It's Christmas......bored yet?

First things first:

Merry Christmas

We all know it happens. We get to Christmas and we are very quickly bored. We've been to church, had our lunch, opened our presents and are bored by 3pm. Here's my list of potential things to do:

1) Listen to Bored-Again Christian. He has just released his latest pod-cast: The Christmas Sound. Its a good hour of alternative Christian music, in this case Christmas related, which makes you glad for once that Christians are allowed to make music. Make sure you have a listen to past posts too over the year.

2) Have a conversation. It's a dying art and should be practised more. Just make sure you have it before Auntie Mables 4th glass of sherry.

3) Go to Young Glory's blog. It's a Christian music blog by Matt Blick which brings you the latest and best music related info including videos and free (legal) downloads of big names new releases.

4) Be reminded of the free album "Advent Songs" by Sojourn which I posted on recently.

5) On your own or with other Christians? Whip out your bible and have a read, have some prayer time, maybe even pull out your trust, rainbow-strap laden guitar and have a musical worship session.

6) Have a read of the various Christmas/Advent related posts on Christian blogs. Not sure where to start? Try the ones on the right of your screen now.

Have yourself a Merry Christmas.

Till Next Time!

Music worthy of the season

At last someone has made an album that you want to listen to in Christmas and Advent, and what's even better is it's FREE.

The album is 'Advent' by Sojourn. You can download it from here. The only catch is that you have to tell 5 friends about it, but it's so great you'll want to anyway.

Here is my favorite track:



Thanks to Photizo for the ht.

Till Next Time!

How many whats?

Today I was watching an old quiz called 'Take it or leave it?' on Challenge TV. It's trash but quite good background TV. Anyway, I was watching it today whilst reading 'Christ and his people in the book of Isaiah' by David Parsons. About 10 mins before the end I got very distracted and had to watch the rest of the thing for the answer to the following question:

"Which of the three kings gave Gold to Jesus?" *I spit out my tea*

How riddiculous is that? There isn't even any source given. It certainly isn't the Bible which says nothing of Kings, 3 nor otherwise, visiting Jesus, let alone their names and who gave what to Jesus. Check out BW3's post, 'Star-Studded Wise Men: Rethinking the Christmas Story' for more eloquent thoughts on the matter.

Apparently the answer is Melchior (and not Gasper as they chose). According to the all knowing source the tradition is based on a 6th century Alexandrian text.

Personally I think they should have spat in his face declaring, "Citation needed" then handed him a Bible. Who knows?! Maybe next time he will think more carefully about the questions that are asked.

Till Next Time!

The Gospel according to whom?

Who wrote the fourth Gospel? We traditionally say John but is that right?
In the book, 'The many Gospels of Jesus' by Philip W. Comfort and Jason Driesbach it says;

"Though John's authorship is not explicitly stated anywhere in the Gospel, the text itself points to his authorship. The writer of this Gospel calls himself "the one whom Jesus loved"[Jn 20:2] and identifies himself at the end of the Gospel as a disciple who witnessed the events he wrote about, concluding with the personal "I" in the very last verse [Jn 21:24-25]."

As they say above the author isn't clear and we must deduce who it is. Their reasoning is sound however I must say that I disagree with the conclusion. Perhaps there is more to it then I have given credit and am, as always, up for being informed and corrected. Traditionally the beloved disciple is identified as John however I would like to suggest that it is actually Lazarus and therefore should be The Gospel according to Lazarus.

Here is my reasoning:

- It is mentioned that Jesus loved Lazarus 3 times in Ch 11: 3, 5, and 36. This was also by 3 different people: Mary and Martha, the author and the Jews. Seems rather emphatic to me.

- Mary and Martha tell Jesus that the 'one whom you love is sick' and Jesus knows that they are referring to Lazarus.

- Lazarus is mentioned to have been among those who reclined at the table when Mary anointed Jesus' feet (12:3). Later on in Ch 13 the one whom Jesus loved is mentioned to be reclining next to Jesus (V 23). This could very possibly be Lazarus therefore as we know that he ate with Jesus and the other disciples.

- In 21:22-23 it is mentioned that rumours were spread that the beloved disciple would never die. Now surely this only makes sense in light on Lazarus' resurrection from the dead in Ch 11. It seems a rather random comment on Peter and Jesus' part otherwise.

- It was the disciple who was rumoured to never die who was learning on Jesus' chest mentioned in Ch 13. (21:20)

It's not water tight but it seems to me that the author of the Gospel was the beloved disciple, who is in fact Lazarus.

Special thanks, as is becoming usual, to Simon Woodman who first suggested to me the true identity of the beloved disciple. Also to He Qi for the image.

Till Next Time!

Morality Converters

Have any of you seen this vid?:
http://www.cashconverters.co.uk/video/1/ex-boyfriend-sell-your-jewellery-for-cash

It's for cash converters. Basically a bloke cheats on a woman, but according to Cash Converters it's ok because you can just trade in the jewellery he gave you and use the money to go out and pull.

Not really got much to share on it, just that it annoys me.

Till next time!