Behemoth.com

For many years, people have been asking me,

"When are you going to record the whole Bible?!"

Well, I am in the process of doing that right now - in the King James Version. Many of the books are currently available for download through Behemoth.com - a ministry of Vision Forum. The rest will be available as soon as I get them recorded. I just finished I Corinthians today.

The first three volumes of The World's Greatest Stories in the KJV are also available for download.

My prayer is that many people will be blessed by this reading of God's Word.

World Journalism Institute

I had the wonderful privilege this morning of addressing the 17 students who are currently participating in the World Journalism Institute in New York City. WJI was started a number of years ago by Bob Case to help meet a very critical need. Bob saw the importance of preparing future journalists for work in the secular news media. He and Kim Collins have done a wonderful job of recruiting very capable young men and women who have a heart for impacting the culture with truth, wisely presented, with excellence.

The eight week long course, Backpack Journalism in a Digital Age, is designed to provide college journalists who are Christian with an intensive college level course that includes approximately 50 hours of pre-class reading and writing, 200 hours of classroom lecture, discussion and homework, and approximately 100 hours of post-classroom reporting.

I've had the opportunity to address the students in the course for the past few years, and have always been impressed with the quality of the students and the quality of the teaching.

When I spoke this morning, I was again reminded of how important it is for evangelical Christians to regain lost credibility in our culture. Too many of those who have been in positions of leadership within the evangelical world have undermined the faith they have purportedly been proclaiming by being unwise in their comments and unprincipled in their actions. The World Journalism Institute in doing a great job of preparing the future generation to help reestablish that lost credibility.

An Encouraging Word

I just received a very encouraging word from the senior pastor of a church that participated in a program on Good Friday where my daughter, Katherine, and I performed.

"I would like to express my thanks again to you for your ministry of God's word to us at the Good Friday Service at Elim Park. Your delivery of of the Creation Account and Fall from Genesis 1-3 and the Crucifixion Account from the book of John was an incredible blessing. It was so refreshing that the focus was not on you as the performer, messenger, but on the message of the Word of God. My entire family was riveted to the message through out the presentattion, and each of us, from the youngest, eight years old, to the oldest, myself, agreed that it was one of the best Good Friday Service we had ever attended.

We, as a family, were not accustomed to interpretive dance; however, your daughter's work at interpreting the music of the evening through dance was received with awe. Again it was tastfully and effectively done; and just like your presentation, your daughter's body movements and expressions helped to enhance the music and words of the songs.

I certainly, would highly recommend your ministry of the Word of God to others.

It is definitely encouraging to hear comments like that!

George MacDonald

Have you ever read George MacDonald's article, Justice, in his series of Unspoken Sermons? If you have not, may I encourage you to do so.

MacDonald (1824-1905) was a Scottish author, poet and minister. He is not as well known as CS Lewis, JRR Tolkein or Madeline L'Engle, but his fairy tales and fantasy novels were inspirational to those later writers. In fact, CS Lewis published a book of extracts from MacDonald's writings - George MacDonald: An Anthology.

In the introduction to that book, Lewis wrote,

"This collection, as I have said, was designed not to revive MacDonald's literary reputation but to spread his religious teaching. Hence most of my extracts are taken from the three volumes of Unspoken Sermons. My own debt to this book is almost as great as one man can owe to another, and nearly all serious inquirers to whom I have introduced it acknowledge that it has given them great help - sometimes indispensable help toward the very acceptance of the Christian faith. . . . I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself . . . . I have never concealed the fact that I regarded him my master, indeed I fancy I have never written a book in which I did not quote from him."

MacDonald approaches the issue of God's justice from a completely different perspective than most other writers. He was convinced that God's intent is to bring about a complete victory over sin and death - not simply to punish sin, but destroy it. He wrote:

"Primarily, God is not bound to punish sin, he is bound to destroy sin. . . . For evil in the abstract, nothing can be done. It is eternally evil. But I may be saved from it by learning to loathe it, to hate it, to shrink from it with an eternal avoidance. The only vengeance worth having on sin is to make the sinner himself its executioner.

. . . Sin and suffering are not natural opposites, the opposite of evil is good, not suffering; the opposite of sin is not suffering, but righteousness. The path across the gulf that divides right from wrong is not the fire, but repentance. . . . The notion that the salvation of Jesus is a salvation from the consequences of our sins, is a false, mean, low notion. The salvation of Christ is salvation from the smallest tendency or leaning to sin. It is a deliverance into the pure air of God's ways of thinking and feeling. It is a salvation that makes the heart pure, with the will and choice of the heart pure. To such a heart, sin is disgusting. It sees a thing as it is, -- that is, as God sees it, for God sees everything as it is."

His thoughts are definitely thought provoking.

Thank you, Jay O'Callahan

Back in 1984, I had the privilege of seeing one of the best storytellers in the world, Jay O'Callahan, perform at a theater in Boston.

I had been hired as the voiceover announcer for a radio commercial for his show. When the session was over, the producers offered me a couple of free tickets to his performance. Suzan and I attended, and were absolutely amazed at what we saw.

Jay told 4 stories in the course of the evening, and you could hear a pin drop during the entire performance. The only props he used were a box, a broom, and an apron. It was enthralling. The first thought that came to my mind as I listened and watched was,

"I wonder if that approach would work with Scripture."

I went home and began memorizing passages of Scripture, trying to apply to the Biblical text the technique I saw him use. I even called Jay up some time later to ask if I could take him to lunch and get some advice. He very graciously accepted. That was the beginning of The World's Greatest Stories.

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to again see one of Jay O'Callahan's performances. He was the featured storyteller at the Connecticut Storytelling Festival held in New London, CT. I hadn't seen him in over 20 years, and I wanted to encourage him by letting him know how he had influenced my life. Once again, he was absolutely amazing!

Defeating Giants, the sixth volume of my CD set of The World's Greatest Stories recently received the 2009 Storytelling World "Honors" Resource Award for Storytelling Recordings. After Jay's performance last Friday evening, I went up to him, explained how he had made such a significant impression on my life, and gave him a copy of the CD. I then told him,

"This would never have existed if it had not been for you."

It was a joy meeting and talking to Jay again after so many years.

Storytelling Forum at CBS

The Mastermedia Forum on Storytelling at CBS in New York on April 15th went extremely well.

We had a full house, and the uniform response from the people I spoke with was superlative. As one person commented, "No one wanted to leave." They all found the event informative, meaningful, and enjoyable.

The audience was very mixed. There were Christians and non-Christians with a range of political perspectives from very liberal to very conservative. One man worked with an organization trying to get the Bible into public schools as literature. Another worked with Al Gore promoting his ideas about climate change.

The panelists did an excellent job of focusing on the topic for the evening - The Art and Challenge of Storytelling in the 21st Century.

Megan Alexander, a TV news correspondent from Inside Edition, expressed her frustration at the extremely tight time limits on anything she produces, but also the joy of being able to tell the stories of people from such very different backgrounds on so many varied topics. She was especially encouraging to the students in the audience.

DT Slouffman, an Emmy winning TV producer, explained his love for telling other people's stories. His comments were very insightful - especially about how to approach difficult situations and issues honestly. He explained the importance of understanding the true nature of the stories he is working on, knowing the interests and needs of the clients he works for and the audiences he is communicating to, and how his own worldview affects the way he sees life.

Andrew Hunt, an award winning filmmaker from New Zealand, added a unique perspective to the evening by sharing from his experiences as a very thoughtful non-American. He was living in Scotland on 9/11, and explained how important it is to see stories from different points of view in order to get a full understanding of what is actually going on.

The panelists were each very alert to the audience in front of them, and skillfully addressed Issues of faith and worldview that came up naturally in the course of the discussion.

It was a wonderful evening that I believe God blessed.

Upcoming Appearances

It's been a busy few weeks!

I performed and spoke down at Coral Ridge Presbyterian, then I performed and spoke at 2 other churches in Florida this past weekend!

The "Upcoming Appearances" sites have been updated. Check it out on the right. I'll be in Connecticut a few times, and in Birmingham, AL for Palm Sunday!

That's it for now, more information and posts will be forthcoming!