How You Can Help the Ecclesia College Blogs Grow in Outreach

"Please help a small blog trying to grow up and become global."

We are enjoying a good start in blogging. These three blogs, linked together, have about 3,600 page-views, after five weeks. People from 11 countries are reading the posts. You can see them near the bottom of the page on the Feedjit map.

This is the main blog in this group - Ecclesia College in Springdale, Arkansas.

This blog is designed to emphasize the arts at Ecclesia College.

This blog emphasizes features about sports at Ecclesia College in Northwest Arkansas.

America is losing the concept of literacy,
when tutoring is spelled this way on a sign.

When you click on any particular blog post, you are helping to increase its visibility on the Internet.

Regular readers mean that the search engine results will be high for any given topic associated with Ecclesia College:

• The Christian faith, 
• The Scriptures
• Location in Northwest Arkansas, 
• Twila Paris, 
• Dave Barton, 
• Low graduation debt, 
• Homeschooling, 
• Scripture, and 
• College sports.

If someone wants to attend college where people understand and support homeschooling, a search will lead to Ecclesia College.

President Oren Paris is quick to say, "Homeschooled students are among our best."

The blogs are designed to lead people to the Ecclesia College website.

Below each post is a row of buttons for sharing across the Internet. If you wish to use them, you can email the post, Facebook share it, Google Plus share it, Tweet it, and Blog This! it.

One example is below.

+1   Recommend this on Google

You can also copy the URL (link) to your Facebook page. We all have from 50 to 1500 friends on Facebook. Some of them overlap, but many do not. And they have friends, too. It does not take long for Facebook sharing to increase regular readership.

Computers are sometimes misunderstood.

If you have a blog or website, please consider linking the  Ecclesia College blogs on your site. Linking the Ecclesia College website also helps.

Broadcast is a term first used for sowing seed. We began using it for radio and TV, but now it is returning as a way to spread the Word of God across the world, following the Parable of the Sower and the Seed (Matthew 13 and Mark 4).

Isaiah 55 is clear. God's Word is never broadcast in vain. The Word always accomplishes His divine purpose. The Holy Spirit always accomplishes His purpose and always prospers His work through the Word.

The Great Commission by Norma Boeckler

Away in a Manger - Twila Paris - Ecclesia College Spokesperson

http://www.normaboecklerart.com

Come Thou Long Expected Jesus - Twila Paris - Ecclesia College Spokesperson

http://www.normaboecklerart.com

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus

Text: Charles Wesley, 1707-1788

Tune: HYFRYDOL, Meter: 87.87 D
1. Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.
Israel's strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art;
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.

2. Born thy people to deliver,
born a child and yet a King,
born to reign in us forever,
now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal spirit
rule in all our hearts alone;
by thine all sufficient merit,
raise us to thy glorious throne.

Silent Night - Twila Paris - Ecclesia College Spokesperson

http://www.normaboecklerart.com

"Silent Night! Holy Night!"
by Joseph Mohr, 1792-1848

1. Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm, all is bright,
Round yon Virgin Mother and Child.
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.

2. Silent night! Holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight;
Glories stream from heaven afar,
Heavenly hosts sing, Alleluia.
Christ, the Savior, is born!
Christ, the Savior, is born!

3. Silent night! Holy night!
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face,
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.


Text: Luke 2:8
Author: Joseph Mohr, 1818
Translated by: unknown
Titled: "Stille Nacht"
Composer: Franz Gruber, 1818
Tune: "Stille Nacht"

Twila Paris - Top of the Hill

Top of the Hill

At the Top of the Hill

By Twila Paris

During the Vancouver Olympics, I watched, along with millions, as the USA-1 bobsledding team, led by Steven Holcomb, won the four-man bobsled competition in the Winter Games for the first time since 1948. I don't know much about bobsledding, but I've always enjoyed watching the precision teamwork and the crazy downhill ride that apparently can only be produced by runners on ice.

I have seen enough bobsledding to know that a great start is really important. Of course, this is true in any form of racing. However, it's not enough to begin well. You also have to finish well, and avoid the many potential pitfalls between the start and finish. And all the while, if you're bobsledding, the track itself moves you along at speeds beyond your control, faster than your ability to think. Your choices have to be so well rehearsed that they've become second nature, almost instinctive.

You've probably heard about the Whistler track. It's the fastest ever, to the point of being very dangerous. By the final day of bobsledding, they had purposely worked to slow the track a little. Even so, Steven Holcomb and the “Night Train” crew finished at a speed of 94 miles per hour.

There is one particular turn the announcers kept referring to as the 50/50 turn. I thought that must be some sport-specific terminology I hadn’t heard before. Then they explained that Holcomb had nicknamed the turn last year during initial practice runs, because approximately half the sleds were crashing at that point on the track.

When it was time for their final run, the USA-1 team was in the lead. At the top of the track, they performed with beautiful synchronicity—pushing, running, popping into the sled, heads down—they were off to an amazing start! This gave them a physical and psychological advantage. Now the task was to maintain focus, keep the standard where it had already been established, and finish the way they began. And they did it! An American team won the Olympic gold medal in four-man bobsledding for the first time in 62 years! Over the celebration, the announcer shouted, "They won the race at the top of the hill!"

We're all familiar with the Apostle Paul's reference to this life as a race. He finished well, and we want to do the same. In this race, too, an important part of a great finish is a great beginning. Sure, you can start badly and still finish well. God's grace and mercy see to that. But I don't think you can start badly and finish as well as you would have. This is why God gives us parents and says, "Train up a child in the way he should go..."

Children can't make their own good start. It's up to their parents to give them one. So we feed and clothe them and keep them out of the street and teach them to wash their hands. And as Christian parents, we model and teach true Christianity in our homes and communities. We know the track is dangerous, and we try to slow it a little, but still it carries our children along at an incredible pace.

So we teach them the eternal truths "when we're sitting in our homes, when we're walking in the way, when we lie down and when we rise up." We make the time for family worship even when we're exhausted. We prepare them with a godly education. A growing number of us are educating them at home so that we can personally assure every human aspect of that good beginning. And daily, we commit them to God.

Doing these things requires wisdom, intentionality, and sacrifice. It requires faithfulness and sometimes the willingness to humble ourselves, ask forgiveness, and start over. My parents did these things for me. And you and I do them for our children so that one day, by God's grace, it can be said of them, of an entire generation of Christian young people, and of their children too, "They won the race at the top of the hill."

Visit Twila's Website!