You're invited to join the Grace Roots Ning community!

Visit Grace Roots

Many of you know all about the various Ning communities that are out there, and are even members of some of them, as I am (see side column of this blog). A while back I decided to create my own social community - Grace Roots - that is based upon being established in grace, living in grace and growing in grace. I haven't done much with it yet. My "vision" of it is simply an online community where people can encourage one another in God's love and grace. There are various other excellent Ning communities, and my purpose is not to 'compete' with any of them, of course. It's simply to join people together in the pure gospel of grace and peace.

As I said, I haven't done much with this community yet, but that's where you come in! You can share your blog posts there, take part in discussions, post pictures, etc. With a Ning profile, you can have your very own page and customize it to your liking. You can become 'friends' with other people, and even share videos and music. You can send messages to others, share status updates, write on others' walls, share upcoming events, write notes, and so on and so on. Try it out, and let me know what you think! I'm open to your suggestions as to the look and feel of the site, as well as the content, etc.

graceroots.ning.com

What you said in 2008 - Slick Breeze

To wrap up a look at some of my favorite blog posts from others in 2008, we now turn to my holier-than-thou twin-brother-from another-mother in-a-parallel-universe, The Extra Very Reverend J. Slick Breeze. Actually, I can't say that these are "favorites" of mine, but, well, the man is family so I thought I'd include him anyway.

The first one was actually posted on my blog, as I did ol' Slick a favor and introduced him to the world (well, to those who read my blog). The other two are the only two posts he wrote in 2008. I reckon he's too busy going around preaching the law and raising funds for his ministry, and simply doesn't have much time to blog.

1. Introducing my alter ego - The Rev. J. Slick Breeze (posted on my blog 5/13/08)
2. Send Money (Grease Roots - The Very Extra Rev. J. Slick Breeze - 5/14/08)
3. Your support is necessary (Grease Roots - The Very Extra Rev. J. Slick Breeze - 11/18/08)

What you said in 2008 31-33

Almost done with these (some "slick" ones coming tomorrow... LOL), although there's a lot more I could share if I'd been more organized! ;) As I said in the beginning, I don't mean to exclude anyone, but I wasn't consistent in bookmarking all my favorite posts and I just haven't had time to go back and make sure everyone was included. Anyway, I love your blogs! I love the victories shared, the struggles shared, the realities of life shared. I love the talk of the love and grace of God, and of life in the body of Christ. Thanks so much for blogging, and keep it up! If you don't yet have your own blog, what's stopping you?!

31. Just over a year (Grace in Flood - Grace - 7/15/08)
32. Love, Day 3 - (Women of Worship - Angela - 10/15/08) (Click "Older Post" to see the other parts of the series)
33. "Just Give Me Jesus" or "Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?" (One Day At A Time - Maureen - 7/13/08)

What you said in 2008 28-30

28. GPS Journey – God’s Positioning System (A Journey Worth Taking - Nicole - 1/11/08)
29. Matthew 4:19 (Modern Church Translations - Mark Main - 7/13/08)
30. turn to, live by, pay attention to, be filled by... (The Blog of Nancy - Nancy - 9/15/08)

What you said in 2008 25-27

More of my fav's of '08. These have all been in a completely random order. A few more to come...
25. The Script Has Never Really Worked Anyway...Not Really (Faithfully Dangerous - Kent - 9/20/08)
26. Bags packed, I am travelling light! (Meeting of One - Walking Church - 2/15/08)
27. We Don’t Have To Be, We Already Are! (See the World Through His Heart - Alan Hiu - 10/8/08)

What you said in 2008 22-24

22. I will build my charitable organization (The Assembling of the Church - Alan Knox - 10/30/08)
23. How Are We Really Treating Unbelievers? (Walking In The Spirit - Amy - 8/23/08)
24. Written in Stone Before the Foundation of the World (Walking in the Spirit of Grace - Gary Kirkham - 6/12/08)

What you said in 2008 19-21

Another "sandwich" here. :) (I honestly did not set these up this way... my list of my fav's of '08 is all completely random). Here are the two bloggers who I have known longer than most of the other bloggers that I know, sandwiching the blogger who probably has the most "different" (in a good way) blog out of all those that I read (that's a compliment, LivingSword)!

I met both Bino and "In Christ Alone" through the Grace Walk Forum, in my B.B. years (Before Blogging). Another interesting side note that I just realized - there are two Canadians here, and one from India (living in the U.S.).

19. Approval Addiction - Overcoming (Branch of Vine - Bino M. - 4/23/08)
20. Martin Luther: Indulgences (Life on the Blade - LivingSword - 2/17/08)
21. Peace! (nightwatch - In Christ Alone - 7/25/08)

What you said in 2008 16-18

Two blogs that I "met" in 2008, sandwiching one that I "met" the previous year. :)

16. Faulty Concepts of What Father is Really Like (John's Grace Walk - John Fincher - 8/27/08)
17. Consider the butterfly..... (A Joy To Be Me - Lydia Joy - 8/21/08)
18. When We Meet Grace (Better Than We Know - RJW - 7/21/08)

What you said in 2008 10-12

Sharing more of my fav blog posts of 2008.

10. The Prodigal God (Idle musings of a bookseller - JPS - 10/28-11/7/08) (This is actually a series of posts about a book called The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller. After clicking on the link, scroll down to read the individual posts in order from bottom to top).
11. Behavior modification vs. life transformation... (Family: The Final Frontier - Richard J - 9/12/08
12. Behavior modification vs. life transformation, part 2... (Family: The Final Frontier - Richard J - 10/2/08)

What you said in 2008 7-9

More of my favorite blog posts of yours in 2008.

7. The Hybrid 'Gospel' (Voice of Grace - Jul - 6/18/08)
8. Naked and Unashamed… (A branch, strengthened by God, henceforth, excellent - Leonard - 11/15/08)
(Bonus - Thought this would interest people - Leonard's first post, explaining the title of his blog - 9/13/08)
9. Light your Candle (Through the narrow gate - ViolableWings - 11/20/08)

What you said in 2008 4-6

Some of my favorite blog posts of 2008, continued.

4. Expecting to sin (Recover Your Good Heart - Jim Robbins - 9/29/08)
5. Faith is the Assurance of Things Not Seen (Somewhere in my Memory - Matthew Daelon - 4/10/08)
6. TV Interview - Day 5 (Grace Walk - Steve McVey - 11/22/08)
I highly recommend taking time to watch all 5 days. Also, in addition to Steve's written posts, he also posted a series of videos called "101 Lies Taught in Church Every Sunday." If you missed them, or want to see them again, go to his blog and search for the phrase "101 Lies Taught in Church." You'll find the first 77 videos that way. After that, the post titles were simply entitled "Lie #__."

What you said in 2008 1-3

The world of blogging sure has opened me up to friendships with a lot of wonderful people! It was so great reading all of your blogs in 2008. For the next week or two, I'd like to share some of my favorite blog posts of yours from the past year. Right off the bat, I have to admit (actually this is more of a disclaimer) that I'm certain that I'll leave some people out because I didn't quite keep up with this in the way I had hoped to do throughout the year! At the beginning of the year I created a folder on my desktop in which I intended to save my favorite posts, and I did somewhat ok with it, but not as good as I'd hoped. In other words, I didn't save all my favorite posts, so please don't take it personally if one of yours doesn't show up. But I do want to shine the spotlight on my friends, so let's get to it! These will be absolutely random!

1. Isn't Salvation By Grace? (Caesura - Aussie John - 11/8/08)
2. If Forgiveness Can't Be Earned... (With Unveiled Face - Free Spirit - 8/23/08)
3. Winter - a season of rest (Forgetting the Former Things - Aida - 12/1/08)

Updated blog list

A little shop talk.

In case you haven't seen it, I added the Blog List gadget to the side of my blog the other day, as well as the "Followers" gadget. (I formerly had some blogs linked to using my own HTML). I don't necessarily like the word "Followers" in this respect (perhaps "Readers" would be better?). But nevertheless my main purpose in using these features is simply because over the past couple of years I've seen how blogging has connected various people around the world, and to me this is simply one more way for people to connect. I'm also planning an update to my list of websites when I can get around to it.

I also want to say that my list is somewhat diverse, and they're listed according to "most recently updated." It includes 'real life' friends and family, as well as many people who I've met only through blogging and online forums. I, of course, read a lot of blogs that are based upon grace and freedom in the Lord Jesus Christ and I also read various other blogs that have other aspects to them that interest me. In say all this as kind of a disclaimer. My list is not necessarily an endorsement of all these blogs (around 70 at the present time) and neither do I believe all these people would necessarily endorse this blog. :)

By the way, if you know that I regularly read your blog, and/or if you comment here on this blog, and your name is not on my blog list - please let me know! I took only a little bit of time to import the feeds from my feed reader into Google Reader and then into the Blog List, and I had a some difficulties along the way and I just didn't have time to make sure I had every last blog added. If you're not there, there's a 99% chance that it was an accident.

In case you're wondering - No I don't read ALL these blogs every day! One obvious reason is that many of them don't get updated every day. But also, with limited time, I kind of scan the headlines and pick and choose what I actually read out of the ones that are updated frequently. Some of you who are closer friends - I do read all your blog posts.

Happy blogging!