Play All You Want: It’s Good for You

https://lifereimagined.aarp.org/page/signature/23201-re-envisioning-play?cmp=SN-FCBK-LR-POST-2014#prclt-L1jj7rnZ

Play All You Want: It’s Good for You

Say the word “childhood” and visions of another world come rushing to the surface: Peter Pan’s Neverland, Alice’s Wonderland, and the bounty of Narnia. What we most often associate with childhood are long afternoons when little was expected of us and when we were most permitted—even expected—to play. But what we’re learning from leading researchers is that play is what helps us learn; it’s what keeps us young and happy.

Dr. Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play, says that play is important at every stage of life. “To look deeply at play,” he says, “and to place it in evolutionary, biological, cultural and contemporary context is to partially answer the question, what, really does it mean to be fully human? Or, to state it another way, if play is lost or missing, in a complex changing and demanding world, are there serious negative consequences individually and culturally that affect all who miss out on it?”

MOM: THE TOUGHEST JOB

MOM: THE TOUGHEST JOB

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=617236341697299&id=111938618893743

God and Family (Erick Erickson)

http://www.redstate.com/2014/12/02/god-and-family/

God and Family

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  December 2nd, 2014 at 12:05 AM  | 

Yesterday, I finished my first semester of seminary.  Thanks to so many of you for your prayers. A lot of people cautioned me when I started to be careful not to lose my faith. I’m not sure what seminaries they went to, but my faith has been well served by spending time in seminary.

As I told my wife, I have found my tribe.

Examining passages of the Bible I’ve read before, but in more depth, has really been eye opening. I put off this journey for two years, but after more and more requests to get in churches and preach and not feeling comfortable doing so, I finally decided I need to get serious. I spend a lot of time here and on radio talking about faith issues and I think seminary is helping provide a deeper understanding.

I’m also now more willing to accept invitations into churches on Sunday. I finally feel up to it and competent.

There is one observation from my first semester that I want to draw your attention to. And before I get all sorts of secular outrage, let me be up front that I’m only writing to those of you of faith. And I’ll give you the conclusion before even starting: if you want to build a better America, build a better family. If you want to build a better family, build a better church.

I have concluded, from this first semester, that being a better Christian is, for me, the key to being a better American. If you’ll allow me, let’s go back to near the beginning.

In the sixth chapter of Genesis, we are introduced to Noah. He is found blameless in God’s eyes. Note that this does not mean Noah is sinless. Noah is, in fact, a sinner. But he stands out from the rest of humanity as righteous. He tries to do what is right in God’s eyes with all humanity around him doing what is right in their own eyes.

God tells Noah to build an ark. Interestingly, note that he tells Noah to build the ark before even telling Noah how it is to be used. In any event, God tells Noah to build the ark and pay attention to Genesis 6:18:

But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.

Then look at Genesis 7:1.

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.

Notice carefully that the “you” is singular. God did not find Noah’s wife righteous. He did not find Noah’s sons to be righteous. He did not find even Noah’s sons’ wives to be righteous. God found Noah righteous and his family was entitled to the blessings and protections because of this one righteous man.

I think there is an overlooked lesson in this. Fathers have ceded a lot in society, but the father needs to be a pillar for his family and the father needs to take a strong role in getting the family into church.

But there is more to it than that. The waters prevailed on the earth for 150 days. During that time Noah and his family stayed in the ark. Too many of us head into church on Sunday and that is it. We live as Christians for two to three hours on Sunday, then head off to NFL games on TV and a life separated from the church.

We need to focus more time on being Christians 24/7/365.

The Lord said, in Genesis 6:7, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” In Genesis 3, it was man who had sinned. The animals and creeping things and the birds did not sin. But man’s sin so polluted the world, God decided to reboot humanity through the one man he found righteous.

Look at the effects of man’s sin. In Genesis 7:11-12, we read

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

This is a complete undoing and disordering of creation. In Genesis 1, God had separated the waters from the heavens. Then the waters, as collected, were separated into land and sea and the waters under the earth. Six chapters later, the effects of man’s sins are to undo all of this. The waters spring up from the earth, the windows of the heavens are opened, and creation itself comes undone. All living things perish save for those in the ark.

And lest any of you have hesitancy on this point, I fully believe this is a literal story, not a metaphor or myth.

We are promised that God will not destroy the world again by flood. But the world will again end, and this time with finality into a new Heaven and a new Earth. The refuge from the sin of the world is now as it was then — the refuge in the ark, or in the church.

And God’s blessings flow through families. We can learn a lot from the story of Noah. We can learn that fathers need to be involved and need to be righteous before God. We can learn that families receive God’s blessings not just as individuals, but as families. Families are so important.

Churches can learn that they must have a vested interest in strengthening families. Instead of spending 100% of their time on Vacation Bible School, churches should have a vested interest in parents having date nights and solid networks of babysitters.

If we want a better America, we need stronger families. And if we want stronger families, we need more churches not just focused on the individual’s path to salvation, but on the family’s path through a fallen world together.

Too many Protestant churches think once we’ve gotten to Christ they can move on. Instead, the church needs to realize God did not seal the door and let the ark drift with Noah’s family in it. God ministered to that family the whole time in the ark. When Genesis 8:1 says God “remembered Noah,” that word choice does not mean Noah and his family went out of God’s mind and then back in to God’s mind, but rather that Noah was never forgotten and left alone.

The church should not stop once a person has come to Christ, but should work to mature the Christian by remembering always the family.

“You’ve found Jesus, so here is what’s next,” should be a mission in churches so that mature Christians from stable God-centered families can go out and minister to others seeking refuge in the ark that is the church in this fallen, turbulent world.

And that, my friends, is the first semester. Thanks again for the prayers.

My Journey Away from Contemporary Worship Music

http://www.dancogan.com/my-journey-away-from-contemporary-worship-music

My Journey Away from Contemporary Worship Music

I have been what many would call a “worship leader” for close to two decades. When I first became involved in “worship ministry” in an Assemblies of God youth group we sang such songs as The Name of the Lord Is a Strong Tower, As the Deer, Lord I Lift Your Name on High, and others of the era of the 1980s and 90s. Ours was considered a stylistically progressive church since we used almost exclusively contemporary songs.

This meant that if I were to visit a “traditional” church, not only would I be unfamiliar with the hymns, I would also likely cringe when they sang them and in my heart ridicule them (the people rather than the songs) as being old-fashioned.

It was during these formative years in my experience as a worship leader that I began to introduce even more contemporary songs to our youth group. It was then that I discovered artists like Delirious, Darrel Evans, Matt Redman, and Vineyard Music with their songs Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble, Trading My Sorrows, Heart of Worship, and Hungry. 

As a young musician who desired to honor Christ, I found these songs to be particularly compelling. I felt different when we sang them. The way Nirvana gave voice to the angst of Generation X, bands like Delirious were giving voice to a generation of young Christians who didn’t feel they could relate to the songs of their parents and grandparents.

Over the years when I would occasionally hear a hymn, the language was always strikingly foreign, with Ebenezers and bulwarks, diadems and fetters. Which only served to confirm my bias that hymns were simply out-of-date. They had served their purpose. They had run their course.

The problem with my youthful logic only began to dawn on me about seven years ago. I had come to recognize that these ancient hymns accomplished something that the new songs weren’t. While contemporary worship seemed to take the listener on an exciting and emotional rollercoaster, the old hymns engaged the mind with deep and glorious truths that when sincerely pondered caused a regenerated heart to humbly bow before its King.

When I accepted my first post as a paid member of a church staff in 2007, I began the practice of singing one hymn each week. There were times where my peers would teasingly ask what an “Ebenezer” was. What I found was that when I gave them a basic definition of these seemingly obsolete words we were singing, their response was usually something akin to, “Oh? Cool. I never knew that!” I think when they asked, they half expected me to say, “I don’t know! Weird word, huh?” Instead they were being challenged to learn, not merely a new word, but how to ponder the things of God deeply when we sing His praises.

Nowadays, I still choose songs for our congregation to sing that were written recently, but they are becoming increasingly the minority. And the criteria for selecting them is becoming more and more thorough. Hymns have begun to take precedent in my song selection for two reasons.

First, hymns have been sung by the giants of the faith who have gone on before us over the last two millennia. When we sing A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, we join with Martin Luther who wrote it, and with Calvin and Spurgeon and Edwards who invariably sang and cherished it. When we sing It Is Well With My Soul we are encouraged by the faith of Horatio Spafford who wrote the hymn in the wake of the tragic death of his four daughters. And while many contemporary songs have certainly been written by wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ who have surely endured trials, the fact that we can join with generations past and be reminded that the Church is vastly larger than our local congregation, farther reaching than our town or state or country, and much, much older than the oldest saint living today is something we should not take lightly. Indeed, this should birth in us a desire to sing the songs that our Family has sung together for two-thousand years (and beyond when we discuss singing the Psalms).

Second, the content of hymns is almost always vastly more theologically rich. When I say rich, I don’t necessarily mean every hymn recounts the Gospel in it’s entirety, or that all hymns clearly teach the Five Points of Calvinism. Rather, the theology in the hymns is typically more sound or healthy than much of contemporary worship music. As I said earlier, contemporary songs engage our emotions more often, where the hymns engage our hearts by way of the mind.

By way of example, one of the top ten contemporary songs being sung in American evangelical churches right now is called One Thing Remains. While there is nothing in the song particularly bad (in fact, much of it is pretty good), it seems to me that the purpose of the song is to work the listeners into an emotional state. The chorus is:

“Your love never fails / It never gives up / Never runs out on me / Your love never fails / It never gives up / Never runs out on me / Your love never fails / It never gives up / Never runs out on me / Your love / Your love / Your love.”

With the repetition of a simple lyric like that, it isn’t a stretch to say that the composers’ goal was not to engage the listeners mind.

Whereas Augustus Toplady’s hymn Rock of Ages is doctrinally sound, it also is a very moving song of our dependance upon Christ our Rock:

“Rock of Ages cleft for me / Let me hide myself in Thee / Let the water and the blood / From Thy wounded side which flowed / Be of sin the double cure / Save from wrath and make me pure.”

So I make this plea to my fellow ministers, do not neglect these milestones from ages past. In fact, I would make the case for the abandonment of most contemporary songs. If you choose a song for congregational worship based on it’s content (say you have chosen a contemporary song because of it’s focus on the Cross), do the hard work of finding a hymn that more than likely addresses the same topic or doctrine in a much deeper way. If on the other hand you have chosen a song because of the way it feels or the emotion it evokes, ask yourself whether you are depending upon the Holy Spirit or your own skills to engage our brothers and sisters in singing to our King.

Right Brain vs. Left Brain Majors

http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/right-brain-vs-left-brain-majors

Right Brain vs. Left Brain Majors

Find out how majors that favor logical left-brained thinkers to right-brained creative types compare on salary potential, job meaning and more.

We all know that STEM (science, technology, engineering or math) majors lead to high-paying careers – that’s why schools that graduate the most engineering majors have topped our school rankings year after year. But this visualization points out that creativity is vital to many fields of study, and that there is no shortage of potential college majors that benefit from a little abstract thinking.

Most majors require a combination of both the logic of the left brain and the creativity of the right in order to succeed. PayScale has categorized 214 common bachelor’s degree majors by the side of the brain they favor and compared them on their salary potential, sense of job meaning and what percentage of graduates with that major recommend it to others.

First we categorized majors as Left Brain, Left Dominant, Evenly Mixed, Right Dominant and Right Brain. Left Brain and Right Brain majors rely almost exclusively on skills associated with one side of the brain only. Left Brain majors, like electrical  engineering and actuarial mathematics use logic, ration and reason while Right Brain majors like theater and English literature require creativity, intuition and subjective analysis. Left Dominant and Right Dominant majors definitely favor one side of the brain, but are greatly aided by complementary skills from the other side. For example, mechanical engineering majors use right brain skills to build models and creatively solve engineering challenges, while marketing majors complement their creative ideas with logical analysis of case studies and metrics. Finally, Evenly Mixed majors use a nearly fifty-fifty blend of both skillsets in their coursework. Examples include industrial design and psychology.

We also compare the majors on job meaning (what percent of graduates with that major say their jobs make the world a better place). A high paycheck is nice, but doing work you really believe in counts for a lot as well – and both right and left brain majors can earn big marks for job meaning. 

The size of the circle representing each major represents what percentages of graduates recommend their major. 

THE QUEST: The Hero's Journey Outline

The Quest comes with the question: What have I come here tondo with my life?

http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero's_journey.htm

The Hero's Journey Outline

The Hero’s Journey is a pattern of narrative identified by the American scholar Joseph Campbell that appears in drama, storytelling, myth, religious ritual, and psychological development.  It describes the typical adventure of the archetype known as The Hero, the person who goes out and achieves great deeds on behalf of the group, tribe, or civilization.

Its stages are:

1.        THE ORDINARY WORLD.  The hero, uneasy, uncomfortable or unaware, is introduced sympathetically so the audience can identify with the situation or dilemma.  The hero is shown against a background of environment, heredity, and personal history.  Some kind of polarity in the hero’s life is pulling in different directions and causing stress.

2.        THE CALL TO ADVENTURE.  Something shakes up the situation, either from external pressures or from something rising up from deep within, so the hero must face the beginnings of change. 

3.        REFUSAL OF THE CALL.  The hero feels the fear of the unknown and tries to turn away from the adventure, however briefly.  Alternately, another character may express the uncertainty and danger ahead.

4.        MEETING WITH THE MENTOR.  The hero comes across a seasoned traveler of the worlds who gives him or her training, equipment, or advice that will help on the journey.  Or the hero reaches within to a source of courage and wisdom.

5.        CROSSING THE THRESHOLD.  At the end of Act One, the hero commits to leaving the Ordinary World and entering a new region or condition with unfamiliar rules and values. 

6.        TESTS, ALLIES AND ENEMIES.  The hero is tested and sorts out allegiances in the Special World.

7.        APPROACH.  The hero and newfound allies prepare for the major challenge in the Special world.

8.        THE ORDEAL.  Near the middle of the story, the hero enters a central space in the Special World and confronts death or faces his or her greatest fear.  Out of the moment of death comes a new life. 

9.        THE REWARD.  The hero takes possession of the treasure won by facing death.  There may be celebration, but there is also danger of losing the treasure again.

10.      THE ROAD BACK.  About three-fourths of the way through the story, the hero is driven to complete the adventure, leaving the Special  World to be sure the treasure is brought home.  Often a chase scene signals the urgency and danger of the mission.

11.     THE RESURRECTION.  At the climax, the hero is severely tested once more on the threshold of home.  He or she is purified by a last sacrifice, another moment of death and rebirth, but on a higher and more complete level.  By the hero’s action, the polarities that were in conflict at the beginning are finally resolved.

12.       RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR.  The hero returns home or continues the journey, bearing some element of the treasure that has the power to transform the world as the hero has been transformed.

The Heroine's Journey  (adapted from Maureen Murdock)

STAGE

1.         SEPARATION FROM THE FEMININE

2.         IDENTIFICATION WITH THE MASCULINE & GATHERING OF ALLIES

3.         ROAD OF TRIALS, MEETING OGRES & DRAGONS

4.         FINDING THE BOON OF SUCCESS

5.         AWAKENING TO FEELINGS OF SPIRITUAL ARIDITY: DEATH

6.         INITIATION & DESCENT TO THE GODDESS

7.         URGENT YEARNING TO RECONNECT WITH THE FEMININE 

8.         HEALING THE MOTHER/DAUGHTER SPLIT

9.         HEALING THE WOUNDED MASCULINE

10.       INTEGRATION OF MASCULINE & FEMININE 
 

THE ARCHETYPE

ARCHETYPES are recurring patterns of human behavior, symbolized by standard types of characters in movies and stories.

HEROES

Central figures in stories.  Everyone is the hero of his or her own myth.

SHADOWS

Villains and enemies, perhaps the enemy within.  The dark side of the Force, the repressed possibilities of the hero, his or her potential for evil.  Can be other kinds of repression, such as repressed grief, anger, frustration or creativity that is dangerous if it doesn’t have an outlet.

MENTORS

The hero’s guide or guiding principles.  Yoda, Merlin, a great coach or teacher.

HERALD

One who brings the Call to Adventure.  Could be a person or an event.

THRESHOLD GUARDIANS

The forces that stand in the way at important turning points, including jealous enemies, professional gatekeepers, or your own fears and doubts.

SHAPESHIFTERS

In stories, creatures like vampires or werewolves who change shape.  In life, the shapeshifter represents change.  The way other people (or our perceptions of them) keep  changing.  The opposite sex, the way people can be two-faced.

TRICKSTERS

Clowns and mischief-makers, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy.  Our own mischievous subconscious, urging us to change.

ALLIES

Characters who help the hero through the change.  Sidekicks, buddies, girlfriends who advise the hero through the transitions of life.

Video: Former Atheist Lee Strobel’s Powerful Conversion Testimony

http://godsnotdeadthemovie.com/blog/lee-strobels-testimony-atheist-believer/

Video: Former Atheist Lee Strobel’s Powerful Conversion Testimony Proves God’s Not Dead

Video: Former Atheist Lee Strobel’s Powerful Conversion Testimony Proves God’s Not Dead

October 1, 2014

(God’s Not Dead) Former atheist, award winning Chicago Tribune journalist and Yale Law graduate, Lee Strobel shares his powerful “Saul-to-Paul” testimony of how the living God supernaturally grabbed his heart and mind to reveal Himself.  Lee Strobel began investigating the credibility of Christianity, as well as the Bible’s authenticity and inerrancy. Lee’s journey and research uncovered overwhelming evidence that he couldn’t ignore or deny.

Ultimately God prepared Lee’s heart to accept the truth. Since that faithful day, God has been using His new creation mightily – his gifts, skills, talents and passion for spreading the Good News Of The Gospel.  According to his web site, after investigating the evidence for Jesus, Lee became a Christian in 1981. He joined the staff of Willow Creek Community Church in 1987 and later became a teaching pastor. He joined Saddleback Valley Community Church as a teaching pastor in 2000. He left Saddleback to write books and host the national network TV program Faith Under Fire.

Atheist-turned-Christian Lee Strobel, is a New York Times best-selling author of more than twenty books and serves as Professor of Christian Thought at Houston Baptist University.

Described in the Washington Post as “one of the evangelical community’s most popular apologists,” Lee shared the Christian Book of the Year award in 2005 for a curriculum he co-authored with Garry Poole about the movie The Passion of the Christ. He also won Gold Medallions for The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, and The Case for a Creator, all of which have been made into documentaries distributed by Lionsgate. To learn more about Lee’s amazing journey and his resources – visit his web site at www.LeeStrobel.com.

God’s Not Dead Updates:

Recently released, initial sales and demand of this powerful film have already exceeded expectations (ranking #2 in DVD & Blue-Ray Sales-Read More after just a couple of weeks) Grab copies for friends, family members, neighbors and co-workers while supplies last. As we move from theaters to the retail and digital release, we are once again encouraged by the hunger for this message – we continue to praise God that he is able to use this unique evangelical film to strengthen our faith, sharpen our swords and reach a lost world with the good news of the Gospel. Amen!

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