Good tool for Bible blogging

If you blog and include Bible references on occation, you need the tool that I just added.  Look what it did to my post with the most Bible references.  The tool is RefTagger Bible Reference Pop-Up by Logos.  To add the tool was just a matter of adding the following code just before my last tag.

Growth of a moment

I was reading Seth Godin's blog this morning.  He's talking about the growth of a movement. Guy #3 is his post title. This video demonstrates the Guy #3 principle.



I'm usually the dork at the beginning or one who runs in later.  I need more Guy #3 in my life.

Life After Home Audio

Sunday Evening we had the pleasure to host Dr. Tim Clydesdale at Grace Point.  Tim, author of The First Year Out and professor of sociology at the College of New Jersey, came to share his research on the experience of first year college student. I had the pleasure of interviewing him.  The event was records and is available on the Grace Point website .


Listen now .

Just call me....?

I was thinking about my name the other day.  Steve Johnson.  It's a great name.  Almost nobody misspells it.  There are a few who get confused.  "Is Steve spelled with a 'V' or a 'PH'?"  "Johnson is that with an 'O', an 'E', or an 'I'?"  (Yes there have been a few in my life who would think my last name was "Johnsin".

My name is a good name.  I know hundreds of thousands of moms and dads have agreed with that in the past 50 years.  They gave it to there children.

Skye Jathani had an interesting blog today about weird names. He says that with the election of Barak Obama weird names are suddenly in style.  That's what got me to reflecting back to the day I was thinking about my name.  Not only is "Steve Johnson" not weird, there are times that I think my identity is lost in my name.

Try it, Google your name (chances are you've done that before). When I good "Steve Johnson" including the quotes, Google returns over 800,000 hits.  I gave up really quickly any idea of digging down to see how many of those actually refer to me, but I'll venture to say it is very few.

Google "Skye Jathani" and you'll find about 8000 hits, 3 pages in, all relate to the same guy.

So, my idea was that maybe I should change my name.  I already have for my blog using my childhood nickname "Deets".  Maybe I should start using that more often.  It kind of has a cool differentness to it, don't you think?

Then I started thinking, my name doesn't really give me any identity as far as my heritage goes.  Johnson can be Swedish, English, Scottish or Icelandic.  I asked my dad which it was once.  He said one day he as his grandmother what grandpa Johnson was.  Her response..."He was a skunk."  That's not really helpful in giving me a positive cultural identity.

I don't know much of my heritage, but I do know that my maternal grandfather immigrated from the Basque Country of Spain.  The Basque culture is really unique.  Of course, Grandpa Bruner, as I learned to call him, had change his name to something more common in his youth.  I guess he didn't want to stand out with the name Ascargorta.

So here was my thought, I could use Deets as my name, but I could inject it with a bit of Basque heritage.  In the Basque language (which is very different than Spanish), there is a common use of "tx" in spelling certain words.  You know how sometimes and 'x' can sound like a 'z'.  Deetx would be a really unique name and spelling.  Don't you think?  Of course, as much as I understand the Basque language, that would be pronounced deech.  And deech isn't really Basque at all.

Anyway, this is a long winded way of saying, I could change my name, but I'm still the same me.  God knows me as a unique person...my common name can't hide that.  In Christ, my name has already been changed, from Steve Johnson to Steve Johnson God's Son.  That is my heritage.  It may be common, or it may be weird, but it is me.

Perfect love, fear and risk

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
1 John 4:18

If my ministry is ruled by fear, then it is not formed by God's love.  I admit, too often, I do what I do because I don't want to loose what I have.  But, I have nothing accept the life that is given me be God and in Christ.  Therefore, if I act in love, I can risk everything.  I should be willing to risk everything!

What has fear kept you from risking today?

Thoughts on Salvation: the Coin

Could it be that salvation is a coin with two clear sides?

If all you ever think about is the salvation of individual souls, you will be happy every time the coin lands on heads. But when it lands on tails, you will be frustrated.

If all you ever think about is the salvation of culture, then you will be please with tails and frustrated with heads.

Does not God's Word place the individual and culture side-by-side?

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 

Are you afraid?

We live in a time with a lot of people giving us many reasons to be afraid--Swine Flu, the economy, the national debt, terrorism, war in Iraq, war in Afghanistan, pirates from Somalia, tax hikes, earth quakes, floods, tornado, etc.  The Weather Channel runs a series call, It Could Happen Tomorrow.  The History Channel is running series on Gangs and UFO.

I hear that there is a new term for the obsession of such fears.  It's called pessimism porn.  Chicken Little was addicted to it.  I think I have problem too since my two favorite TV shows are Lost and Jericho.  Of course, I'll never know how Jericho ended since they pulled it off the air, but I'm watching season 1 on reruns right now.  Lost plays on fears that the whole world can be in jeopardy from a number of different people or sources.  Maybe most of our TV shows do the same sort of things.

That's not new either, look at any 1950s sci-fi movie.  Nuclear disasters were the reason for so many things to be afraid.

Here, though, is a list of verses that I think will help you when these things become scare.  I think every parent needs to review these verses whenever they are overwhelmed by the things that could go wrong in the life of their children.  Before and after you watch the news, pull a couple of these verses out.  They should help to set your mind at ease.


Gen 15:1
Gen 21:17
Gen 26:24
Gen 46:3
Exod 14:13
Exod 20:20
Num 14:9
Num 21:34
Deut 1:17
Deut 1:21
Deut 1:29
Deut 3:2
Deut 3:22
Deut 7:18
Deut 18:22
Deut 20:1
Deut 31:6
Deut 31:8
Josh 8:1
Josh 10:8
Josh 10:25
Josh 11:6
Judg 6:23
1 Sam 12:20
2 Kings 1:15
2 Kings 19:6
2 Kings 25:24
1 Chron 22:13
1 Chron 28:20
2 Chron 20:15
2 Chron 20:17
2 Chron 32:7
Isa 10:24
Isa 37:6
Isa 40:9
Isa 41:14
Isa 43:5
Isa 44:2
Isa 44:8
Isa 54:4
Jer 1:8
Jer 40:9
Jer 42:11
Ezek 2:6
Ezek 3:9
Dan 10:12
Dan 10:19
Zech 8:13
Zech 8:15
Matt 1:20
Matt 10:26
Matt 10:28
Matt 28:5
Matt 28:10
Luke 1:13
Luke 1:30
Luke 2:10
Luke 12:4
Luke 12:32
John 12:15
John 14:27
Acts 18:9
Acts 27:24
Rev 1:17
Rev 2:10

Do you think your circumstances are really worse that all these folks?  If not, then I think God's message to you is the same.  Do not be afraid.  Have faith.  He is able.