MOVED!

I have my blog to My Wordpress Blog Site The plain text of the link is: livingsermons.wordpress.com

Blogger is too restrictive to third-party software! For example, I want to use Adobe Contribute CS3 to create my entries. Blogger won't let it upload images, whereas Wordpress will.

Contribute makes adding images a breeze! It automatically resizes large images to be more blog friendly. (Hopefulyl this more efficient workflow will allow me to add more images. In the past it took several extra steps to add images to my blog.

I messed around with Wordpress features and find it an overall easier service to use!

I've exported all my entries to the new blog so there will be no interruption of service! This page will remain active but please update any bookmarks so as to save a step in getting to the blog!

Blog Entry dated 5/19/2007 11:37 AM

This is a test using Adobe Contribute CS3. I'm wanting to see how to upload a picture.

It would'nt let me upload a local pic. So now here's an attempt from my SmugMug site.

This is a picture of cherry blossoms in Hirosaki, Japan.

Lutheran Carnival XLVIII

We had a healthy number of submissions again! (It took me awhile to digest the last carnival—good stuff!) I don't really have a post of my own. I just returned from a quick trip to the states. I always resolve to do a lot of work on the 12-14 hour plane rides but often don't do more than catch up on the in-flight movies! (We miss out on a lot here, it's inconvenient to go to movies so I hadn't yet seen the latest James Bond—fun stuff!)

I planned to do some good blogging but ended up focusing on the tasks at hand. It was a good trip!

I will commend my Good Friday service to your viewing pleasure. The actual conversation with the devil starts about 6 minutes into the video.

Enjoy the Carnival!

Since When Did Divine Service Need an Appetizer?
Don't leave the steak in the freezer! Dan at Necessary Roughness challenges conventional LCMS wisdom that there is a time when a new mission church should only hold Bible studies without participating in actual Divine Service.


The Kingdom of Heaven is Like ...
What does an herb garden have to do with salvation? Heart, Mind, Soul and Strength remembers that Christ portrays the kingdom of heaven like many of the things around us. This is considered as a reminder of creation, a foretaste of heaven, and a blessing on the things around us.

A Trip Down Aardvark Alley
After setting up hosting for Lutheran Carnival XLVII, the Aardvark found plenty of work to do in his congregation but still had time to update the Big Blogroll O' Vark and cobble together a few posts on a various topics. Two of these touched on abortion, and Supremes Singing on the Babies' Side lauded the Supreme Court upholding the federal ban on partial birth abortions. Of course, whenever there's a commemoration from the LCMS calendar, Aardvark Alley tries to make sure we remember it, so we also get to read about Luther's pastor and fellow reformer Johannes Bugenhagen.

Why Aren't Christians Jews? and More!
The Rev. Walter Snyder of Ask the Pastor provided a pair of posts this time. In one, he responded to a person who is being drawn toward the Christian Faith but struggling to comprehend parts of Scripture, particularly the Lord's claim of being A Jealous God. He also examined Christianity, Judaism, and the Scriptures to answer the question Why Aren't Christians Jews?


Be A Saint: Donate To The VA Tech Memorial Fund

jWinters reflects on the Virginia Tech tragedy with a short devotion along with a way for people to act out in sanctification.

The Jesus Three
Nurse Ratched provides a modern parable in an unlikely place and circumstance.


Abduction?Confinement?Torture?Termination?IRRESPONSIBLITY
Spotlight on misplaced priorities and how several horror fans revolted against public snuff-movie imagery. Smoking is the least of my concerns. With photo editing lulz.

Talking About Death
Even though we are saved from sin, death, and the devil, Christians can still be uncomfortable when discussing death. Dan uses an Athanasius quote on incarnatus est to illustrate that Christians need not only not fear death but "tread it underfoot as nothing."

Commentary on an Old Favorite!
We were referred to a post at Susan's Pendulum wherein Susan makes the point that the song "This is the Day that the Lord has made" is more than a statement on how good today is.

Bibliography

http://necessaryroughness.org
http://weekendfisher.blogspot.com/
Aardvark Alley
http://xrysostom.blogspot.com/
http://nurse-ratcheds.blogspot.com/index.html
http://www.carolrutz.com

My Good Friday Service

I have posted a video of my Good Friday Service entitled "A Conversation With the Devil".

Check it out at http://livingsermons.com!

I also keep an archive of my sermon videos on that site.

Prayer Cards

I have recently added prayer cards to my ministry arsenal.

I give credit for the idea to Kelly Klages at her blog Confessional Lutheran Ecclesiastical Art Resources and this post: A Wierd Little Collection of Mine

One of the cards she previews on that blog is St. Patrick's prayer. Here is an example of a copy of that prayer in use in Iraq!



The person wearing the vest survived a shot to the chest. The doc asks, "was it the vest or the prayer that stopped the bullet?"



I hope someone develops the kind of cards about which Kelly blogged.

I found some cards with scripture verses and short meditative thoughts. I have been sharing them with our Airmen. I had a great opportunity recently. In an exercise we were waiting for hours for a fictitious plane. We couldn't wait for it to "arrive" for then we could go home and rest. (Some people had been working over 18 hours at that point.)

When the time came for us to go, the "airplane" was simulated "delayed" four hours! That's just my luck--I can't even have an imaginary flight leave on time!

In the midst of all that I was sharing my prayer cards. Everyone was tired and even a bit irritable! I found most people simply put the cards in their pockets (hopefully for future reference!) So I decided to take another approach. I began reading them out loud to a fellow chaplain and engaged him in spiritual conversation.

Before long, the people around us overheard our discussion and joined us asking questions about the Bible, faith, etc.

I always like it when people ask spiritual questions because I can then witness to them in a meaningful way.

Catholics have areally a powerful tool as they have a wide variety of this type of card. I'd love to see some distinctly Lutheran cards!

Lutheran Devotional Corner

An excellent site is http://lutherandevotionalcorner.info/ it has links to a wide variety of Lutheran sermons including text, video and audio.

I am listed there under flash video. It looks like I'm the only one using flash! I like flash because it gives incredible video resolution for a relatively small file size. It's a bit of a pain to code the web page because flash videos don't just automatically play like windows media files!

Here is my most recent sermon:

March 25th

But I think the fact that YouTube uses flash is a good endorsement!

Speaking of YouTube, I found these AFN commercials there recently. These are examples of the commercials we get overseas. They are locally produced. I can't say that I miss regular commercials—these can be fun sometimes!

I think it helps the kids remember to be diligent in washing their hands! My 7 year old laughs every time he sees these! (I had the distinct honor of meeting Mr. Soapy. I host a weekly radio show at AFN and Mr. Soapy lived in the studio for a few weeks back when the episodes were filming!)

Interesting New Book

I am reading the book "Change or Die". I'm not very far along in the book but it seems very interesting. The premise is that people resist normal approaches to change. For example, most heart patients don't change their lifestyle (smoking, eating, exercising) even though the result of their lack of change will be an earlier death.

The author maintains that facts, fear and force don't work as effective motivators of change. This is an accurate assessment!

I'm just getting started in the book and I'll post more as I read further. The book has already been valuable to me as an eloquent description of a common problem. This will help me address the problem in my preaching.

I often find that self-help books are most valuable in describing human maladies. I often disagree with part or all of a solution presented in such a book but the description of the problem really helps me in applying the Gospel to the needs of the people sitting in the pews as I present a sermon.

Testing Pictures

Ethan's Most Recent Portrait

Not Too Much Snow This Year

Last year we had an incredible amount of snow. By this time there was over two feet on the ground. This year we've had more rain than snow. The ground was fully covered only yesterday. There still isn't too much. It's been unseasonably warm. It was 50 only last week. I don't think we're going to get too much winter. Only a month to go before it starts warming to spring!

Testing New Word Connectivity

I am writing this post in Word 2007. Word features a blogging publishing option. I still need to figure out the pictures uploading but if this works I'll be happy!

Lutheran Carnival

A rather robust Lutheran Carnival XL (xtra large!) is up, check it out:

Lutheran Carnival LX

Console Wars Indication

With the recent release of the PS3 and the Nintendo Wii, the next generation console war is officially engaged.

A recent visit to a Toys R Us in Northern Japan was revealing--they had a PS3 in stock! However, the Nintendo Wii was completely out of stock. A stocker was replenshing some items in the Wii case and a crowd of about 10 people quickly formed to see if any consoles were going to be available.

Looks like Nintendo really made a good move this time around. (BTW, we were able to get our hands on a Wii for Christmas and we love it! But the kids still gravitate towards the 360 and the standard controls. Explaining the motion controls to a 4 year old is difficult.)