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Some Halloween Links and Pictures

Oct 24 2009 003We were up late carving Jack-O-Lanterns on Friday night. Anne did the one on the left, and I did the other two.  We have fun with it.  Usually we watch a Halloween movie while carving and this year it was “Monster House,” which is a favorite of ours.  It’s an animated movie and if you haven’t checked it out you really need to.

Last year I wrote a series of posts that had some thoughts about Christians and Halloween.  I thought I would repost them again this year, so here is part 1, part 2, and part 3.  Also, there is an excellent piece about the history of Halloween in regards to its Christian celebration that is a must read for anyone curious about these things.    Also, I’ve added a few pictures to my flickr photostream, so if you want to see some October pics (mostly dealing with pumpkins) check it out.

Finally, we got a new book in the mail today from Amazon.com (which is always exciting). It’s called, “Goodnight Goon” and is a parody of “Goodnight Moon.” It’s hilarious, and Elijah has loved it. I’ll put a link below.

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A Halloween Playlist

Oct 31 2008 094
A Guitar Playing Penguin is a cute and original costume

It’s the middle of October, which means you should be thinking about how you’re going to carve your pumpkins, or if you don’t celebrate Halloween, you need to be putting up that blackout curtain so you can still watch tv and eat Halloween candy without answering the door for trick or treaters.  Either way, I thought I’d put up a few Halloween related posts in the next week or so.  First, here is a link to some thoughts on Christians celebrating Halloween that were written by one of my former professors at Asbury.  Personally, I would love to see more Christians boycott Halloween because of their strong objections to limbo (not the party game, read the article) just because that would liven up the party.

Next, I thought I’d share my Halloween playlist off of the ipod.  These are the spooky tunes we shake and jive to around the Croel household: Continue reading “A Halloween Playlist”

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Blogs and podcasts, October 3, 2008

The Internet Monk
The Internet Monk

So I thought that it would be helpful or interesting, or at least on some level explanitory for me to share with you blogs I read and podcasts that I listen to.  I think I’ll do this through a series of posts every so often to let you know what’s on the ipod, or what I am reading up on in the blogosphere.

My first recommendations are all from the same person – Michael Spencer.  He is a Southern Baptist, former preacher, current teacher and chaplain at a Baptist High School in Kentucky.  The High School is a ministry as much as anything else.  They take in kids from all over the world and give them educations.  Continue reading “Blogs and podcasts, October 3, 2008”

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Renewing Spirits

Cal Meuzelaar
Cal Meuzelaar (left)

Well, another busy week has flown by and I haven’t been able to get back to the Leviticus question. I will – I have one post left on that, but it’s been one of those weeks.

I wanted to get this post up a couple of days ago.  On Tuesday our church hosted Cal Meuzelaar and his wife Mary in our parking lot.  They were in their pop up camper, so if you saw that and wondered what was going on, don’t worry, we put them through an exhaustive screening process before they parked there.  Cal is currently riding across the United States on his bike and his story is a fascinating one.  You can follow it here on his blog. Continue reading “Renewing Spirits”

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When tragedy strikes

At my new appointment in Carson City I find myself in a small town that has seen a tremendous share of tragedy in the past 6 months. There have been three deaths of students in the community since the spring, and two deaths of people in their early 30’s in the past couple of weeks.

Tragedy hits not only here, but around the world. There are bad things that happen. There are unfair things that happen. Christians have traditionally had a couple of different ways to address these in terms of faith and God. One way of looking at them is that God is the cause of everything that happens and that nothing happens outside of the will of God. God in some way is the cause behind the tragedy and death. Furthermore, this stream of thought states, we all in some way deserve it because we are sinners who have broken God’s law. So we need to learn from these tragedies because God is teaching us something. There is some reason for the death of a 12 year old that somehow serves God’s purpose. And, even though we don’t see it now, someday we’ll understand how a child dying or a father leaving behind children serves God’s grand plan and brings God glory.

I very strongly disagree with this understanding of God. Continue reading “When tragedy strikes”

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Pavarotti and beauty

Luciano Pavarotti died today. I’m not knowledgeable of opera at all. However, I have listened to Pavarotti sing “Nessun Dorma” over and over. In fact, I bought it from itunes. I just think it’s a beautiful song and he sings it beautifully. As Christians we are to have a special appreciation for beauty because it comes from God and I think it reflects something of God’s character when we encounter beauty. When Pavarotti hits that second to last note it brings tears to my eyes.