I love Glenn Beck. He’s a great guy, I agree with him on many political issues, he’s a media master and quite brilliant. I’m glad that somebody is standing up and doing the things that he’s doing, and I support him in that. Would have gone to the restoring honor rally on Sat if I could have gotten there…

But I see a growing danger as he calls for “God and country” – media and evangelicals are painting him as a “Christian conservative.” Conservative, yes. A good, moral man – undoubtedly. But here’s the rub: he’s not a Christian. He is a Mormon. While the differences are small on the surface, scratch that surface and you’ll realize that Mormons are most assuredly NOT Christians.

Beck can be a champion of the conservative moment – and even of those of us who are Christian and conservative. But he cannot be champion of a conservative Christian movement, unless he surrenders his heart to Christ.

It’s perfectly ok for a woman to murder her unborn child… Children can get birth control and are encouraged to have sex…It’s just fine for illegal aliens* to violate the law, come and steal, murder, drive drunk, deal drugs, and what-not… Drugs enslave the hearts and minds of a huge segment of our population… and when Christians protest these things we’re called the evil ones, but that’s fodder for another post…

And the government now has a grave concern over RAW MILK? They’re conducting RAIDS? You’ve got to be kidding me… I thought this was a joke when I saw it referenced on a blog, but no – this really happened, as reported by the LA Times: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/25/business/la-fi-raw-food-raid-20100725

FOR THE RECORD: Raw is best for healthy people over the age of 1 to drink. Raw milk, raw honey, raw nuts. Period. (Tastes better too). Is there risk? Yes. There’s risk in everything. I’m betting that far more people have died in the last year from food-borne illnesses from mass-produced foods than have had the slightest illness from raw milk, honey, or nuts…

And the government is wasting your tax dollars and mine… why? Because Big Farma (close cousin to Big Pharma) pulls weight in DC and has plenty of manure to compost there…

*my comment about illegal aliens does not apply in any way to people who enter this country legally, regardless of where they’re from, why they’re here, how long they stay, or whether they become citizens or not, so long as they maintain legal status in this country.

Any time I get a book, I do a three or four minute “skim”, then usually a half-hour “read”. Books that are especially good end up being read word-for-word (very few authors make the cut). This is a speed-reading technique that I learned in first grade that has served me well my whole life. I test virtually all reading mater

I really hate to say it, and they probably won’t like it, and maybe won’t send me more books to review… but I cannot recommend this book. Sorry.

The author had an experience with God, which was very cool. But he lost me on page 15 when he called those sorts of experiences, “rare”.  God wants to have those experiences with us and we can have them… even initiate them!  If a person’s perception of encounters with the manifest presence of God is that they are (and should be) rare, they need to chase after God instead of writing books. If someone is having a hard time encountering God or realizing the need to, come hang out with us for a few days with a heart open to encounter Him 

One paragraph after he calls these experiences “rare”, he said something that made me smile – then frown. Then almost refuse to continue my three-minute skim:

“God is the God of the living, not the God of the already-past or the not-yet-present. He’s the great “I AM”, not the great “I was” or the great “I will be.” He’s been present in every moment in the past, for which we can be thankful, and He’ll be present at every moment in the future, which gives us great hope. But He’s only alive and active now, in the present — which is, once again, the only thing that’s real.” (This is not an exact quote. I have capitalized the pronouns relative to God because I feel that this should be done as one small way to give Him the honor and glory that He is due. Yes, this is a pet peeve of mine, to the point that I really have problems reading a book (or Bible translation) that does not capitalize pronouns that should be capitalized. And I will change the capitalization in a quote.)

Boyd is right – God is the God of the living. He IS the Great I AM, but to say He’s only alive and active “now” is really an attempt to diminish His greatness.

Then later on in the book, he shows a whole lot of ignorance about revival…so much that I put the book down.

Nope. Can’t recommend it. Sorry

You can read other reviews from other Blog Tour reviewers (below) — I do admit to a great deal of militancy in my beliefs regarding the Kingdom of God, His nature, and revival. If you’re less militant about these issues, check out the reviews or get the book & read it.

About dreams and broken glass
AKA Theodore Lewis
Bell Whistle Moon
Bible Dude
Blame it on the Loud Mouth Gene
Blessed
Blog Tour Spot
Book Story
Captain’s Blog
Deus E Fiel
Heading Home
Healthy Spirituality
Hurdling Hurdles
iamhealed.net
JohnnaPostic.com
Lighthouse Academy
Musings
Musings by Lynn
Net’s Book Notes
Ponderings by Andrea
Ragamuffing Scrap Craft
Refresh My Soul
Scraps and Snippets
Sherri Woodbridge
Catholic View
Sunflower Faith
Tattered Couch
The Christian Naturalist
The Friendly Book Nook
Uma Pirralha Na Universidade
Word Up Studies

Check out the iLASIK Video Contest… Abbott Medical Optics, Inc. (AMO) does laser vision correction. They’re sponsoring a video contest where you can win cash and prizes (Grand Prize is $5K – not bad eh?)

So, get creative – you can do a music video, or a “this is a day in my life”, or a detailed video about how you could do a craft or hobby with better eyesight. Talk about your contacts are really a pain and you’d like to get rid of them. Or interview friends and family and put together a collage of opinions about vision. What would be better or different if you didn’t have to wear glasses or contact lenses?

So here’s what you do – Go to their website and submit a video in any of the categories listed on the site. Get your friends to vote on your video.

Grand prize is $5000, you can also win an HDTV package or camcorder. There will be one grand prize winner plus three 1st prize and 3 2nd prize winners (1 in each category for each).

Submit your videos, view and vote on all entries at www.GottaSeeThisNow.com.

From the cover:

Evangelical pastor Ed Dobson had a radical idea…

“Live one year as Jesus lived. Eat as Jesus ate. Pray as Jesus prayed. Observe the sabbath as Jesus observed. Attend the Jewish festivals as Jesus attended. Read the Gospels every week.”

Ed spent a year and literally asked himself, “What would Jesus do?” and then He did those things. Remember – Jesus was Jewish. He kept the law – AND He was sinless. What would that look like lived out?

I know a little bit about Judaism and what “the stuff” of Jewish-ness is. Or so I thought. All of those rules!! Just the dietary restrictions alone make my mind go to mush – and I’m a person who’s used to dealing with a restricted diet!! To keep perfectly kosher is a huge task.

Ed faced some interesting questions in his journey – ranging from “What would Jesus wear in the 20th century?” to “How would Jesus respond in this situation?”… when he sat down and really looked at it, our “WWJD?” falls way, way short of what Jesus would have really done.

I think the one thing that challenged me most in the “Why don’t you do that?” arena was reading the gospels every week. Do we really really really know all the things Jesus did and said? Isn’t that, um, kind of important? 

Ed did do some things that I disagree with, and I even question – for instance, he got together with the Catholics and prayed the rosary. I didn’t get it… why would he do that? Sure he doesn’t think that Jesus did? But those elements pale in comparison to the central theme of the book -  The magnitude of how Jesus lived and His sacrifice for us is much greater than we’d ever imagined… and maybe we should take the time to imagine…

Want your eyes opened? Here are some Excerpts from The Year of Living Like Jesus.

Buy the book on Amazon: The Year of Living Like Jesus

Check out Ed Dobson’s Website

See Ed on Facebook: Ed Dobson’s Facebook Profile

List of all participating bloggers in this blog tour of the book

DISCLAIMER: (because your big government must protect you from evil bloggers like myself who might post positive reviews in return for free stuff for the sole purpose of deceiving you, the voter, who politicians consider too stupid to think for yourself (think of that, next elections): The publisher sent me this book for free so I could review it, which is standard business practice in the industry (and quite frankly none of the government’s business ).

I don’t know about you, but that is FAST. In fact it’s the fastest in the St. Louis market (where the initial rollout is) and it’s one of the fastest nationwide. It’ll be rolled out across the country (in Charter service areas) with other high-speed products over the course of the year.

Given the rise in social networking and multimedia – LIGHTS CAMERA SOUND ACTION VIDEO AUDIO GAMES TELECOMMUTING DOWNLOADS UPLOADS ANIMATION TV and all kinds of things – having high-speed internet is essential. Kayti’s complained ever since coming home that our connection is too slow for her – we might have to upgrade it! If you’re a hardcore gamer, you’ll love Phatband’s ability to download patches – it virtually eliminates lag in your games.

Get this – roll this around in your mind for a minute – this is what Charter says about the service: “Charter’s PhatBand has turned DSL into the new dial-up Internet service.” Did you ever think you’d see the day?

Be sure to check out the Ultra60 Information Page so you can see when it’s coming to your area (or, if you’re in St. Louis, to see how to sign up!) – I’m drooling and wishing I could get it when we move!

You should also sign up for Charter’s Twitter Feed as they’ve always got something cool to say.

For example, some people are Really Really Picky about the data center that their web host uses. If you’d like some leeway to choose, you might want to check out Inmotion. If you never want to pay for another domain name, look at FatCow. If you want the best of the best, you can check out reviews – best ecommerce host, best email host, or if you’re looking to make a buck, best reseller hosting. They offer both CNET reviews/awards and customer reviews – if you’re a customer of any of these companies you can offer your ten cents worth on the site.

Webhostinggeeks also offers a number of helpful articles – like this one on using WordPress as a CMS (versus Joomla), and this very useful article on SEO/SEM that talks about the dangers of keyword stuffing while focusing on keyword density.

Another article of great relevance for many is about how to avoid the pitfalls of unlimited domains. A lot of plans let you have as many domains as you like, but restrict your bandwidth or storage space. If you’re like me and own a lot of domains, then each one nickle and dimes you until you’ve used a lot of space and bandwidth!

So, whether you’re looking to find a web host or you just want some useful articles about web sites, be sure to check out http://webhostinggeeks.com!

In fact, if you do it yourself and upload the video to Youtube (have fun!) you can win prizes from radiator.com.

Some radiators have 1-year warrantees and others have lifetime warrantees – be sure to check which you are getting. If you have questions, be sure to check out the chat feature on the site.

Did you know that we’re commanded to defend the fatherless? A common pro-murder argument is that “Babies shouldn’t have to grow up without a father in their lives” or “The father won’t help me.”

God says we’re supposed to defend the fatherless – not murder them!

I’ve been accused of getting a bit emotional about the abortion issue. Have you ever seen an abortion performed? I don’t know about you, but seeing little children being poisoned and hacked to pieces makes me ANGRY.

Mega Brands has a great promise to parents – they’re parents too, first and foremost. Although the games do seem to have some violence (how many video games don’t?) they’re creative and based on popular themes like Pirates and PlasmaVerse (think Transformers or Battletech meets Dinos and Dragons…) The games, of course, promote Mega Brands products (offline play toys) – which is a pretty good marketing tool. Having looked at the online games, I can see how the two would interact and be a good match – how many internet games would promote and teach kids to play OFF-line? Yet I think they’ve managed that.

One thing I REALLY like about Mega Brands Kids Zone is that they do not request ANY kind of personal information from your child in order for them to play the games. There’s been so many “issues” in the news of kids being targeted by predators online because they put too much personal information in their profiles or because they’re interacting with others online – at this site, there’s no information, no profile, and no interaction – just fun!