Bounded Irrationality: Christian Carnival CCIII (Love of God Edition)

The Love of God surpasses all understand and animates our lives before we're even saved.

In this Advent season we must remember that Christ was love made man not just a royal baby.

We see the perfect depths of love that God would shed his power and glory and then suffer death to raise Man up to Himself. I included the image to the left from a Charlie Brown Christmas because I think it's a pop-culture illustration of how someone chooses an unworthy object and redeems it.

I pray that during this Advent season the love of God would pierce the busy materialism of this time of year and inspire you to love also.

Now on to the great posts in Christian Carnival CCIII.

Reactions to the Golden Compass

Weekend Fisher presents Bonhoeffer on the culture war. Weekend Fisher looks at Bonhoeffer’s comments on winning the culture war and applies them to the current discussion of the release of the Golden Compass. This reminds my of 1 Peter 2:12 “Live such good lives among the Pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Steve Bishop, of an accidental blog, reviews Hugh Rayment-Pickard's book The Devil's Account: Philip Pullman & Christianity

Christmas

Barbara Sanders at Tidbits and Treasures posted How late can one be? My wife and I test this question yearly in waiting to decorate our home for Christmas.

e-Mom presents Does Christmas Have Any Teeth? posted at C h r y s a l i s. Fact or Fiction... Jesus' Birth Changed Virtually Every Aspect of Human Life. An exploration of John 3:16 and how God's love changed the course of history.

Adam presents A Few Last-Minute Christmas Ideas posted at The Faughn Family of Four.

Renae presents Searching for Snow Globes posted at Life Nurturing Education. The value of love is worth the risk.

Ann Shorb presents Just the Right Gift! posted at Christian Counseling & Educational Services. God’s love showed brightly when he sent us the perfect gift.

Martin LaBar presents Christ Didn't come as a Baby at Sun and Shield. Martin asks “Was Christ incarnated as a baby or did he come as an embryo?” Martin explores what this might mean. I can't help but be reminded of a line in Michael Card's song To the Mystery: "When the Father wanted to show a love he wanted us to know, He sent his only son and so became a holy embryo"

Live the Love of God

Elementaryhistoryteacher presents When Doors Slam in Our Face posted at Got Bible?. What can we learn from the account in Acts where God prevented Paul from preaching the gospel in Asia?

Rodney Olsen presents The Case for Interfaith Dialogue posted at The Journey - Life : Faith : Family. Should we be involved in the 'interfaith movement'? Can we discuss matters of faith with those of other religions without compromising our own beliefs?

Michael McGinnis presents God would never make you uncomfortable. posted at Tantalizing if True. Another installment in a series on common heresies: why missionaries and martyrs are different than you, and why God must think that's okay.

Erika Wilson presents The Bible: My Handbook For Living posted at Royally Redeemed. Erika describes how the Bible was opened up to her once she realized that it was the Christian’s handbook for life on Earth.

Drs. Bil & Cher Holton presents Unity Spiritual Life Center Blog » Blog Archive » Why Aren’t My Prayers Answered? posted at Unity Spiritual Life Center Blog.You may even have asked out of frustration, hurt, or anger, "God, can you hear me now? Are you listening?" Many a grieving parent has asked, "God where are you?" Millions of widows and widowers have asked, "Why did God take him away from me?" - "Why did God take her. Doesn't He know I need her?"

Love to the World

John presents Religion, Faith and Politics posted at Brain Cramps for God. I look at the perceived faith (in something) of a political candidate as a measure of their attractiveness to Americans.

Jeremy of Parableman presents How Not to Argue. It's about a recent Family Research Council update that included some unhelpful language insulting adoptive parents in order to present adoptive gay parents as not true parents.

Dana presents Fundamentalism, psychotropic drugs and mass murder posted at Principled Discovery. Dana explores Christian’s attitudes towards psychotropic drugs, mental illness and their link to mass murder incidents.

Henry Imler presents Christians and the Other posted at Theology for the Masses. Make sure to listen to the podcast at the end of the post.

Love between Christians

Weekend Fisher presents Patristic Studies: Debugging Christian History posted at Weekend Fisher. Why hasn't patristic studies gone further towards helping Christian reconciliation? What is the potential, and how could we go forward to realize Christ's prayer that all of us should be one?

Jason Hughey presents Part 1: The Enforcement of Morality Debate posted at Logical Consistency. Jason answers: “Why can we as Christians apply our moral principles to politics and government?”

Henry Neufeld presents Wright and Piper on 2 Corinthians 5:21 posted at Participatory Bible Study Blog. Entering a very controversial debate about several terms in the Pauline writings.

JTR Hart presents The Vatican and The Promises posted at Help My Unbelief. Do we have an inalienable right to evangelize that government cannot take away?

Mark Olson presents Christian Reconciliation Carnival:On the Reformation posted at Pseudo-Polymath. Reformation and counter-Reformation (as well as reform movements in general) have features in common. Criticism is offered.

More than Conquerors through the Love of Christ

ChrisB presents How to Deal with New Atheists posted at Homeward Bound. Chris presents a surprising idea for how to respond to militant atheists using our postmodernist culture.

Tom Fuerst presents An Installment on the Interaction of Intercourse and Economics posted at Theology for the Masses. Tom really perks my interest here. You know Jesus spoke intensively about economics. Perhaps that because our spiritual condition is so related to financial matters.

Tom Gilson presents Can You Become a Better Person? posted at Thinking Christian. Is it possible to become a better person: more moral, more ethical? Undoubtedly yes, except for this: under moral relativism, "becoming a better person" is incoherent; it really doesn't make any sense.

Stretch Mark Mama presents Vengeance Is Mine, He Will Yet Say posted at Lisa at Snippets and Sagas.

Diane R presents How We Should Have Done It posted at Crossroads: Where Faith and Inquiry Meet. We must stop replacing the gospel of atonement with the social gospel, the political gospel, the seeker gospel and so forth. Then, how do we change people and society?

Annette presents God's Glory, Save his People posted at Fish and Cans. This Christmas season I need to, YOU need to, see this - God's glory be shown, leads to our salvation. That God is indeed the only way to be saved. Without him there is no salvation. Without him we are fodder for our enemies....who are indeed the very enemies of God himself. Let us not be fodder!

Mick presents Tyranny’s Progress – Home Schooling posted at Romans 15:4 Project. I’ve warned before, “When the education enforcement officers knock on your door and say ‘we are here to take your children’, will you render unto Caesar?” Unfortunately, it is closer than we think. Pray this is an isolated incident that is brought to justice swiftly!

Kneon Transitt presents Peddling comics: What are my friends up to? posted at kneon transitt shouldn't be allowed to blog. Kneon looks at some Christian comic books.

FMF presents Gaining the Whole World Yet Losing What’s Most Important posted at Free Money Finance.

Merry Christmas