One More Week

Next Friday, June 1, will be the launch date for the new financial blog for Christians, “Where Your Treasure Is.” The four writers: Wes Hazel, James Dalton, Joey Sparks and I are all looking forward to a successful launch.

We hope this blog will be of some help to you. We all struggle with money in one way or another, and we sincerely pray that this effort will help us all come closer to the Biblical way of using our monies and possessions.

If you have not done so yet, please bookmark the site, Where Your Treasure Is.

Also,

• If you are a member of Technorati, there is a link on the blog for you to add Where Your Treasure Is to your favorites.
• If you have not done so, please pass along word about the blog through emails or word-of-mouth.
• Check out the article Joey Sparks wrote on his blog about the launch.
• Go to the blog and click on “subscribe to: posts (atom)” to get updates about articles as they are added.
• Most importantly, pray for this effort. We certainly are.

We hope to see you in one week on Where Your Treasure Is!

Paris Hilton’s Religious Move

You don’t often read “Paris Hilton” and “Bible” in the same sentence (although you do read “Paris Hilton” and “sentence” together a lot recently).

The heiress has decided that she needs to get some religion in order to avoid jail time. From the National Ledger’s Tina Sims:

Paris Hilton has turned to Buddhism in her ongoing campaign to avoid jail. And if that doesn’t work she has a Christian Bible as well. The dog toting socialite – who has been sentenced to 45 or 23 days in jail for driving with a suspended license – was seen in Hollywood’s Bodhi Tree bookstore picking up a spiritual tome. And don’t forget earlier this week, ‘The Simple Life’ star was spotted clutching the Bible and a self-help manual.

Sadly, this is the way many people view God and the Bible. When they get in trouble, they’ll start trying to “religion” their way out. We need to learn to open the Bible at all times and live by its precepts in both good times and bad.

The Bible: Obscene?

More than 800 Hong Kong residents have called on authorities to reclassify the Bible as “indecent” due to its sexual and violent content, following an uproar over a sex column in a university student journal.

That’s the opening paragraph from a Reuter’s release about a controversy in Hong Kong over the Bible. Admittedly, 800+ people may not seem like that many in an entire nation, but it should still open our eyes to how much some people hate God’s Word.

To read the rest of the press release, click here.

The Big Announcement!!!

Since last Friday, we have been mentioning that a big announcement would be unveiled this week. So, of course, we waited all the way until Friday to unveil it.

So, what is it?

Four preachers, including me, have been working together on an idea for a new blog, and today we are giving you a “preview” of this new work.

Joey Sparks of Jasper, Alabama; Wes Hazel of Manchester, Tennessee; James Dalton of Blytheville, Arkansas; and Adam are all four going to be administrators and writers for the new blog.

Most “blogging experts” say that, for a blog to be successful, it must be focused in on a specific subject area. That is the idea behind our new work. The four of us have divided up areas of responsibility, but all articles will deal with the Christian and finance.

The blog is called “Where Your Treasure Is: Merging Faith and Personal Finance.” The masthead, designed by Joey Sparks, is pictured below:

We hope, through this blog, to give a Biblical perspective on finance. All four of us admit, we are not experts in how to handle money. That is part of the purpose of this blog. By writing articles dealing with the Bible and finance, giving, frugal living, saving, investing, debt reduction and other areas, we hope to help ourselves as well as each reader. We are going to be very open about our own finances, both positively and negatively. We hope you will celebrate our victories and “boo” our defeats!

The blog will feature articles written by each author, and also links to other helpful sites and articles. Our initial goal is to average at least two posts per day (at least 60 per month). By giving you this many resources, you should want to come back daily to learn–with us–about the Bible and finance.

So many websites and blogs deal with money, but very few have a Christian viewpoint. We want to change that. Yes, there will be a lot of articles and links dealing with “general” finance, but all will be chosen to help you give more to the Lord, save more for your family and avoid having your heart in this world.

The blog will be unveiled on Friday, June 1. Please pass along a link to this article in emails to friends, coworkers, family members,…well, anyone!

Oh, yeah, and go ahead and bookmark the site: http://whereyourtreasureis.blogspot.com.

Let’s See If This Happens

The state of Georgia is considering allowing students in public schools to take classes in Old Testament and New Testament. The classes would be simply historical and literature type classes, because the Bible is such as huge part of history. Teachers would not be allowed to bring in devotional-type material and, of course, would not be allowed to “indoctrinate” students.

Of course, the ACLU–along with other groups–will be keeping a close eye on the whole process. They don’t want Georgia schools to start teaching the subjects in the first place, but they will be quick to strike if a teacher goes too far (probably defined as “opens a Bible”).

For a press release on this story, click here.

Book Review: "How We Got the Bible" by Neil Lightftoot

What a great book! I know most of you probably have this book in your library already, but this was my first time working my way through it. To say it was “faith-building” would be a great understatement.

Our Senior High class asked me to teach a series in the Summer quarter on the Bible: how we got it, is it reliable, do we have the right 66 books, etc. After reading Lightfoot’s work, I know I am far more prepared to teach this material.

In survey format, How We Got the Bible walks readers through the basic process of getting God’s Word from the writers many centuries ago to us now. There are questions at the conclusion of each of the 18 chapters to help your personal study or your Bible class.

While there are some sections that get fairly deep in details, the book is still very readable. In fact, once you start reading and you see how exciting the story really is, it’s hard to stop! God’s providence is really the “star” of the book, for He has protected His Word for us.

If you wish to purchase this book, it has been added to the “May We Recommend” section on the right hand side of the page. Please click on the ad and purchase it from Amazon. You’ll be glad you did.