PERSONAL PROMISE BIBLE

I can't believe that the Personal Promise Bible exists.  It is a service that takes the Bible and replaces all of the second person pronouns with whatever name you ask them to insert.  You can get this special text in everything from a CD ROM to a deluxe large print leather bound edition. The idea is that you get a warm fuzzy feeling from seeing your name actually inside the text of your Bible.  Can a person's faith get anymore narcissistic?  Even megachurch leader bazzilionaire author Rick Warren knows that it is not all about you.

 

I inserted my blog URL into the form to get a sample of what Ephesians would look like if God's plan would look like if the whole world was centered around this blog.

 

Even when cneil.blogspot.com was dead in trespasses, God made cneil.blogspot.com alive together with Christ (by grace cneil.blogspot.com has been saved), and raised cneil.blogspot.com up with Him and made cneil.blogspot.com to sit with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 2:5-6)

 

Here's what the book of 2 Peter would look like if the whole world centered around Hillary Clinton:

 

By which He has granted to Hillary Clinton His precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these Hillary Clinton may become a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust. (2 Pet. 1:4)   How about "Weird" Al?   Having predestined "Weird" Al for adoption as a son through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His desire, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He freely bestowed favor on "Weird" Al in the Beloved. (Eph. 1:5-6)   I did this last one just to prove that the whole blasted thing can lead to lots of theological inaccuracies and absurdities.   Satan, believing in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved Satan, that He gave His one and only Son, that Satan, believing in Him, should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16) The real problem is that people no longer understand personal pronouns.  In most other languages, including Biblical Greek, there is a difference between the second person singular and the second person plural.  In English about two hundred years ago, authors and speakers dropped the second person plural pronouns ye, thee, and thou because most people felt those pronouns were too condescending and impersonal.  Essentially people became too proud to realize that sometimes ye do need to be given commands and ye might happen to be part of a collective that is subordinate to a higher authority. Now when we English speakers are giving commands, issuing orders, or using any other imperative sentence, we are left with no choice except to use you or, as the Personal Promise Bible realizes, the person's name. You can go to their website and order your own Bible that says whatever you want it to say.  These things are peddled for anywhere between 55 and 110 US dollars! Of course, if (insert your name here) wants to have any type of meaningful faith, one that focuses on loving others and serving the church, I would not recommend it.

 

Link

Personal Promise Bible

 

 

World's Longest Four Square Game

The principal that I work for is an ambitious man. His latest vision was to have the school that I work for break a world record and become recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. Over the weekend we accomplished his goal. We assembled two teams, one eight man team and one seven man team, and played the children's game of four square for twenty five hours straight. We started at 4:10 P.M. on Friday and ended at 5:10 P.M. on Saturday. We did not sleep, we crammed pizza and libation down out throats between rounds, and we expelled any bodily wastes as swiftly as possible during the mandatory five minute per hour breaks. When it was all over, I slept for 12 hours straight.

24 Aug. 2008 Update: This record has been broken.

FIVE DANGEROUS THINGS THAT YOU SHOULD LET YOUR CHILDREN DO

Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School, talks about our new wave of overprotected kids -- and spells out 5 (and really, he's got 6) dangerous things you should let your kids do. Allowing kids the freedom to explore, he says, will make them stronger and smarter and actually safer.

This talk comes from TED University 2007, a pre-conference program where TEDsters share ideas.

About Gever Tulley

ONLY IN SINGAPORE #4: QUAKER ANCHOVIES FLAVOR OATMEAL

I'm back in Singapore and there were no troubles on the plane.

Here's a picture of my favorite Christmas "gag" gift.

TORNADO WARNING!

My hometown of Springfield has been faced with several tornado warnings this evening. KY3's weather radar is now so accurate that they know the specific streets that are being affected by storms. One time we even had to take shelter in our basement bathroom. My mom, sister and I packed an extra clothes, the crank radio, and a candle into the little room and sat there until the warning was over.

Many locations in southwest Missouri have already been hit with tornadoes and there has been at least one fatality. Please pray that the night will go by safely and for the people in our region who will be cleaning up the mess tomorrow morning.