Welcome to the Christian Carnival and to Semicolon. I pray that you will be edified, educated, and encouraged as I was in reading and thinking through ALL sixty of the entries for this week. Yes, I read them all. Have fun as we blog through Ephesians 6.

Ephesians 6:1-3 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”�which is the first commandment with a promise� “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”
Blogger: Dr. Ray Pritchard, pastor and author
Post: When I Danced for My Mother A pastor tells a Mother’s Day story about “a final visit with my mother, featuring love and laughter and an impromptu dance by her second son.” What a great story of honoring a parent to start off our Ephesians 6 Christian Carnival!
Blogger: Martin LeBar at Sun and Shield
Post: Proverbs 31 in Verse. Poetry! I wish I could write the music to go with it. I think this “attempt to put Proverbs 31:10-31(“A Virtuous Wife”) in verse, so that it may be sung” will sing. Martin says, “If anyone has a use for it, they are welcome.”
Blogger: Phil Dillon, Prairie Apologist at Another Man’s Meat
Post: Sherbucky’s Secret Phil honors his pastor emeritus in this “brief, comic look at the value of a merry heart, using scripture and “literature noire” as a vehicle to unravel a mystery.” Anybody out there know what “sherbucky” means?
Blogger: Leo Wong
Post: Roses for Mary’s Month An artist honors Christ and His mother.

Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Blogger: Amy Scott at Amy’s Humble Musings
Post: Top 10 reasons our kindergartners will probably never be hauled away in handcuffs The title is self-explanatory, but here’s Reason #10 to get you started: 10. The only time I �count to five� is when I�m cooking up bowls of oatmeal for Baby Energizer in the morning.
Blogger: Kentucky Packrat
Post: Cover Yourselves Kentucky Packrat issues “a call to the teen girls, their parents, and the church leadership to stop the ‘show’ of too-short clothing.” He said it; all I can add is “amen.”

Ephesians 6:7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men.
Blogger: Kim Bloomer of Sharing Spirit
Post: Letting Go of Pride Kim says, “Letting Go of Pride 101 is the newest lesson God is taking me through. It’s tough because rather than share, I want to hoard, rather than help others I want to help myself first. The amazing thing I’ve learned though is that when I let go and just give to others and share, it comes back to me tenfold!”
Blogger: Hannah at Dogwood Blue
Post: More Blessed to Receive Than to Give?! Hannah blogs from South Korea, and she’s “clarifying her views about Christians and wealth.” She has a good discussion going in the comments section, too, so go join in.
Blogger: Wayne Moran at Questions and Answers
Post: Adam’s Penalty Mr. Moran blogs about that four-letter word: WORK. “As I have been strolling through the book of Genesis, I realized I did not have the guts to take on the entire female half of the species and discuss Eve’s penalty for her part in the fall, but I did have some insights on what Adam’s Penalty was.”
Blogger: TIm Waclawski at Quintilian in the Public Square
Post: On Forgetting He Was a Reverend Too Quintilian points out that “referring to Martin Luther King Jr. as ‘Dr. King’ makes it too easy to forget that King was a minister as well.” And the Rev. Dr. King was serving the Lord as he served men.
Blogger: Byron Harvey of A Ticking TIme Blog
Post: The Laodicea Chronicles III: Trampling on the Church “Christian media purportedly exists to serve and support the church. Is that what’s really going on? And if not, what ought to be done about it?”

Ephesians 6:9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
Blogger: Diane (of Greg and Diane) at Borgard Blog
Post: The More Things Change . . . Diane writes “a little piece of fiction that draws an analogy between the attitudes that justified slavery with those that now justify abortion.” (By the way, I don’t think the verse above justifies slavery but rather instructs those who already have slaves to treat those slaves as persons, equal to their masters before God.)
Blogger: Chad Hamilton at PlaidBerry
Post: Eternal Sunshine of a Heavenly Kind “We desperately need to re-evaluate our understanding of Heaven. C.S. Lewis helps us do that by portraying it as a sort of fulfillment of our lives here on earth and not as a completely detached entity.” And Chad quotes Lewis: “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal� it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit � immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” The implications are astounding.
Blogger: Dory of Wittenberg Gate, our esteemed moderator and organizer.
Post: By What Authority and By What Standard? “…if some men are to have authority over others, the source of authority must come from somewhere. It must come from somewhere where the seat of authority over all men lies. It must transcend mankind if it is not to be simply some men, even a majority, imposing their will upon others. The only reasonable source of that kind of authority is God Himself, and the only reasonable definition of how that authority is defined is by God’s own revelation in Scripture.”
Blogger: Viewpoint
Post: Emoting About Our Feelings Related to the post at Wittenberg Gate, this one deals with the source of moral authority. “The atheist who tries to find some basis for moral judgment in the dictates of reason has set for himself a very difficult, if not impossible task. This post considers the case of one atheistic philosopher as an illustration.”

Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
Blogger: Catez at All Things 2 All
Post: Babes and Arms: The Children of Darfur I actually linked to this post late last week. I think New Zealander Catez has been given the gift of compassion for the world. It’s a common practice – giving children paper and crayons to keep themselves occupied for a while. Human Rights Watch workers did just that when visiting a refugee camp in Chad while they interviewed adult survivors of the Sudan genocide. The results were unexpected – and are shown in this post along with some information on the Darfur genocide crisis.
Blogger: Joe Missionary
Post: The Christian Apprentice: Book Smarts vs. Street Smarts “Joe Missionary reflects on the latest series of The Apprentice with a comparison to Christians within the church.”
Blogger: Diane at Crossroads: Where Faith and Inquiry Meet
Post: Deconstructionism “With the death of Jacques Derrida, deconstructionism is in the news. Originally related to language, this nihilist philosophy is now being used in other areas, including evangelical churches.” The full armor, un-deconstructed.
Blogger: Mr. Standfast
Post: Christian, You Are the Salt of the Earth This post is ” the latest in a continuing series of posts concerning our identity in Christ.” Says Mr. Standfast, “Jesus is calling you to be what you are. To live, to show forth, what He has already made you.”
Blogger: TechnoGypsy
Post: St. Thomas Sunday “Is Thomas’ unbelief a role model? Sometimes we need someone like Thomas to say this and this condition must be met…”
Blogger: Eric Wiliams at Ales Rarus
Post: Proper Christian Behavior “More Christians should read the writings of the early Church fathers. Admittedly, I have only begun to do so myself. The first half of this quote from St. Clement of Alexandria should be read and reread periodically by all Christian bloggers.”
Blogger: Lars Walker at Brandywine Books This blog, by the way, is a must-read for me–weekly at least, more often if I can. Phil and Lars both are excellent bloggers.
Post: Learning to Love Rejection “Author Lars Walker applies a little Scripture to building the endurance to suffer an editor’s rejection of a story. In short, he says, ‘If you want to be a writer, make up your mind to be a pioneer’.”

Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Blogger: Laura at A Practice in Belief
Post: On Music and the Will Laura is on my blogroll, and I invited her to share these ” thoughts about the relationship between our reason, emotions and will and how music can/should affect them.” Laura is a really good writer and thinker, and she would like some feedback on these ideas that she says are still incomplete.
Blogger: Bruce Harpel at SpruceGoose
Post: Psychology, The Church Substitute. Pastor Harpel has some powerful words about the inability of modern psychology to bring real healing: “The counselors of this age offer nothing. They offer empty, hollow, shifting and changing, ideas and help. They offer ‘professionalism.’ And the broken people stack up like cord wood.”
Blogger: CWV Warrior at Christianity Is Jewish (Semicolon question: CWV stands for what?)
Post: Seven Years To Go, Part 2 “CWV Warrior finally wraps up Daniel’s Seventy Sevens with the big ‘A’ and the Church Age, ending with Daniel’s glimmer of hope in God’s enduring promises.”

Ephesians 6:14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place.
Blogger: Richard Anderson at dokeo kago grapho soi kratistos Theophilos, a blog dedicated to the writings of Saint Luke.
Post: Shifting Paradigms Mr. Anderson discusses “how the Virgin Mary, Papal Infallibility and Abortion are related to the priority of the Gospel of Mark.”
Blogger: Peccator at Catholics in Crisis
Post: What�s the Difference Between Christianity and Islam? (Part 1: Theocracy)
I’ve been really interested in comparing Islamic and Christian worldviews lately, so I enjoyed reading this lengthy, but well written, discussion, “an attempt to analyze whether Christian is “theocratic”, as liberals and libertarians frequently say, and to compare the position of Islam in regards to the same issue.”
Bloggers: Monk (conservative Christian) and Chefjef (liberal Christian) at Vita ab Alto (Translation, please?)
Post: Faith and Filibusters This post is “part of an ongoing discussion of Christianity & society by two church buds with the same commitment to Christ, but at opposite ends of the political spectrum.”
Blogger: Lance Salyers at Ragged Edges
Post: “Life,” Potential Life, And Building A House “A follow-up to Lance’s post last week, “Why I’m Anti-Abortion.” Hopefully some further explanation and a new analogy or two will help clear up or prevent confusion about ‘life’ and ‘Life’.”
Blogger: Jeremy Pierce at Parableman Parableman is a philosophical workout from an excellent Christian philosopher.
Post: ID Is Science, Sort of “Intelligent design is philosophy and not religion or, strictly speaking, science, despite the claims of people on both sides of the debate over whether it should be taught in schools. However, it is the sort of philosophy that takes place in scientific reasoning all the time, and those arguments do take place in high school science classes.”
Blogger: Richard Radcliffe of LawReligionCulture Review
Post: Using Scripture in Trial, Part V “Richard J. Radcliffe continues with his series on the use of scripture in trial by discussing a new California Supreme Court opinion, which resulted from a defendant’s appeal of his death sentence because the prosecutor referred to the Bible during closing argument.”

Ephesians 6:15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
Blogger: DadManly at GladManly blogging from Iraq!
Post: It’s Not Just You and Me: Love God This First Sergeant stationed in Iraq asks, “Do you ever wonder what God wants from you? I would humbly suggest that while there may be as many missions for God�s people as there are God�s people, in essence GOD wants us to: be forgiven, forgive, yield, and become vessels of God’s love.” It sounds like the gospel of peace to me—straight from the war zone.
Blogger: Better Living: Thoughts from Mark Daniels
Post: Marriage: Laying Aside, Putting On The gospel of peace comes in handy for marriage, too. “Presiding at the wedding of two friends, Mr. Daniels talks about two essential ingredients in successful marriages.”
Blogger: Norma at Church of the Acronym I usually read Norma’s posts at Collecting My Thoughts, but I think I’m missing out by not frequenting both of her blogs.
Post: Roast Preacher for Dinner Not really, though. Actually, Ms. Norma gives out accolades to all her pastors, and then she discusses “what the sermon was about on Sunday May 8.” Yep, we’re back to the “gospel of peace” theme again.
Blogger: Paula at Listen In
Post: Change in the Air Readiness for change? Paula admits she needs to stay open to change and adjust to it when it comes.

Ephesians 6:16-17 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Blogger: Rev. Ed at Attention Span
Post: Rick Warren Is Right . . .and Wrong Finally, a balanced critique of Purpose Driven Life. “After digesting many reviews of Rick Warren’s teaching and material, Rev Ed finds that Rick Warren is indeed right. And wrong. In this post, he tries to cut through the rhetoric and find the good and bad sides of the Purpose Driven phenomenon.”
Blogger: Danny Carlton at Jack Lewis.net
Post: Priorities in Christian Ministries Mr. Carlton “wonders about the priorities some Christians and churches seem to have.”
Blogger: Sherry at Semicolon
Post: Thanks to Someone My contribution to this week’s Carnival reviews two books I have read recently and tells how their themes are related, the “helmet of salvation” from Christian, Muslim, and pagan Norse viewpoints.
Blogger: F. Scott Petersen at Reformed Revival
Post: The Roots of our Rebellion “The tolerance of homosexuality at our seminaries and, increasingly in pulpits and pews, stems in part from the acceptance of two corrosive influences: the belief in evolution, and the rejection of the historicity of the book of Genesis.”
Blogger: Jeanette Lucey at Oh How I Love Jesus
Post: A Great Intellectual or a Great Fool? The blogger comments on an “article taken from Christianity Today that exposes the ‘brilliant’ zoologist, Richard Dawkins, as a great fool. The shield of faith and the Sword of the Spirit in action.
Blogger: The Bloke in the Outer
Post: How Can a Buddhist Be Christian? The Bloke makes an “attempt to answer the question: Can a Buddhist be Christian, and think about what it means for the follower of Christ in obeying the call of Christ to preach the gospel to all the world.”
These next three posts are closely related:
Blogger: Agent Tim
Post: Faith and Works “Agent Tim takes addresses the topic of the place of works in a Christian�s life. A lot of his post is in response to a post by the Blogging Teen , who believes that faith and works save us. Tim doesn�t quite agree: �If any of our salvation is through works we have a serious problem.”
Blogger: David Mobley at A Physicist’s Perspective
Post: Book Review of The Gospel According to Jesus by john MacArthur Mr. Mobley “reviews ‘The Gospel According to Jesus’ by JohnMacArthur, explains the basic issue MacArthur is dealing with, and explains why he thinks this issue is of tremendous importance for the modern church.”
Blogger: Rebecca Writes
Post: His Workmanship, Part 4 “Commentary on verses 8-9 of Ephesians 2, in which we find the answer to the question: ‘To whom do the bragging rights belong?'”

Ephesians 6:18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
Blogger: Mark Olson at PseudoPolymath
Post: A Wright Spirit “Bishop of Durham, Tom Wright gave a speech entitled Inciting Insight: The Holy Spirit at the Fulcrum Conference. To encourage others to read this (and to help himself to read it carefully) Mr. Olson provides a summary/report of ‘what he said’.”
Blogger: John Schroeder at Blogotional
Post: The Value of Liturgy Maybe liturgy makes us think about our prayers instead of being a mindless exercise? “When we make church comfortable and inviting, people are free to come, and free to not react.”
Blogger: Rodney Olsen at The Journey I think it’s way cool that Rodney blogs from Down Under.
Post: A Different Kind of Music “Music touches different people in different ways. Are we any less �spiritual� if we can�t get excited about the latest Praise & Worship CD?” Could different kinds of music at least be analogous to “all kinds of prayers and requests”?
Blogger: Penitent Blogger
Post: Going Down the Scary Tunnel Penitens calls this post “a reflection on the sometimes frightening paths of real life in Christ,” and also notes that “we need to pray always for God�s grace, that we may remain faithful to him and to his path for us, no matter how scary that path might appear. “
Blogger: Violet at Promptings, blogging from Canada
Post: Book Review: Rees Howells: Intercessor “Rees Howells: Intercessor is a mess-with your-life kind of book. Don�t read it if you�re happy with the way you are; it might stir things up.” Classic biography and a good review.
Blogger: Micah Girl
Post: Sweetness. Pain. and Ordinary Blessings A homeschooler (yes!) and Christian mother “shares her most recent family crisis and how sweetness permeates even the most painful times.” “God,” says Micah Girl, “is indeed the God of ordinary blessings!”

Ephesians 6:19-20 Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
Blogger: Bill Wallo at Walloworld
Post: Marching to the Tale of a Different Storyteller: Judeo-Christian Morality and a Pluralistic Society. Mr. Wallo suggests that we abandon the notion of the “post-Christian”world and explore ways for Christians to interact with the world around them.” Warning: If you read this post, part 1 of a two-part series, you’ll be impelled to read the second part in which the blogger comes to a very good conclusion: that we Christians should tell more stories.
Blogger: Ron Stewart at Northern ‘burbs Blog
Post: Women in the Church Mr. Stewart fearlessly wades into the “the debate about whether women should be blogging about theology.” As for Semicolon, what he said.
Blogger: Doug at Coffee Swirls
Post: The Christian Deer in the Headlights “Doug shares with us the frustration he feels when Christians get uncomfortable discussing the benefits of Christianity.”
Blogger: Jay at Living Catholicism
Post: Book Review of Witness to Hope by George Weigel Jay gives us “a review of the biography of Pope John Paul II by George Weigel.” This Catholic blogger says, “I firmly believe the Holy Spirit intended for me to read this book at that exact moment in history – it was an odd feeling reading about the vibrant, larger-than-life Pope John Paul II while seeing him lie in state at the Vatican.”
Blogger: David Knowles at All Kinds of Time
Post: The Gospel and the Metro nation Mr. Knowles has “some further introspective on the phenomenon of the city and what the Christian approach should be.” This post gives some excellent analysis of the future of human migration to the cities and the opportunity such migration affords to the spread of the Gospel of Christ.

Ephesians 6:23-24 Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love
Blogger: Dan Edelen at Cerulean Sanctum
Post: The Reason the Church Exists Ouch, conviction and encouragement in the same post! “If we are not the hands of God to each other and to anyone in need, then there is no reason for the Church. God does not help those who help themselves.”
Blogger: Robin Bayne at Writing Between Sundays
Post: One hand reaching forward, One reaching back “Robin reflects on the generosity of fellow Christian writers.”
Blogger: Scott Smith at The Online Pilgrim
Post: The Communion of the Saints, part 2 of 3 The Online Pilgrim looks like a fairly new blog, but Mr. Smith writes about a subject dear to my heart, the meaning of Christian community. According to his description, “this post picks up where the first one left off, turning now to the issue of what role Church History should play in the development of our faith. Incidentally Pt 3 is also up.” I found all three parts worthwhile.
Blogger: Charmaine at Reasoned Audacity
Post: For Jack, Scenes from a Life, Together Charmaine blogs “a tribute to her husband, on their 15th anniversary.” Charmaine’s a woman after my own heart; it looks as if she and Jack have five urchins known as the Penta-Posse 🙂
Blogger: Shannon Woodward at windscraps
Post: Passion Here’s another great story of undying love and passion to end this edition of Christian Carnival. “Shannon Woodward compares the love story of her grandparents with the reckless, passionate love of God for His bride.”

Thanks for stopping by, and y’all come back anytime.