The Carnival is Coming Back

christian_carnival_lion.jpgI’m having some friends drop in next week. They’ll be visiting from all over the world and you’re invited to join us. The next Christian Carnival is being hosted here at RodneyOlsen.Net.

The weekly Christian Carnival is an opportunity for Christian blog writers to share their best posts from the previous week. The topic of the post doesn’t necessarily have to focus on Christianity but it must reflect a Christian worldview, and the writer must be Christian to qualify. You may wish to consider that the readership of the Christian Carnival will be more varied than your usual readership, and you might do better contributing a post with broad appeal.

I’ve already received a number of contributions and I’m looking forward to offering readers of this blog some great links when the carnival is published.

If you’re a Christian and you’ve never contributed before, or if it’s been a while since you have, how about having a look through your posts for this week and choosing something to contribute. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, just a post that outlines your point of view or is designed to get others thinking. Being part of the carnival could be a great way to gain a little extra traffic at your blog.

The easiest way to get involved is to submit your article through the Blog Carnival Submission Form. Otherwise, you can email the submission address.

The deadline for submissions is Tuesday evening at midnight, Eastern (US) Standard Time. That means it’s midday Wednesday here in Perth, Western Australia.



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Elton says Jesus was gay

Elton John has created controversy over his recent claims that Jesus was a super-intelligent gay man.

In an article titled Elton John: ‘There’s A Lot Of Hate In The World’, Elton gave Dotson Rader of Parade insights into his life. He spoke about love, drugs, fame and his long term relationship with David Furnish. His most controversial comments were about Jesus.

I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems. On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving. I don’t know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East — you’re as good as dead.

While I completely disagree with Elton’s thoughts on Jesus being gay I must say that this isn’t the first time that someone has tried to turn Jesus into something that he’s not.

Ever since God made man in his image, man has been trying to create a god that conforms to his own image.

Elton John is an extremely talented musician who doesn’t try to hide the fact that he is gay. Is it really a surprise that he would create an image of Jesus that reflects who he would like him to be? The scriptures and history in no way suggest that Jesus was or is gay, yet that is who Elton would like him to be. It suits Elton to see Jesus that way rather than a Jesus who would challenge his thoughts or lifestyle.

In the same way many other people see Jesus in whatever way suits their own purposes. The scriptures and history in no way suggest that Jesus was or is someone who wants us all to be obscenely rich, yet that is who some Christians would like him to be and they tell us that material wealth is a necessary manifestation of God’s blessings. Even though scriptures talk about the dangers of wealth they want to run after such things and so they create a Jesus that wants them to be materially prosperous.

The Jews who were waiting for Messiah were expecting someone to lead a military overthrow. That wasn’t who Jesus was, so many couldn’t see that he was the one sent by God.

I think we all need to be constantly challenging our own image of Jesus. We can’t afford to pretend he is the person we want him to be. If we’re serious, we’ll want to meet the real Jesus. We can’t rely on second hand knowledge from parents, friends, pastors or teachers. They can all be helpful in guiding us but in the end we need to discover the real Jesus presented in the Bible.

It takes a lot of courage to open the scriptures and ask, “Who was Jesus? Who is Jesus? If I’m to follow him what does he require of me? Was he really God or just a good man?”

When we ask those questions we need to be ready to act on what we find, not on what we’d like to find or assume.

I’m pretty selfish by nature so it would suit me a lot better if Jesus wasn’t someone who asked me to always put others ahead of myself. It would be easier for me if Jesus didn’t ask me to take care of those who can’t take care of themselves. I would find life a lot easier if I didn’t have to control my thought life as much as I need to control my actions. There are many things about the Jesus I find in the Bible that challenge me but I can’t just pretend that those aspects of Jesus don’t exist. I can’t make Jesus in my own image and neither can Elton John.

The Jesus I know does share some similarities with the Jesus Elton would like to know. I also think Jesus was compassionate and that he understood human problems. I see very clearly the example he gave in that on the cross he forgave the people who crucified him. I’m in total agreeance with Elton that Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving.

Who is the Jesus you know?



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Talking to Australian Idol Stan Walker

2009 Australian Idol Stan WalkerOn Sunday 22 November 2009, 19 year old Stan Walker’s life changed forever. He became the 2009 Australian Idol.

Since then life has been a frantic mix of recording, performing and promotional appearances. His first single Black Box was an instant hit. His album Introducing Stan Walker was released in early December.

How good is he really? International superstar Michael Bublé was one of the guest mentors for Australian Idol 2009 and after meeting Stan and hearing him sing he said, “That voice is like God kissed his throat. It’s hard when you’re a singer and you meet a better singer than you and you have to come up and mentor them.” After one performance during Idol he left Joel and Benji Madden of Good Charlotte speechless. Joel said that listening to Walker sing made him want to sing R&B music and Benji said he’d watch him perform wheather he won the competition or not. Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy told Stan that if he had no where to go after Idol to give him a call.

Stan joined me in the studio this morning on 98.5 Sonshine FM. You can hear our conversation by clicking on the play button of the audio player at the bottom of this post.

We spoke about a range of subjects including his music, staying grounded, and growing up within a broken and dysfunctional home. Stan has been quoted as saying that he wants people to connect with more than just his music.

I really want to represent Polynesian people, Aboriginal people, and other ethic groups of people who have to deal the same kind of issues in their communities, but at the very same time I also want to represent all the young Australians who may also be finding things a little more difficult than others. It’s not about where you’re from, it’s about who you are – my goal is to show people that through the struggle there is definitely a brighter future on the other side. I’m one of those broken people who’ve gained everything through my experience, and I want to show everyone that it’s possible if you stay true to who you are. I really believe that talent can take you so far, but it’s your character that can take you all the way.

Stan Walker is someone who’s not afraid to speak very openly about his faith and the place of God in his life. He talked about his decisions being based on prayer and the wise advice of church leaders and mentors.

[audio:http://mpegmedia.sonshinefm.ws/feeds/MOR190210_1219.mp3]

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Christian Carnival 309

christian_carnival_lion.jpgThe carnival is back in town and we’ve had another great response this week. It’s always wonderful to see some first timers joining the carnival as well as some of the regulars at their thought provoking best.

The weekly Christian Carnival is an opportunity for Christian blog writers to share their best posts from the previous week. The topic of the post doesn’t necessarily have to focus on Christianity but it must reflect a Christian worldview, and the writer must be Christian to qualify.

As always it’s a real honour to be able to present such a diverse range of great posts.

Please take the time to read through each post … it’s worth it. You might also like to link to this week’s carnival so that your blog readers can enjoy the variety of styles and thought. Another way to spread the word about the Christian Carnival is to click any of the buttons below this post to share the carnival on Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon or any of the other sites represented.

Starting things off this week is Trent Cotton with his post The Christian Sword ? The Guard over at Christian Men-Christian Warriors.

NCSue presents Sharing time, talent, and treasure at the blog In Him We Live and Move and Have our Being.

A surprise from FMF to start the new year. You don’t own “your” stuff. Check out The Proper Understanding of God’s Ownership of “Our” Money at Free Money Finance to find out more.

Chris Brooks has some useful advice for those wanting to make Bible reading a more impacting part of 2010. 7 Tips for Reading the Bible in a Year is posted at Homeward Bound and has plenty of great ideas to get you underway for the new year.

Who are the “new” Gnostics today? Diane R believes you may be surprised to learn they are flooding into our historic evangelical Christian colleges, seminaries and youth groups. See what she has to say in her post The New Gnostics at Crossroads: Where Faith and Inquiry Meet,

John asks the very interesting question Does God Feel Emotions? at Brain Cramps for God.

Dan Stelter says you can learn exactly how to recover from an anxiety condition. Like everything else, it’s all in the Bible if you know where to look! If you don’t, Dan can help with the post What the Bible Says About Anxiety posted at Anxiety Support Network Anxiety Recovery Blog.

Matt at MandM says, “Taken in isolation, and interpreted in a strict literal fashion, the book of Joshua appears to state that God commanded Genocide. Critics of Christianity claim that this places the Christian in a rationally inconsistent position. I contend that when the text is read in its literary and textual context this conclusion is far from evident and is, in fact, rather questionable.” You can read more at the post Joshua and the Genocide of the Canaanites.

Over at at ANSWERS For The Faith, Michael G. Davis thinks about the coming twelve months and presents 2010: What I Look Forward To and Not.

Suicide is always difficult to deal with. Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda is a very personal post by Shperical from At the Center presenting one man’s response to some of the questions that are part of having a family member take their own life.

In “The True Image”, Philip Edgcumbe Hughes claims that ‘good’ can exist apart from -any- presence of evil. Steven from You Can’t Mean That! challenges this assertion by making a distinction within usages of ‘good’ as an abstract concept in the post Good Without Evil?

Amanda presents a very thoughtful post titled Peace on earth? Where? at her blog Amanda’s Musings.

There’s an excellent post about being part of the body of Christ rather than a lone ranger Christian at Sarah’s blog. She presents The Lonely But Not The Only at This is what Sed said.

Christopher Wright wants to tie sinful and self-interested love of mammon with political and economic ideologies, but does he overstate his point? That’s Jeremy Pierce’s topic for the carnival this week with his post Christopher Wright on the Ideology of Mammon at Parableman.

What will be the hallmark of this new year? Ridge Burns has submitted 2010: The Year of Openness at his blog Ridge’s Blog.

Michelle presents a devotional post titled 01.04.09 at Thoughts and Confessions of a Girl Who Loves Jesus….

Barry Wallace presents Every day in America is bloodier than 9/11 at who am i?, saying, “The most dangerous place for a baby to be in America is resting in her mother’s womb.”

January 2 was “Palindrome Day” in many parts of the world. What’s a Palindrome Day and what could it have to do with the Christian faith? Find out by reading Tom Gilson’s post Happy Palindrome Day! at Thinking Christian.

Rey Reynoso wanted to take the opportunity to share the full Herman Bavinck quote that’s been selectively quoted on the internet. The post Selective Quoting of Bavinck at The Bible Archive should give you the details.

To finish this week Kerin Gedge investigates Sherlock Holmes: An Elementary Review at Kerinthian’s.

If you’re a Christian and you missed out this week, how about choosing something to contribute for next week’s edition? It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, just a post that outlines your point of view or is designed to get others thinking. Being part of the carnival could be a great way to gain a little extra traffic at your blog.

The easiest way to get involved is to submit your article through the Blog Carnival Submission Form. Otherwise, you can email the submission address.

Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to spread the word. Feel free to click any of the buttons below to share the carnival on Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon or any of the other sites represented.



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The Carnival is coming to town

christian_carnival_lion.jpgI’m having some friends drop in next week. They’ll be visiting from all over the world and you’re invited to join us. The next Christian Carnival is being hosted here at RodneyOlsen.Net.

The weekly Christian Carnival is an opportunity for Christian blog writers to share their best posts from the previous week. The topic of the post doesn’t necessarily have to focus on Christianity but it must reflect a Christian worldview, and the writer must be Christian to qualify. You may wish to consider that the readership of the Christian Carnival will be more varied than your usual readership, and you might do better contributing a post with broad appeal.

I’ve already received a number of contributions and I’m looking forward to offering readers of this blog some great links when the carnival is published.

If you’re a Christian and you’ve never contributed before, or if it’s been a while since you have, how about having a look through your posts for this week and choosing something to contribute. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, just a post that outlines your point of view or is designed to get others thinking. Being part of the carnival could be a great way to gain a little extra traffic at your blog.

The easiest way to get involved is to submit your article through the Blog Carnival Submission Form. Otherwise, you can email the submission address.

The deadline for submissions is Tuesday evening at midnight, Eastern (US) Standard Time. That means it’s midday Wednesday here in Perth, Western Australia.



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