Pierced for our transgressions

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5-6)

(Read by Max McLean. Provided by The Listener's Audio Bible.)

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Art

I was browsing the net in search of good Christian graphics, and found this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marketseq/

Amazingly beautiful, creative, glorifying God and Christ.

The artist says:

I believe in art. I believe its beauty and power can enrich and transform attitudes and lives. I also believe that art is capable of engaging and encouraging the spirit.

I am inspired by my faith in God, bright colors and a desire to encourage people who perchance happen to cross my path in this world or the Web.

I’ve been an artist since I can remember, although I’ve never been formally trained as one. My art is created using my imagination, a Wacom tablet and the lively pixels of my home computer. I still paint with watercolors occasionally, but the PC is much easier to clean up afterwards.

Everyone is so incredibly busy these days and I am thankful to you for taking time to stop and look at my work. Even if you don’t find something that you’d like to purchase, I hope something you see here will brighten and bless your day.

Read on.

Then I found this:

Amazing, isn't it?

Holy God, We Praise Thy Name

1. Holy God, we praise thy name;
Lord of all, we bow before thee;
all on earth thy scepter claim;
all in heaven above adore thee.
Infinite thy vast domain;
everlasting is thy reign.

2. Hark the glad celestial hymn
angel choirs above are raising;
cherubim and seraphim,
in unceasing chorus praising,
fill the heavens with sweet accord:
Holy, holy, holy Lord.

3. Lo! the apostolic train
joins thy sacred name to hallow;
prophets swell the glad refrain,
and the white-robed martyrs follow.
And from morn to set of sun,
through the church the song goes on.

4. Holy Father, Holy Son,
Holy Spirit: three we name thee,
though in essence only one;
undivided God we claim thee,
and adoring bend the knee
while we own the mystery.

Just remember

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time.” (1 Timothy 2:5-6)

(Read by Max McLean. Provided by The Listener's Audio Bible.)

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He is Risen: Evidence beyond Reasonable Doubt

Regis Nicoll

A short while back, philosopher Stanley Fish observed that religion was “transgressing the boundary between private and public and demanding to be heard.” That’s a dangerous thing, as Mr. Fish sees it, because religion is based on claims that are excluded from tests of “deliberative reason.”

Take the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the linchpin of Christianity. According to Mr. Fish, “The assertion that Christ is risen is not one for which evidence pro and con is adduced in a judicial setting.” Mr. Fish worries that the growing influence of such non-critical beliefs is threatening liberalism.

There’s more than a little irony here. Stanley Fish, along with the other architects of postmodernism, ousted objective truth and reason in favor of subjective truth and personal experience decades ago.

Among trenchant critics — Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett, being the most trenchant — people who believe in the resurrection are under the spell of an authority directing them to sacrifice intellectual freedom on the altar of superstitious tradition. That makes religious faith coercive, if not dangerous.

Read on...