5\/19\/2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Note this is dated 14 years after the original purpose (see down below) of 4\/2\/2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you ever woke up and looked around and wondered, \u201cWhat happened?\u201d That sort of happened to me a week or so ago. I realized I had not posted any Iron Sharpens Iron entries since 2012, roughly 11 years ago. I guess I got too busy? I really don\u2019t remember. Be that as it may, I find I have some ideas I\u2019d like to \u201cget out there,\u201d not so much to see what other people think, but more to satisfy my own need to share some things I\u2019ve learned (and am still learning) in the last couple of years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Likely you won\u2019t find any original thinking here. Most of the thoughts I\u2019ll share have already been thought. But maybe you haven\u2019t thought them. And maybe you might like to know that I\u2019ve been thinking them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is interesting to look back to the posts in 2010\/11\/12 and see where my head was then. I\u2019ve sort of moved past most of that. Not that I\u2019ve decided what I shared became invalid for some reason, but rather because I\u2019ve simply incorporated most of that thinking and am still looking for growth in other areas. That\u2019s what I\u2019d like to share over the next few months using this forum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many have not incorporated the concepts I shared a decade ago though, and so it will be a struggle to acknowledge that and still be able to share some new things that are better understood in a framework of understanding we may not share. I\u2019ll try to acknowledge that in future posts, but if you ever would like to question or challenge any of these concepts, please feel free to do so. It may be I have simply explained something poorly. Or\u2026 we may actually disagree about something. That\u2019s fine though, as long as we can all agree to disagree without being disagreeable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My prayer is that the Lord lead all of us to a more complete understanding of His will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
–Mark<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
April 2, 2009<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the #000 initial\/introductory post in the IronSharpensIron blog I\u2019m starting today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sequence of events bringing me to this point has been interesting. As some of you know, I\u2019ve sent several notes out to a mailing list called \u201cIronSharpensIron\u201d over the past couple of months. Those notes were not really cast upon the waters to generate comments from the recipients (those those comments were, and are, always welcome!) but rather to get information into the hands of individuals who would appreciate being aware of things that I had become acquainted with. Or sometimes I would send notes mainly meant to challenge readers to consider why they (we) believe certain things. Or to suggest we look at something in a different way than we have in the past. And there have been the occasional notes that help us see the humor in some of our own practices. (If we can\u2019t smile at ourselves we would indeed be pretty bad off!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those notes were not particularly frequent. The timing was really determined by when I had time to prepare the email notes, or by when I would run across something particularly interesting. Sometimes there would be a couple in one day, but also sometimes a week or two would go by with no email sent to the IronSharpensIron list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A couple of things made me begin to wonder if an email distribution list were really the best way to handle the information. When readers would have comments, they were often directed back only to me, as opposed to the whole group. Maybe this was an oversight, or maybe it was on purpose due to the sensitivity of the material. But I never knew for sure which was the case. So several in the group never got the benefit of seeing some of the really good replies that were sent to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then after the numbers of these IronSharpensIron notes began to grow, I thought about collecting them, but browsing through multiple email systems looking for notes I sent to the IronSharpensIron list was a pretty laborious task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So I began to wonder if maybe a BLOG would be better suited to the logistics of what I was trying to accomplish. So during the week of 3\/16\/2009 I began to research blogs. Whew! There are so many ways to accomplish this! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then while I was drowning in information (about blogs) I went to the Tulsa International Soul Winning Workshop at the end of March 2009. Guess what? I found two classes on Blogging! One was technical in nature, and one was motivational. What they both had in common though, being at a Soul Winning Workshop, was information about how effective blogs are in Christian Outreach and in Internet Ministry. I found that THOUSANDS of people read the leading blogs and many actually come to know Christ because of this type of outreach! FYI, the two folks who presented the \u201cBlogging for Christ\u201d classes were John Dobbs (www.johndobbs.com<\/a>) and Trey Morgan (www.treymorgan.net<\/a> ).<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I was even more \u201cpumped\u201d about getting a blog together to replace the IronSharpensIron mailing list. Apparently my \u201cpumped upness\u201d was shared by many, because one of the items on a \u201c10 Ways to Tell if you Partied too much at the Tulsa Workshop\u201d list that I saw was: 24 hours after the workshop you have a Blog, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account, but 24 hours before the workshop you didn\u2019t even have a computer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The only negative about Christian blogging that I recall hearing in the two classes was a comment that went like this: \u201cI would be less than honest if I told you that I never received any negative feedback about the material on my blog. Unfortunately, most of the people who get upset are my own brethren.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, while in no way do I have the TIME to make blogging my part-time \u201cjob\u201d, and while I do NOT have a goal to \u201cdo whatever it takes\u201d to get the readership (\u201chits\u201d) of the blog competing with those sites which have thousands of hits per day, yet I do still have the goal of providing \u201cfood for thought\u201d via the blogging mechanism. If more people than the twelve or so original IronSharpensIron email recipients read this blog, well and good \u2013 but that\u2019s not really the goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lastly, I should mention that my suspicion is that most of my future postings will be of material I\u2019ve been made aware of from other sources. I\u2019ll certainly try to give credit where credit is due. The more I read the more I realize that not many of my thoughts are that original. Seems like there are many folks thinking along the same lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dedicated to the glory and honor of the Lord Jesus Christ,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n is the<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n IronSharpensIron<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Blog.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Re-Purposed Blog Statement Continue reading