Fred's Blog
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The Gospel Drone
In 1967 film maker and devout Christian Irwin “Shorty” Yeaworth (whose first popular movie was “The Blob”) produced “The Gospel Blimp” as a send-up of the craze over mass evangelism using the latest technology to reach a whole community in the most effective way possible – an inflatable blimp manned by a “Commander” and his crew. They towed Bible-verse banners, “firebombing” the unchurched citizens with thousands of gospel tracts and broadcasting Christian music and programs over loudspeakers. Things unravel and the new technology ends up being just one more way of wasting money with little positive effect. But for a brief moment it is new and exciting and full of…
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Give Anyway
If you caught Sixty Minutes this week you had a glimpse into the crushing plight of Christians in Iraq specifically and the Middle East in general. The Christian population in Iraq has been reduced from 1.5 million to less than 300,000—through slaughter, forced migration, conversion under duress and fear. More than 125,000 Christians have fled to Kurdistan and are huddled there in refugee camps. The entire Christian population of Mosul has disappeared and, according to a priest interviewed by CBS reporter Lara Logan, the intent of ISIS is to completely eradicate the Christians: “To wipe them out. To be nothing. No place left that bears the name of Christian or…
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The Opposite of Spoiled
Lieber uses conversations around money to help inculcate seven basic values in our kids that will lead them to become mature adults.
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Spocked by an Angel
Spock always said what he thought and was bewildered at how humans complicated and confused issues with emotions - anger, fear, love and attachment.
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Labor Pains
At 19, I took a summer job in a canning factory. For nine hours every day, I stood on hard concrete beside a press stamping out thousands of tin can lids. My job was to inspect the seals, stack them in a metal tube, bag them, put 24 bags in a box, and shove the box down a chute. The constant din of the machinery made any conversation with each other impossible. This was long before the Walkman or iPod so we were left alone with our thoughts for hours at a time. During the 15-minute breaks, the talk was about family or sports — the stuff of everyday life.…
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Ain't That A Shame
Unfortunately, the overreaction to shame in general has led to our wanting to eliminate it entirely and to celebrate those who are shameless – and that’s a shame.
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Ain’t That A Shame
Unfortunately, the overreaction to shame in general has led to our wanting to eliminate it entirely and to celebrate those who are shameless – and that’s a shame.
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The Second Coming
Our leaders and cultural elite have no capacity for understanding — or taking seriously — the theology and actions of militant Islam.
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The Rhythm of Routine
We distort Jacob’s life when we try to make it more than it was —a day-to-day unremarkable pattern of the ordinary.
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Seven
A few years ago I heard an earnest, well-intentioned speaker present a message on the topic of the Biblical model of giving. It was the story of the widow’s mite and, as you might guess, the conclusion was we should be willing to give everything we have. I started thinking about that because I had heard almost my whole life that this story was the Biblical model for giving and, ideally, the gold standard. However, as I started looking at the different stories about giving in Scripture I realized there is a wide diversity of giving styles in Scripture — not just one. David. A leader gives leadership gifts. When…