A la carte: Evernote app ideas for speakers, Chris Broussard
Evernote org for speakers
Do you use the Evernote app for speaking? Michael Hyatt has a great entry with ideas for organizing your prep. His system makes Evernote a database with material you've read, thought and seen for easy referreal when prepping for speaking. He includes notebooks for illustrations, jokes, quotes, and statistics. In addition, he also files:
Blog posts. I am going back through my 900-plus blog posts and extracting the various components. When I find a personal illustration or a historical anecdote, I copy and paste it into my Illustrations notebook. The same is true for quotes and jokes. Web articles. When I am reading on the Web, I do the same. If I stumble across something I think I might want to use later, I copy and paste it into the appropriate notebook. This can include everything from other bloggers’ posts to news articles. Digital books. This is also a big advantage of using Kindle for my reading. Anything I highlight in a Kindle book is automatically extracted to my personal Highlights page on Amazon. I can copy and paste these directly into Evernote from there. This is a huge productivity boost. Traditional books. One of the great things about Evernote is that you can share individual notebooks with others. For example, I am still reading several print books and highlighting them as usual. In the margin, I put an “I” with a square around it to indicate to my assistant that I want her to key the highlighted content into Evernote. I use a “J” for Jokes, a “Q” for Quotes, and a “S” for Statistics.
Chris Broussard and Jason Collins
On April 29, 2013, ESPN's Chris Broussard came out about his feelings on NBA player's Jaason Collins' coming out (Jason announced that week he was gay.) Chris' comments were made on air, and as such, he received a hailstorm of criticism for communicating a very even-handed assessment the sinfulness of human sexuality beyond its God-given boundaries. Chris demonstrated more courage than many pastors and church leaders. Many have criticized him for expressing his opinion on air, but if you watch the clips, he was asked. Here are his comments:
"I’m a Christian. I don’t agree with homosexuality. I think it’s a sin, as I think all sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is. L.Z. [Granderson, a gay sportswriter and ESPN contributor] knows that. He and I have played on basketball teams together for several years. We’ve gone out, had lunch together, we’ve had good conversations, good laughs together. He knows where I stand, and I know where he stands. I don’t criticize him, he doesn’t criticize me, and call me a bigot, call me ignorant, call me intolerant.
In talking to some people around the league, there’s a lot of Christians in the NBA, and just because they disagree with that lifestyle, they don’t want to be called bigoted and intolerant and things like that. That’s what L.Z. was getting at. Just like I may tolerate someone whose lifestyle I disagree with, he can tolerate my beliefs. He disagrees with my beliefs and my lifestyle, but true tolerance and acceptance is being able to handle that as mature adults and not criticize each other and call each other names….
Personally, I don’t believe that you can live an openly homosexual lifestyle or an openly premarital sex between heterosexuals, if you’re openly living that type of lifestyle, then the Bible says you know them by their fruits, it says that’s a sin. If you’re openly living in unrepentant sin, whatever it may be, not just homosexuality, adultery, fornication, premarital sex between heterosexuals, whatever it may be, I believe that’s walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ. I would not characterize that person as a Christian because I do not think the Bible would characterize them as a Christian."
I do appreciate his boldness. I regret that our country won't permit honest dialogue about beliefs without personal attacks. Chris certainly got his share. Just Google "Chris Broussard and Jason Collins," and you'll have to wade through the heated, hateful responses from both sides.
One thing I think should be clarified. When Chris said, "I would not characterize that person as a Christian because I do not think the Bible would characterize them as a Christian," I think he went too far.
There are periods of prolonged sinfulness and rebellion in many of our lives. That doesn't mean you're not a Christian. It might hint that your profession of being a Christian is merely that and not indicative of possession of biblical faith. It's vital to understand that someone's pronouncement of another's lack of belonging to Christ cannot be taken as ex cathedra.
The reality according to scripture is that we cannot claim Christ and snatch eternal life from Him. God alone gives salvation - and freely - to any person who will surrender their heart to Him through faith in His Son. Whether it's Jason Collins or me, I cannot, by wishful thinking, claim salvation from God's hands if I have not surrendered my life in faith to His Son and submit to His teachings.
Nine things to know about Duck Dynasty
The Gospel Coalition blog offers a few thoughts about America's #1 show. Here's one linked video from the article: