Solution: Tumblr. Tumblr is a lightweight micro-blogging platform that allows me to share text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos quickly and easily.

Problem solved.

Visit the foolishcross tumblelog at tumblr.foolishcross.com. Feel free to subscribe, comment, and interact.

Enjoy my clutter!

January 20, 2009 has quickly come to an end and there is little I can say to capture the significance of today’s events that has not already been said. Today, the pages of tomorrow’s history books were written before my very eyes. Today, I am especially proud to call myself an American.

Here are a few of my thoughts regarding the day’s events:

• It wasn’t an entirely happy day for me. In fact, I would say that my mood today has been downright somber. Some of you who know me well might guess that this is because I didn’t vote for Barack Obama. Good guess…but no. Our country is lost. Did you see it? Americans desperately yearn for change, for hope, for restoration, for joy, for happiness, for renewal and reconciliation. Unfortunately, they are looking to a mere man, Barack Obama, to provide all of these things. They will be left unfulfilled. True hope, joy, happiness, restoration, renewal, and restoration are found only in Christ. We have been given an incredible opportunity and platform to share the Gospel with those around us. Will we respond?
• George W. Bush has been shown very little respect by his critics. In fact, he was mocked today as he arrived at the inauguration ceremony. The office of the Presidency demands a certain amount of respect – respect that President Bush was rarely shown. It is not wrong to disagree with the President, but one should disagree respectfully. I pray that Christians (many of whom, like myself, passionately disagree with President Obama on countless issues) show our President the respect he deserves. We are being watched and must conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ.
• Say what you will about Pastor Rick Warren, but it was wonderful to hear the name of Jesus proclaimed boldly at the end of his Inauguration Prayer. 
• I fear that many are guilty of raising up Barack Obama as an idol.  
• I hope that one day, events such as these will not be surrounded with such celebration, as they will be commonplace.
• Obama is has an incredible ability to motivate and inspire with his rhetoric, but how well will he perform in the trenches?
• I am amazed at the number of people who refer to President Obama as simply “Barack.” I can’t imagine he appreciates that any more than George, Bill, George, Ronald, or Jimmy did.  
• Pastor John Piper recalls some very relevant thoughts about Being Pro-Life Christians Under a Pro-Choice President.
• CNN.com Live with Facebook was incredible.

 I look forward to seeing what our sovereign Lord does in our country over the next four years. May He be glorified.

1. Tim Challies
2. Between Two Worlds – Justin Taylor
   
3. Stuff Christians Like – Jon Acuff
   
4. Out of Ur 
5. The Resurgence – Mark Driscoll

Check out the entire list here.

Okay, I’m sure you get my, cleverly-stated, point.

Back in the good ol’ days, Bible Thumpers were reduced to counting each word that occurred in a passage by hand. One “joy,” two “joys,” and so on. Of course, today we have handy computer programs and online tools to do the counting for us. One such tool is Wordle. Simply provide text and you are given a word cloud visualization of that text. The Wordle web site explains that it is “a toy for generating ‘word clouds’ from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.”

Of course, Wordle certainly isn’t useful for Bible study and teaching purposes only. In addition to being able to copy-and-paste in text, you may also provide the URL for any blog, feed or web page that has an Atom or RSS feed. This makes Wordle a useful tool for bloggers as well. Create a word cloud for your own blog or use Wordle to compare and contrast the words and themes that occur in multiple blogs or web sites.

Below are three Wordle word clouds I made for Genesis 1, 2, and 3 (click each for a larger image). You may have also noticed that the word cloud above was made for this blog post.

Do you use Wordle? How else do you make use of this tool? Chime in and comment!

Election 2008 | powered by Twitter

FOXNews.com Elections

WORLD Magazine | Today’s News, Christian Views

The Ustream.TV Blog » Election Day LIVE events – Mon/Tues

MSNBC Decision ’08 Dashboard

Imagine that you and five friends are watching a three-year-old video recording of a pastor delivering a message. As the sermon comes to an end, the pastor closes with a prayer. You look around the room and see that three of your friends are praying with their heads down while you exchange unsure glances with the other two.

What do you do in this situation? Do you pray along with the pastor? What if you don’t? Is that wrong?

Of course, the Lord will hear my prayers if I pray along with the pastor, but what about the pastor’s recorded prayer? Does the Lord hear it? Does He answer it? If the Lord does hear and answers the prayer, then my next question is this: Can I “pray without ceasing” by looping an audio recording of myself praying?

Is it sad that I have spent a significant amount of time pondering this issue?

BibleMap.org

Bible Study Tools

• How to make the most of your profile information
• Tips for Networking with People in Facebook
• All about groups, messages, poking, etc
• Brand Your Ministry
• Meet prospects for your church
• Learn more about the members in your church
• Fine tune your communication skills
• Testimonies from Pastors who use Facebook

In the opening section of the eBook, Forbes explains, “I have come to the conclusion that many pastors could benefit their ministry if they would begin to use social media, and a good place to start your ‘Church 2.0′ ministry is Facebook.” I couldn’t agree more. Social media contains a tremendous amount of untapped potential for churches and other minstries. Facebook is an absolutely perfect starting point for those seeking to leverage social media for the benefit of their ministries. Download this wonderful resource!

Facebook for Pastors

What do you think? Do you utilize Facebook or other social media in your church or ministry? Feel free to leave a comment.