Last night in our Tuesday night group we discussed signs and guidance. How does one get and follow the right guidance from God? We were reading the Matthew 2:1-12, and following my gospel parallels, I suggested a parallel reading of Luke 2:8-20, which we did. You have various signs, a report of scriptural interpretation, dreams,…
Pete Enns writes about what he believes is the most frightening verse in the Bible. His post is well worth reading. His verse should be frightening. He cites 1 John 4:7-8: Loved ones, let’s love one another, for love is from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God. The one…
Tacky title, eh? I don’t apologize. I had fun constructing it. The other day someone asked me whether there were any scriptures I liked to go to when I was having problems. I gave the answer immediately and then explained, but I’m going to do the opposite here. I’m going to explain and then tell…
That’s a fairly ambitious title I gave myself, but the content is a bit less ambitious. When I found that I’d be teaching from Philippians 2 in Sunday School, I commented that if someone couldn’t teach a class from Philippians 2:5-11, they should just give up teaching. That’s probably a bit harsh, but the passage…
I was reading this article on the reasons people leave, titled 5 Rather Startling Reasons People Leave Your Church, and while it is by no means the worst offender, it reminded me of an interesting characteristic of church growth/health books and articles. The problem is this: We, as leaders in the church, tend to assume…
A friend’s post on Facebook got me thinking about this verse: I said to them, “If anyone has items made of gold, bring them. And they gave them to me, and I threw them in the fire, and out came this calf.” (Exodus 32:24, my translation from the LXX) I can’t help but think that…
In the dim reaches of time (no, no dinosaurs, not that long ago) I was attending college, and right during registration for my second year, I heard the call of God to study biblical languages. The call is another story, but whether it was God or not, the idea of studying the languages fit with…
This question has come up a number of times in my Romans study group, and it’s a good one. I’m not one to call all questions good. In fact, I think if you ask the wrong question, you often end up with an answer that leads you astray. In this case, however, we’ve gone from…
This past Sunday I was invited to preach in my home church, Chumuckla Community Church. It’s a real privilege to speak on the last Sunday of the year, hopefully rounding up where we have been and presenting a challenge for the future. I was offered the epiphany scriptures, and used Matthew 2:1-12. I’m not going…
There are a few terms that are quite true and yet misleading in many actual uses. I like to cite “Christians aren’t perfect; just forgiven.” Precisely true, but in common use very likely an excuse for ordinary bad behavior. Whatever the intent, it ends up sounding like, “I’m a Christian, so I can do whatever…
