Bible
On the one hand, the new Archeological Study Bible is just another New International Version. The translation is the same. On the other hand, this new edition has some wonderful stuff inside. As you may have judged from the name, the Archeological Study Bible attempts to give readers a more complete experience of the historical and cultural picture of each text. It has massive and stunning full-page photographs of archeological sites, museum pieces and much more. There are study notes. It has over 500 articles explaining the importance of archeological information for given texts as well as cultural notes, information about perfumes, ancient seals, boat making and much more. It is a truly wonderful Bible to have. – archeologicalstudybible.com
TOMS Shoes
TOMS is a for-profit company with a subsidiary non-profit arm called Friends of Toms. The company is based out of California and was founded in 2006 by Blake Mycoskie, a former contestant on TV’s The Amazing Race. TOMS recently began making eyeglass frames but is best known for simple canvas shoes that slip on like slippers. So why should you care about TOMS? Well, they’re cool for one thing. But secondly, for every pair of TOMS you buy, Friends of Toms donates a new pair to a child in need. Since its beginning just six years ago, nearly one million pairs of TOMS have been given to children in over 25 different countries. Oh and by the way, above I said that TOMS has just started making eyeglass frames. Well guess what? Buy a pair and they will donate a pair of those, too. – toms.ca
Book
I’ll admit it. It’s a couple of years old now but I just recently came upon it. The book is called, Did the First Christians Worship Jesus? and it’s by James D.G. Dunn. It’s an inductive study to see if worship was given to God the Father alone for Christ or if worship was given to Christ himself as God/god in the same way it would be offered to the One God of Israel. Much of Dunn’s focus is on the different words translated “lord,” “worship” and “prostrated” and if Jesus is “called upon” as the Father. It asks some interesting questions about Trinitarian theology. He notes that people pray in Jesus’ name, through him and to the Father; that they sing hymns concerning him but not to him, yet use language presenting him as a type of sacred space and even assign sacred time to him. It’s an interesting book and well worth a read. – amazon.ca
Documentary Film
Fight Church is a new documentary focused on two seemingly contradictory things: Fighting and Christianity. Directed by Oscar winner Daniel Junge and Bryan Storkel, this film follows a New York church that trains mixed martial arts fighters (adults and children) and puts on exhibition fights in the church building. Yep, you read that correctly… the sanctuary has a cage. The film follows several ministers and fighters and begs the question: “Can you really love your neighbor as yourself and then punch him in the face?” To be honest, I find the whole thing very interesting. It opens up a whole can of worms. Can Christians play football? Is strapping a chunk of plastic on one’s head and throwing their whole body into someone at full speed more Christian than strapping on gloves and trying to get an arm-bar submission? For sure this movie is on my “must see” list… that is if they get the rest of the money together soon enough to put it out. They still need about $30,000 to complete the project. For now, we’ll just have to check out the trailer. – fightchurchfilm.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ue_wYx9SDI
