Video of a recent German-Norway friendly on Feb. 12

The German and Norwegian national teams recently played a friendly. Norway shocked the Germans (who were jeered off their home pitch at half-time!).

Bayern takes one on the chin

Recap from the pitch.

Ouch! Tough loss for Bayern, but it allows Hertha Berlin to take the top spot in the Bundesliga.

Global warming is a real threat for these little guys!

More than 32,000 scientists have signed a formal statement, prepared by a past president of the National Academy of Sciences and co-authored by an atmospheric scientist at Harvard University, saying there is no global warming crisis.

Check Global Warming Facts to read more about a less-hyped global warming outlook.

$400 MILLION dollars is scheduled to go to a Global Warming research in the new Economic Stimulus Package. Is this supposed to stimulate our economy or add more fatty pork to it?

Here's what the Germans and the Norwegians are currently doing about global warming research.

Korskirken Panorama View

Here is a neat Panorama view inside Korskiren in Bergen, Norway. Just use the Quicktime controls to pan up, down, and around the church. There's lots of Christian artwork and symbolism throughout the church. Very cool.

Btw, does anyone in Norway have any information about the life of The Rev. Alf Andersen? He was a pastor at Korskirken for many years; I believed he died in the mid-1980s.

Merkel criticizes Benedict XVI

When German and Vatican politics collide, normally stoic Germans speak out. That's what happened yesterday when the pope removed the excommunication of four bishops from the Society of St. Pius X. Unfortunately, one of these bishops denies that the Holocaust happened, and that is against the law in Germany.

One person asked, ,,How could the pope do this, knowing the bishop's denial of the Holocaust"? Simple answer: Benedict XVI, like his predecessor John Paul II, is an avowed ecumenist. One of his primary goals is to bring all the small fractioned groups estranged in the Roman Catholic Church back under the papal umbrella. A few years ago the pope was willing to drop one of the many papal titles to ease the way for closer ecumenism with the Orthodox Church. Bringing all Christian churches back under the papal banner is the goal of the popes.

Check out today's article about the flap at Deutsche Welle.

DW also has two concise videos:

Catholics React

Concerns Grow

Here's a recent commentary by German journalist Felix Steiner.

Gospel words from The Rev. Dr. Norman Nagel

“The generation that was delivered out of Egypt all died in the wilderness, though the Lord gave them bread from heaven. Repeatedly in John, Jesus fulfills and bursts what is told us in the Old Testament. Jesus is bread from heaven of which a man may eat and not die. Here death is ultimate death and its counterpart is ultimate life. Jesus said, “I am the living Bread” (John 6.51), What could be a more “I am” statement of life? But there is more. There is life through and beyond the furthest reach of death. Death can reach no further than Calvary. That there was death in Calvary is shown by the fact that flesh and blood are spoken of separately. But they are Jesus’ flesh and blood, so there is life with them beyond the furthest reacth of death—life indestructible, life forever.” (Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel 56).

Wise Words from Dietrich Bonhoeffer

,,Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. It remains an abstract idea, a myth which has a place for the Fatherhood of God, but omits Christ as the living Son. And a Christianity of that kind is nothing more nor less than the end of discipleship. In such a religion there is trust in God, but no following of Christ. Because the Son of God became Man, because He is the Mediator, for that reason alone the only true relation we can have with Him is to follow Him. Discipleship is bound to Christ as the Mediator, and where it is properly understood, it necessarily implies faith in the Son of God as the Mediator. Only the Mediator, the God-Man, can call men to follow Him“ (The Cost of Discipleship 64).

These were not merely words for Bonhoeffer, as he was a young Lutheran pastor and theologian who was arrested by the Nazi regime and executed just days before American forces liberated the city where he was in prison. Yes, sometimes Christian discipleship leads making difficult choices and dying for Jesus Christ as a martyr to the Christian faith.