Ref: Psalm 111:10 – Proper 15B The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Those who practice it have good inteligence. We’ve all heard that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, as stated in this passage and many others. It’s a pretty basic Christian concept. A few days ago,…
I have just added the RefTagger module to this site. It seems like a valuable adjunct to a site that has as many Bible references as this one. I have set the default version to TNIV. I may change that from time to time just to keep people thinking!
See 1 Kings 3:3-14 (Proper 15B) Why does God choose to give Solomon riches and make him great after Solomon asks for wisdom? God is pleased with Solomon’s request and grants it, yet he also grants him everything else he might desire. The result, as we read further into the story, is that Solomon turns…
[Rambling, personal post alert.] Periodically I talk a bit about growing up as a Seventh-day Adventist and my education in church related schools. I do this for two reasons. The first is to explain why I am no longer a member of the church I grew up in, and the second is to explain to…
For Proper 15B the gospel reading is John 6:51-58, which continues from the previous reading. In that reading, Jesus barely got started with the gritty physical metaphors, and the people were offended and resistant. This theme of offense will surface many times in portion of John in which Jesus is addressing the crowd in general….
Because of many of my political positions, not to mention my theological ones, many people suppose that I would think public education was the be-all and end-all of education. And I do believe that making education available to everyone is an essential of civilized society. The problem is that writing a health care bill titled…
Allan Bevere has preempted by writing about something I was intending to discuss and doing it better. He does this by discussing current protests and reactions to them in his post Town Hall Meetings Protests and Tone-Deaf Politicians. I have been repeatedly amazed by the extent to which both sides of many debates are completely…
I want to focus on just one line of text. In 1 Kings 3:5, God tells Solomon to ask God what God should give Solomon. It’s a simple enough question. Most of us remember the answer. Solomon wants wisdom. God decides to give him wisdom and lots of riches as well. As I reflect on…
I’m pretty fond of moderation, even calling myself a passionate moderate, but in that very phrase, you might get the idea that I’m even moderate about being moderate. My moderation is not centrist, in the sense of trying to find middle ground on each issue. Rather, I believe in trying to examine all the options…
Ephesians is such a great epistle, but I want to just mention one verse: So then put aside what is false and let each one speak the truth to his neighbor, because we are members of one another. — Ephesians 4:25 The polite lie is a common means of keeping tempers cool. We do it…