Matthew 16:15-16 (NIV) — from biblegateway.com
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
On 03/22/2013,
in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships,
by Daniel Christian
Coop’s Column – Royally Welcomed — by Dale Cooper
….the whole multitude of disciples began to praise God joyfully with
a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying:
“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven.” (Luke 19.37-38)
Excerpt:
I give the rest of this column to Jorge Bergoglio, former archbishop of Buenos Aires, recently elected as Pope Francis I. In his Palm Sunday 2008 address to his Argentine flock, the Archbishop declared:
“Today, here in Buenos Aires, like in Jerusalem on that day, the street made way for Jesus. The street received Him properly. The crowd stood, begged for blessings, blessings for their families, blessings for their businesses, their houses, their autos… Blessing, what does that [really] mean? [It means] that Jesus “speak well” of something, that He approach! That He enter families, hearts, homes, autos, businesses…Jesus out in the street, interacting with the crowd…There. His desire is, just as the gates of the city were opened to Him, the same is done with the doors to our hearts. Every Holy Week He asks the same thing: “Open your heart to Me. I’m not here to mortify you! I’m not here to boss you around! I’m not here to take anything from you…I’m here to give you everything. I want to make you happy.” That’s what He’s telling us. If we slam the doors to our hearts in His face, He suffers. Although He is used to it, He suffers. And we lose the opportunity to become happy.
On 03/21/2013,
in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, society,
by Daniel Christian
Jeremiah 17:7-8 — from Bible Gateway’s Verse of the Day
But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.
On 03/15/2013,
in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, society,
by Daniel Christian
The Lord Speaks
38 Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:
2 “Who is this that obscures my plans
with words without knowledge?
3 Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.
4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?
8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,
9 when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,
10 when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,
11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt’?
12 “Have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place,
13 that it might take the earth by the edges
and shake the wicked out of it?
14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
its features stand out like those of a garment.
15 The wicked are denied their light,
and their upraised arm is broken.
16 “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been shown to you?
Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.
19 “What is the way to the abode of light?
And where does darkness reside?
20 Can you take them to their places?
Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
21 Surely you know, for you were already born!
You have lived so many years!
22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
or seen the storehouses of the hail,
23 which I reserve for times of trouble,
for days of war and battle?
24 What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
25 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
and a path for the thunderstorm,
26 to water a land where no one lives,
an uninhabited desert,
27 to satisfy a desolate wasteland
and make it sprout with grass?
28 Does the rain have a father?
Who fathers the drops of dew?
29 From whose womb comes the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
30 when the waters become hard as stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen?
31 “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades?
Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
33 Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?
34 “Can you raise your voice to the clouds
and cover yourself with a flood of water?
35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who gives the ibis wisdom
or gives the rooster understanding?
37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
38 when the dust becomes hard
and the clods of earth stick together?
39 “Do you hunt the prey for the lioness
and satisfy the hunger of the lions
40 when they crouch in their dens
or lie in wait in a thicket?
41 Who provides food for the raven
when its young cry out to God
and wander about for lack of food?
Unswervingly resolute — from the Calvin Institute for Christian Worship / Coop’s Column by Dale Cooper
Description of column:
This week we join Jesus and his disciples at a spot just outside the city of Jericho. They’ve made their way southward from the Mount of Transfiguration a week or so earlier and are now at a place a few miles west of the city where two important roads intersect. One road leads west toward Jerusalem and the other north toward Galilee. That intersection, and the choice of which road to take, became something of a crossroads’ moment for Jesus.
Prayer [DSC’s prayer for sure]
“O Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.
Establish my heart in your will.
Grant me true repentance for my sins;….
To You, my God….be praise and glory forever
For all the benefits you have given me,
And for all Your mercies to me, a sinner,
For your name’s sake.
Amen.”
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
On 02/25/2013,
in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, photography, relationships,
by Daniel Christian
Landscape photography: 10 beautiful examples — from creativebloq.com
Example:
On a Yellow Stripe Road by Vincent Piotrowski
From DSC:
This beautiful picture brings some scripture — Genesis 9:12-16 — to my mind:
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
On 02/22/2013,
in communities of practice, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, experimentation, faith, hearts -- matters of the heart, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, instructional design, interactivity, K-12 related, leadership, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, lifelong learning, love of learning, morals/values, more voice more choice more control, real-world assignments, social learning / networks, strategy, student-related, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Some very frustrated reflections after reading:
- It’s time to worry: Boys are rapidly falling behind girls in school — from takepart.com by Peg Tyre
Reporter Peg Tyre explains why the challenges boys face in school need to be taken much more seriously.
Excerpt:
Right now, boys are falling out of the kindergarten through 12th grade educational pipeline in ways that we can hardly imagine.
This situation continues to remind me of the oil spill in the Gulf (2010), where valuable resources spilled into the water untapped — later causing some serious issues:
.
From DSC:
What are we doing?!!! We’ve watched the dropout rates grow — it doesn’t seem we’ve changed our strategies nearly enough! But the point that gets lost in this is that we will all pay for these broken strategies — and for generations to come! It’s time to seriously move towards identifying and implementing some new goals.
What should the new goals look like? Here’s my take on at least a portion of a new vision for K-12 — and collegiate — education:
- Help students identify their God-given gifts and then help them build up their own learning ecosystems to support the development of those gifts. Hook them up with resources that will develop students’ abilities and passions.
. - Part of their learning ecosystems could be to help them enter into — and build up — communities of practice around subjects that they enjoy learning about. Those communities could be local, national, or international. (Also consider the creation of personalized learning agents, as these become more prevalent/powerful.)
. - Do everything we can to make learning enjoyable and foster a love of learning — as we need lifelong learners these days.
(It doesn’t help society much if students are dropping out of K-12 or if people struggle to make it through graduation — only to then harbor ill feelings towards learning/education in general for years to come. Let’s greatly reduce the presence/usage of standardized tests — they’re killing us! They don’t seem to be producing long-term positive results. I congratulate the recent group of teachers who refused to give their students such tests; and I greatly admire them for getting rid of a losing strategy.)
. - Give students more choice, more control over what their learning looks like; let them take their own paths as much as possible (provide different ways to meet the same learning objective is one approach…but perhaps we need to think beyond/bigger than that. The concern/fear arises…but how will we manage this? That’s where a good share of our thinking should be focused; generating creative answers to that question.)
. - Foster curiosity and wonder
. - Provide cross-disciplinary assignments/opportunities
. - Let students work on/try to resolve real issues in their communities
. - Build up students’ appreciation of faith, hope, love, empathy, and a desire to make the world a better place. Provide ways that they can contribute.
.
- Let students experiment more — encourage failure.
.
On 02/22/2013,
in faith, future, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, history, society,
by Daniel Christian
A psalm. For giving grateful praise.
1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
On 02/07/2013,
in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, history, media/film, relationships, religion,
by Daniel Christian
Per YouVersion:
The Bible series, from television’s top husband-and-wife team Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, is the greatest visualization of the Bible we’ve ever seen. From Genesis to Revelation, this five-part series combines a powerful collection of stories with live action and truly amazing CGI.
We’re thrilled that the Bible App has been named the official app of The Bible series.
On 02/04/2013,
in relationships, using teams,
by Daniel Christian
13 To answer before listening—
that is folly and shame.
19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,
Mark 9:35 (NIV) — from biblegateway.com
“Sitting down, Jesus called the twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.””
.
From DSC:
Very different from the ways/teachings of the world…
Very different from the ways/teachings of the world…
On 01/24/2013,
in faith, hearts -- matters of the heart, pedagogy, relationships, teaching & learning,
by Daniel Christian
Day 15: Ideas for an Online Chapel — from Janine Lim
Excerpt:
Andrews University is a Christian school; and therefore faith integration in online learning is an important value and task. Among other statements, the Andrews University Mission Statement includes this: Andrews University students will seek knowledge as they understand life, learning, and civic responsibility from a Christian point of view. How this is done makes for interesting discussion and research. There are certainly many viewpoints on the best way to integrate faith and learning; as well as different views on what it really means.
In my view, though, the core is how an instructor’s whole being as a person of faith is evidenced in the teaching and learning process. The evidence may come in instructor-student interaction, in discussion on how the Christian worldview intersects with the content knowledge, in how students are viewed and treated as whole persons made in the image of God, in the instructor’s teaching presence.
On 01/22/2013,
in Daniel S. Christian, faith, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships,
by Daniel Christian
“Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things He does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!”
— from YouVersion.com
From DSC:
Thanks LORD for your grace, your patience with me, your forgiveness of my many shortcomings/faults/failures, for your help and refuge, …the list could go on and on. So I’ll just say, “Thanks LORD” and grant me the same courage, generosity, and purity of heart that this widow had.
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.