I haven’t really watched a lot of American Idol 3. I saw bits and pieces of the auditions early in the series and then a couple of programmes more recently. It wasn’t a real stretch to pick her. She stood out as the best by a mile.

She was the only one who could continually reach the notes they were trying to hit. No wonder she not only made it to the final but took the prize.

I guess we have to get ready for Australian Idol 2 now. Who will be the next Guy Sebastion?

The whole Idol thing is obviously a huge money spinner for those involved but thankfully it has unearthed some true talent (and lots of wannabes).

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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While poking around on the net I found a few ads for a ‘Christian’ video titled THE CRASH – The Coming Financial Collapse of America. It seems it was released in 1993 by Jeremiah Films.

Some of the info they give you to promote the video is:

A profound, must see video about the coming financial breakdown of literally Biblical proportions.

Featuring expert Biblical and economic analyses from Larry Burkett, Ed Meese, U.S. Senator Trent Lott and others, this documentary examines why America is eventually going to experience a financial disaster of epic proportions. Find out what you can do to protect your family and future.

Find out what you can do to protect your family and future? Really? Is that what we as Christians should be doing if there really is an upcoming crash? Surely we should be thinking of more than looking after ourselves.

I was blown away by the insightful quote they use in their promotion.

“If the United States Government continues to spend more than it’s taking in, we’re headed for economic collapse.” ED MEESE, – Former U.S. Attorney General

What an intelligent comment. Who would have ever guessed that a person or even a country can’t continue to spend more that they are earning?

Those in America may have heard a lot more about this video than those of us in Australia or other parts of the world. The mind boggles.

This sounds like the same kind of scare tactic that had thousands on non-thinking Christians (and others) taking their eyes off the ball in the lead up to January 1, 2000.

Do you remember the Christian Bookstores being filled with books on how to save ‘yourself and your family’ from the Y2K disasters ahead. How selfish can we be?

I know I’m only judging the content of the video from the promotion but that is pretty damning in itself and considering the film is over 10 years old you’d have to wonder when the collapse is coming.

Please let me know if you’ve seen the video or know more about it. Surely it can’t be as bad as it seems on the surface.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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I noticed that this is my 200th post so I thought I’d do something a little different and highlight an organisation that started 200 years ago in a pub in London.

In 1794 a ten-year-old Welsh girl named Mary Jones became the first in her family to learn to read. Her accomplishment was rewarded when her teacher invited her to read aloud from the Welsh Bible at school. Mary was so moved by the words she was reading she resolved then and there to do everything in her power to own a Bible.

For six years she knitted socks, grew vegetables, kept bees, raised chickens and helped local farmers harvest their crops, little by little earning the money she needed. She lived for Saturdays when she would visit Mrs. Evans, a local farmer’s wife who invited her to come and read the Scriptures at her home.

By the age of 16 Mary had finally saved enough money. She had heard that Mr. Charles, the minister in Bala, had Bibles for sale. Although it was an arduous journey of around 40 kilometres through a forbidding landscape, Mary set off, praying for safety as she walked.

She arrived the next day to discover that only one Welsh Bible was left – and that had been promised to someone else. She began to weep. Mr. Charles was deeply moved and took pity on her, saying that he had another Bible in English, and his friend could read English as well as Welsh. He sold the Welsh Bible to Mary.

The incident touched Mr. Charles’ heart and moved him to action. Four years later in London he presented the need of the Welsh people for the Scriptures with such eloquence that the Reverend Thomas Hughes, minister of the Baptist church in Battersea, cried out, “Surely a Society might be formed for the purpose! But if for Wales, why not for Great Britain? Why not for the world?”

The inaugural meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society drew three hundred people to the London Tavern on the seventh of March 1804.

From this simple meeting began the British and Foreign Bible Society and, subsequently, the Bible Society movement worldwide.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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A very interesting article in the news today from news.com.au.

What’s the best advantage a blind golfer can have? Sight apparently.

His uncanny ability to hit fairways and greens using only verbal instructions from a helper has seen Briton David Morris twice become world blind golf champion.

But now critics say he has somewhat of an advantage – he can see.

This story brings to mind those old TV court dramas where the lawyer drops his brief case on the ground behind the witness in the neck brace. The witness turns around quickly to see where the noise has come from and the jury oohs and aahs to see that he’s been found out.

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