “It's time to put this behind us now and move on.” It was a satire not on Christian belief, but on politicians and counsellors, and their trivialising mantras. It depended on Jesus's death being not just an odd, forgettable event - and that it was His Resurrection, rather than a shoulder- shrugging desire to “move on”, that got the early Christians going.

Easter was the pilot project. What God did for Jesus that explosive morning is what He intends to do for the whole creation. We who live in the interval between Jesus's Resurrection and the final rescue and transformation of the whole world are called to be new-creation people here and now. That is the hidden meaning of the greatest festival Christians have.

This true meaning has remained hidden because the Church has trivialised it and the world has rubbished it. The Church has turned Jesus's Resurrection into a “happy ending” after the dark and messy story of Good Friday, often scaling it down so that “resurrection” becomes a fancy way of saying “He went to Heaven”. Easter then means: “There really is life after death”. The world shrugs its shoulders. We may or may not believe in life after death, but we reach that conclusion independently of Jesus, of odd stories about risen bodies and empty tombs.

But “resurrection” to 1st-century Jews wasn't about “going to Heaven”: it was about the physically dead being physically alive again. Some Jews (not all) believed that God would do this for all people in the end. Nobody, including Jesus's followers, was expecting one person to be bodily raised from the dead in the middle of history. The stories of the Resurrection are certainly not “wish-fulfilments” or the result of what dodgy social science calls “cognitive dissonance”. First-century Jews who followed would-be messiahs knew that if your leader got killed by the authorities, it meant you had backed the wrong man. You then had a choice: give up the revolution or get yourself a new leader. Going around saying that he'd been raised from the dead wasn't an option.

Unless he had been. Jesus of Nazareth was certainly dead by the Friday evening; Roman soldiers were professional killers and wouldn't have allowed a not-quite-dead rebel leader to stay that way for long. When the first Christians told the story of what happened next, they were not saying: “I think he's still with us in a spiritual sense” or “I think he's gone to heaven”. All these have been suggested by people who have lost their historical and theological nerve.

JD's wink on camera. (at 27 seconds)