Sep 8 2008

MSNBC Drops Olbermann, Matthews as News Anchors


Finally the suits at MSNBC smell the coffee and Olberman and Matthews have been spanked on the hand. The Washington Postreports this morning that these two liberal hacks can no longer anchor political events. My question is why do they keep them at all. Matthews show “Hardball” consistently has the worst ratings of all news shows on air.

It seems that NBC will continue it’s slide toward oblivion. The next new show on MSNBC? None other than Rachel Maddow of Air America fame. She is worse than Matthews or Olbermann.

The people decide by purchasing goods and services and viewing and listening to broadcasts. Fox still tops the charts. No one is force to watch. They are just better than the others and the ratings prove it.

Royce

Sep 8 2008

Domain change, Grace Digest history…


As you can see, Grace Digest has a new domain name (URL). Without fail, when I have told someone how to find GD on the web they frantically start searching for a pen and paper. No more! Anyone can remember GraceDigest.com.

If you have us linked, the old URL will still point to the new Grace Digest domain. It will take several hours/days for Google, Yahoo, and other search robots to track us down, but they will.

Grace Digest began on June 29, 2006 at Blogspot, 52 posts later and after enormous frustration, we moved here to WordPress January 11th of 2007. Since that move I have posted 98 times for a total of 150 posts. Today, as I reviewed the archives I discovered that by far, Christ is my favorite topic. Next in number is the Holy Spirit, then the church (Christ’s body of believers), and an assortment of other subjects.

Becoming a blogger brought order to my attempts at writing. Before blogging, much of what I wrote of a spiritual nature was communicated by email only. One of the negatives about blogging is that I just realized I almost never write poetry now. I need to correct that right away. My poetry satisfies and entertains me more than anyone who reads it. I suppose the same is true to some degree about my blogging. Since my early 20’s there is in me a desire that can only be satisfied by sharing what I find on the pages of the Bible and what God has worked out in my life these many years since I was born from above.

My blog has allowed me to meet and get to know some of the dearest folks I have even known. Most of you I will not likely see face to face but I think I know many of you. Thanks for reading, for your kind comments, and encouragement.

Stay tuned, there is more to come with God’s help.

His peace,
Royce

Sep 5 2008

A Capella only. Mandate or Myth?


The first time I heard a congregation sing a capella I loved it. Now, having been a member of a church of Christ for over eight years I still love the absolute beauty, the primitive feel, to good a capella singing. Wednesday nights at our church we meet in what was years ago the main auditorium and the acoustics compliment singing. It is wonderful to hear!

I will never forget when I was first given a “proof text” for a capella only singing in church. When the man read Colossians 3:16 my reply was “That’s it?”. I am amazed that this issue is still a hot issue in coC circles. Only the role of baptism is mentioned perhaps as much.

In only a few days after Peter’s first gospel sermon there were in Jerusalem several thousand new Christians. And, we know that they met together and worshiped. Interestingly, it would be at least twenty to twenty five years before the Apostle Paul would write what is now purported to be “authorization” for a capella only singing in worship gatherings. I am not suggesting that these earliest believers did not sing a capella, what I am saying is that they had no scriptural mandate to do so. And, the few who likely had some part of the Old Testament, or heard it read, did not find any such “authorization” in it. In fact they would have learned the opposite from the OT. When Ephesians and Colossians were finally written the context of neither “proof text” even hints that Paul’s intention was to prohibit the use of musical instruments in worship.

I was recently reminded that many coC people consider this issue to be a “salvation issue“! This could be used in the seminary class room as a case study on poor Bible scholorship and interupitation of Scripture.

A capella singing by Christians is a beautiful experience. It is a rich tradition and is worth continuing and passing to generations to come. However, it is foolish to tell anyone the Bible demands it. And I thnk even sinful to consider someone lost who does not agree.

Your opinion?

His peace,
Royce