Welcome to the November 2nd edition of the Christian Carnival ii, where Christian blog writers — of various denominational backgrounds — share their best posts from the previous week. This week’s offerings are good, albeit a bit sparse. I was  somewhat disappointed that there were no posts on the topic of Halloween, Satan, or his minions. But never fear: if you are interested in some spooky reading, check out this month’s Biblical Studies Carnival: The Undead Edition (scroll to the bottom for Halloween-themed posts).

But I digress… on to this week’s Christian Carnival…

“All you need is love…” Annette gives us a short reflection on the “love chapter” in 1Corinthians 13 in her post “Love insists not on its own way” over at Fish and Cans.

David Wells, over at his blog Revelation 3:10 – Blog, reminds us in a post unpacking 1Corinthians 7:19 (“Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but obeying the commandments of God is everything” NRSV), that what is most important is  obedience in his post “Only Living It Counts” (of course, we need God’s grace to be obedient!). David also posted a reflection on the stoning of Stephen from chapter seven of the book of Acts, entitled “Guilty Without Action.”

Maryann Spikes over at Ichthus77 draws our attention to free on-line apologetics curriculum for women provided by the The International Society for Women in Apologetics (ISWA).  Take a look at this free resource, but always remember that the best apologetic is a transformed life (as David Wells reminds us above).

Thinking of becoming a Christian as a “get rich quick scheme”? Before you buy that new iPad on faith,  you should read Tim’s article on “Why the Prosperity Gospel is Wrong” over at Faith and Finance (as an aside, Scotteriology frequently has some posts highlighting what he calls “mamonianity“).

Speaking of riches and material possessions…  the Christian Prayer highlighted this week by Cindy is from the 16th century: “Prayer to be Blessed with God’s Grace and to Cast Off Things of this World.”

Are Christians still obligated to get busy and “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth”? (Genesis 1:28a) — or is that actually one command that we humans have fulfilled to the tune of some seven billion? Jeremy Pierce addresses this question — as it applies to the “secondary moral obligation” to adopt, in his post “Adoption, Having Children, and Secondary Moral Obligations” over at Parableman.

The one post submitted this week that deals with the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament comes from Isabel Anders over at BlogHer.  She presented a meditation on the personification of “wisdom” as a woman in the Hebrew Bible in her post, “Part One: Wisdom Has a Woman’s Name.”

Henry Neufeld calls for some healthy and humble introspection when we read and reread the Scriptures in his blog post, “Point It at Yourself First” at the Participatory Bible Study Blog. That’s good advice… didn’t someone somewhere say something about taking a log out of your own eye?

Next week’s Christian Carnival ii will be hosted over at Ichthus77. To submit a blog post to the Carnival, click the widget above or go here.

Phil — who is also a brand new Dad — has done a great job with the Carnival. Make sure to check it out.

Also, if you are interested, Phil is looking for a volunteer for the next Patristic Carnival in March.

Phil is proposing to host the first Patristic Carnival in December, so if you blog on Patristics and are interested in such a Carnival, I encourage you to check out his proposal here.