The Best of Cerulean Sanctum 2006

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If any one theme marked 2006 here at Cerulean Sanctum, it’s that everything changes. This year marked a big transition from Blogger to WordPress, and all in all, it went fairly smoothly. Despite this, the pressure from five years of blogging finally caught up with me and I took a hiatus for six weeks.

In keeping with the kind of bad timing I seem to suffer from, the day after my hiatus started, The Wall Street Journal ran an article noting that bloggers who step away from their blogs risk losing their audience. I’ll leave it up to the five readers who stayed with me to determine whether that’s true or not! 😉

Despite fewer new posts than last year, I still managed to come up with enough decent ones to include here. I’ll let you all be the judges of whether or not these picks live up to their billing.

God bless you!

General Church Issues

The year got off to a bang with a series that tackled what the American Church can do to be effective in an age much different than even fifty years ago.

Do our churches preach messages that are impossible to live out? Are we putting millstones around people’s necks and offering no means of escape?

Ah, the missionary drops by the church to tell tales of other lands and peoples. Yet what he describes sounds nothing like church the way we do it here in America. When did we become the measure of all godliness?

Jesus didn’t come to found a loose band of disconnected individuals, but a vital community that has all things in common.

What are the issues today that hold us back from being the the kind of Church God desires?

Cerulean Sanctum is a blog that asks tough questions about the American Church and what it’s doing wrong. But what is it doing right?

What will it take for us to break down the man-made artifice within our churches that shoos unbelievers away?

The title of this two-parter says it all:

We’ve had small groups in the modern Evangelical Church for forty years. Where’s the fruit?

What it means to live out real community in our churches:

Evangelicals love a winner. But how do they treat a loser—especially when it’s them?

Lifestyle Issues and Christian Living

We ask so much of Christian women today. Perhaps too much.

Why do some Christians seem twice the child of hell now than before they got “saved”?

So heavenly minded you’re no earthly good? You just may be…

When we carve the Bible up into little snippets and toss them around willy-nilly, we may not be using the Book as God intended.

Right eye causing you to sin? Got a wardrobe straight out of Fredrick’s of Hollywood? You might be suffering from…

Or you may be suffering from never having heard that you’re beautiful. And that’s heartbreaking.

When Christians attempt the melding of Hollywood and the Faith, usually one of those components gets slighted.

We focus on the moment of salvation, but what about the sixty years of life—and an eternity beyond—that follow?

Some people would crawl over broken glass to save another person from hell. On the other hand…

If we have the mind of Christ, how is it that we can’t live out His thoughts?

One day, we’ll see how it was all worth it.

Tough Questions

Christians should never run from tough questions others ask about the faith. But what if we’re asking ourselves those same questions?

Does any of the Imago Dei still reside in us after the Fall? And if so, what are the ramifications for us?

Can you have both money and a ministry?

Are Christians living prepared for an economic meltdown?

Why is it so hard to pick a Bible translation?

Controversial Subjects

Used to be that anyone claiming he heard from God wound up in the nuthouse. If so, all Christians should be in a rubber room—and be overjoyed for it.

Worshiping in Spirit and Truth? Well, not according to that guy…

To baptize or not baptize? And how do we know our child’s profession of faith is genuine?

And still the partying goes on! Well, until it ends…

A sad face is good for the heart, but you won’t hear a sermon condoning it.

Charismatic Issues

Faith is faith. We either have it or we don’t. We shouldn’t belittle those who do.

Heretic Hunting and Judgment

Always arguing, but never doing the works of Christ in the world. What good is being right if our neighbor goes to hell or the poor man dies from neglect?

The year started out with a witch hunt against the classic spiritual disciplines practiced by Christians for centuries. Are they from the pit of hell or from the hand of God?

The most linked-to post of 2006. Physician, heal thyself.

Are we so desperate to be found right that we’ll gleefully destroy other people?

He’s a better Christian than we are. Has better ideas, too. Someone better take him down before he makes us all look bad.

I’m a Charismatic Reformational Quasi-Amillennial Post-Lutheran Credobaptist Homeschooling Christian Educator! Now do you have enough ammo to rip me to shreds?

If we have a problem with our brother and the way he handles truth, we are called by Christ to speak with him face to face in order to rightly resolve our dispute. Especially if we’re writing a book on absolute truth.

Writing and Publishing

And speaking of writing, why is it that Christian novels feature characters that don’t seem like the people you know?

We’re always complaining that our society is awash in sex and violence.  If Christian fiction is any measure, one of those two vices gets a reprieve.

More Cowbell Awards

The readers love The Award No One Wants to Win. I think it’s a conspiracy.

So do the Christian Educators.

Enjoy!

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