I was listening to Fred McCoy this morning and he mentioned that Jesus was a Nazarene, adding that he was not a Nazarite and getting one or two half laughs. I have something of a history with getting those two mixed up so it probably meant more to me than anyone else present.
Students at Oneida Baptist Institute have chapel services 5 days a week Monday through Friday and twice on Sunday. Continue reading
I thought about it, back when I worked with middle and high school students. They had chapel five days a week and twice on Sunday (no joke). I never actually planned it. I can’t imagine pitching that idea to the administration, but many times during chapel services I looked at the width of the aisles, the size of the stage (it was massive) and considered the angle I would need for the ramp. Ergun Caner is a man familiar with controversy. Continue reading
In the early days of blogging, anything before 2010, building a healthy blogroll is how bloggers formed communities. I would list blogs on my blogroll that had something to offer my readers/followers. If other blogs were listing you then that meant a wider audience, more exposure, and a good sign that you were doing something right. From a strictly reader point of view, if you enjoyed a particular blog then chances are you would enjoy some of the blogs that blogger enjoyed reading and recommended. Blogrolls, Real Simple Syndication (RSS) and blog aggregators were the tools of the trade back when regular folks dreamed of quitting their jobs and blogging full time. Continue reading
The most American thing you will see today:
Unless you leave your house and go to pretty much any public place where masks are “required.” There you will see folks wearing masks over their mouths only, as chin straps, or pulled completely down to their necks. I said my bit about face masks a couple of weeks ago, not re-preaching that sermon. Hopefully the image made you smile. Welcome to the Satur-deja Vu. Continue reading
For many years I saw this announcement at the bottom of every post on my blog. I didn’t know exactly what visitors saw since I was always logged in on WordPress when I was writing, checking stats or giving a new post the once over. I did suggest to the church that we pay the nominal fee to have ads removed from the church website lest something with a conflicting message appear on the same page as a sermon or church bulletin but never did so for my personal blog.
The Happy Monday posts are often done on Sunday evening, if not earlier, and set to publish at the appointed time. I was away from home some months ago and used my phone to check and see that the post was in fact up on the website. Happy Monday is very image heavy and what I discovered, looking at the post on my mobile browser, was that after every two or three images an ad had been inserted by WordPress. I was creating material with a certain aesthetic and not only was that being disturbed by the advertisements but of course someone else was getting traffic or selling product and I was not making a dime off of the real estate. WordPress, as the host, owns the real estate of course which bloggers use for free but it was my post with a bunch of junk scattered throughout and not just at the bottom below the line.
For what it’s worth, I have paid to have the ads removed from The Master’s Table. I have no plans to offer subscription only content or place ads of my own, but if you the reader ever think about linking content here from your blog or social media sites know that your audience will not be subjected to ads when they get here. Upgrade plans start for as little as $4/month (billed annually) if any WordPress blogger is interested in doing the same.
In addition to the occasional book review (I posted one earlier this week) I have reviewed a couple of Bibles in the last year at the request of Bible Gateway. Regular readers know about the Bible Gateway Blogger Grid and as a partner The Master’s Table posted reviews of The Illustrated Holy Bible for Kids and The Jesus Bible. A few weeks ago Bible Gateway asked Blogger Grid members to review the new website design at Bible Gateway. The new design has since rolled out so if you use that resource or follow our links from here then you have probably seen the changes.
Classic view
New design
From the Inside Out: Reimagining Missions, Recreating the World by Ryan Kuja
Ryan Kuja grew up watching cartoons interrupted by commercials from the Christian Children’s Fund. I remember those commercials from my childhood as well. Young children, starving to death with distended bellies, surrounded by flies and narrated by compassionate voices designed to elicit a donation. Some organizations asked for a donation, others wanted you to join the organization, make a monthly pledge, sometimes in exchange for pictures or letters from a child you would personally sponsor. As a 7-year-old watching cartoons, Ryan Kuja wanted to do something. Adults either look away, change the channel, or do the good Christian thing and write a check (or today use their credit/debit card or PayPal from their phones). Continue reading
Is Monday even a thing anymore? We used to slow down on the weekend, plan time for family, worship together, maybe take a Sunday afternoon nap, and the whole purpose of Happy Monday was to help you get back out there and put nose to the grindstone. Mondays are tough… or they used to be. For some people all the days of the week just run together now. For others every day is tough. Maybe 2020 has turned every day in Monday.
I don’t know. At any rate, this is Happy Monday #385. Continue reading
