Chinese girl gets 'kiss of deaf'

Couples are advised to "proceed with caution"

A young Chinese woman was left partially deaf following a passionate kiss from her boyfriend.

The 20-something from Zhuhai in Guangdong province arrived at hospital having completely lost the hearing in her left ear, said local reports.

The incident prompted a series of articles in the local media warning of the dangers of excessive kissing.

"While kissing is normally very safe, doctors advise people to proceed with caution," wrote the China Daily.

The doctor who treated the girl in hospital was quoted in the paper explaining what had happened.

"The kiss reduced the pressure in the mouth, pulled the eardrum out and caused the breakdown of the ear."

The chorus of warnings was echoed by the Shanghai Daily, which wrote: "A strong kiss may cause an imbalance in the air pressure between two inner ears and lead to a broken ear drum."

The young woman is expected to regain her full hearing within about two months.

A Charlie Brown Christmas is an album by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, released in 1965 as the soundtrack to the CBS Christmas television special of the same name. It is among the most popular holiday music albums of all time. There was also a book-and-record set featuring music, dialogue and stills from the Christmas special released in 1977 on a 45 RPM vinyl record by CBS Records. The song "Christmastime is Here" would later be covered by the rock band Stone Temple Pilots.

"Legalistic remorse says, 'I broke God's rules,' while real repentance says, 'I broke God's heart.'

Legalistic repentance takes sin to Mt. Sinai, gospel repentance to Mt. Calvary.

Legalistic repentance is convicted by punishment, gospel repentance becomes convicted by mercy."

Consider signing the Fight FOCA [Freedom of Choice Act] Petition.

No matter your political persuasion or feeling on the role of politics, it's a simple thing you can do to help fight against this legislation, which would:

eradicate state and federal laws that the majority of Americans support, such as:

• Bans on Partial Birth Abortion
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FOCA would erase these laws and prevent states from enacting similar protective measures in the future.

In terms of its intended aims and its intended readership, Westerholm's volume is eminently successful. It provides for the popular reader an engaging and informative discussion of the Evangelist's worldview as communicated in the text. The constant reminder to the reader, often forgotten in scholarly circles, that Matthew's Gospel is primarily a call to active discipleship based upon the model of Jesus, is well reinforced by reference to the life and work of Bonhoeffer, who read the Gospel in precisely this manner.

With new-to-movies director J.J. Abrams at the helm, "Mission: Impossible III" surpasses the missed opportunities of the previous two movies by returning to the core elements of the classic TV series. Philip Seymour Hoffman delivers as a great villian who really kicks it up a notch and provides our hero with a run for his money. Faster-than-usually paced, Abrams brings out the stunts and crazy sets while giving Cruise a nice crew of co-stars. Sadly, the ending doesn't pay off the showdown - perhaps money became an object? At the end of the day, you either like mindless action movies or you don't. And I do.

Sometimes the New Testament scholars today are more sensitive to the Old Testament backgrounds than the Old Testament scholars feel free to move forward...

I do think the most recent commentators on the gospels are feeling very free to look back, and they recognize the enormous number of allusions that are really there. Look in the scripture index in the back of your New Testament commentaries when you're preaching on Isaiah or Exodus or Chronicles.

We have a tendency to say "Okay, I'm preaching on Chronicles" and you look at your [bookshelves] "O gosh, I don't have any commentaries on Chronicles!" You order some, you go to the library.

Maybe you better look in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John -- all your commentaries on the gospels -- and look back for allusions to your passage in 2 Chronicles. And to your surprise, you'll find sermon-breaking comments: exegetical insights that just break open the whole thing for you as a preacher on your Old Testament texts in your New Testament commentaries. I do that all the time.

Hi Pastor!

A retro-evangelical is a person who is saddened by the current direction that evangelicalism is taking, and longs to return to the roots of "the evangel" -- or gospel.

A retro-evangelical fully embraces the fundamentals of the faith

• The inspiration and innerancy of the Bible.
  
• The virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
• The doctrine of substitutionary atonement.
• The bodily resurrection of Christ.
• The historical reality of biblical miracles.

A retro-evangelical, while rejecting modern liberalism, and preserving a doctrinal focus on the Bible, also rejects the legalistic rigidness and social disengagement of Fundamentalism.

The blog contains biographies of heroes of early Evangelicalism, such as Carl Henry, Machen, Kantzer, and Schaeffer. I find kindred spirits within the Together for The Gospel group and The Gospel Coalition.

I hope that helps!

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Matthew Westerholm