Imagine being on a ministry committee with the responsibility for examining the plan for Jesus and his congregation (the disciples) going to Jerusalem that final week. What would you consider? What would you recommend? From my observations of the various decision making bodies in churches, I suspect there would have been a few people who…
A couple of weeks ago while teaching I was asked about the title of my book Not Ashamed of the Gospel: Confessions of a Liberal Charismatic, and what I meant by “liberal charismatic.” Now this isn’t an ad for my book–no, really, it’s not!–but that title was not one I gave myself, but rather one…
With a recent flurry of posts regarding the way in which the Old Testament is used in the New, at least peripherally, I wanted to call attention to one written from a different perspective. The post is Isaiah 7, Nativity, and the Theotokos, written by Mark Olson, who speaks from an Orthodox perspective. He discusses…
Because you have been graciously given this on behalf of Christ: not only in Him to believe, but also for Him to suffer. (Philippians 1:29, excessively literally) I’ve been meditating on two texts as the new year begins, Philippians 1:27-30, and Ephesians 5:1-2. I’ve been kind of ignoring this suffering thing so far. But last…
According to this story on MSNBC.com, Archbishop Francisco Chimoio claims that two European nations are trying to kill off Africans by providing condoms that are already infected with the virus: I know of two countries in Europe who are making condoms with (the) virus on purpose, they want to finish with African people as part…
Yesterday I had planned to write a response to the Ted Haggard situation, but other issues got in the way, and then the story developed. I was going to talk some about the meaning of forgiveness combined with accountability and openness. I would have said that we didn’t know yet precisely what had happened, but…
