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Sorrow Like My Sorrow – Lamentations 1:12
Can we really understand the suffering of another person or they ours?
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What Is Biblical Literacy?
We complain about it, write about it, claim it’s important or even critical, design programs to create it, but what is it? I don’t mean that none of us know what we mean when we say “biblically literate” or “biblically illiterate,” but do we all mean the same thing? I don’t think we do, and…
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Fences: Mending or Rending
The following is a sermon I presented at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Pensacola on September 11,2005 and originally posted here on September 13, 2005. I’m reposting it because when I went to look for it, I found that the original post had somehow been truncated, and also because there is a one word at a…
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Experiencing the (Baptism of the) Holy Spirit
This is a topic where I tend to make just about everyone uncomfortable. Long time readers may recall a previous discussion of speaking in tongues, and my own experience of it. Those who expect me to be intellectually oriented and rational are uncomfortable with mystical experiences, and many who are comfortable with the mystical experiences…
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18th Sunday After Pentecost, 2003
18th Sunday after Pentecost The following are the suggested passages: Proverbs 31:10-31 and Psalm 1 or Wisdom of Solomon 1:16-2:1, 12-22 Or Jeremiah 11:18-20 and Psalm 54 James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a Mark 9:30-37
17th Sunday After Pentecost, 2003
September 14, 2003 17th Sunday after Pentecost The following are the suggested passages: Proverbs 1:20-33 and Psalm 19 or Wisdom of Solomon 7:26-8:1 Or Isaiah 50:4-9a and Psalm 116:1-9 James 3:1-12 Mark 8:27-38 Proverbs 1:20-33 This hymn to Wisdom personified is both beautiful and very important to the balance of the church. …
Easter Evening, 2005
Easter Evening, Year A March 27, 2005 I didn’t manage to restart these notes before Lent as I had planned and stated on the web page, but they are restarted now. I am no longer including my working translation so I can focus more on the interpretive process. Where I have worked such translations over…
On Being Christian and Killing People
I was reminded this morning that it was Veteran’s Day, not that I had forgotten, because I got an early note of thanks from my wife, who regularly thanks me for me military service, defending, as she always notes, her freedom. At the same time, I will either read or hear from some Christian friends…
Notes, Style, and References
Purpose: These notes are intended as helps for preachers and Sunday School teachers who wish to work from the Revised Common Lectionary. Though this initial entry is only one week ahead, my aim is to publish them two to three weeks ahead of the date for their use. This is not intended to function as…
Continuing to Revive my Lectionary Notes
A year ago I began to revive this section by using an RSS feed from my various blogs. While that approach has improved my ability to communicate my lectionary study, it didn’t really solve all the problems. Though I call this the Energion.com lectionary page, the writing on the lectionary is entirely my own. The…
Education and Forced Labor or Public Service
Mark has issued a kind of challenge in his things heard post today on Stones Cry Out, regarding the Obama administration’s intent to require public service in high school and college and improve it everywhere else. He points to this post by D. A. Ridgeley at Positive Liberty which quotes Change.gov as saying: The Obama…
Thomas Nelson Book Review Program
I saw this on the evangelical outpost, and went to check it out. When I saw they had the new Orthodox Study Bible, I was hooked. I’ve requested it for my first book and will plan to review it here when I receive it. You can find out more about the program at brb.thomasnelson.com.
Re: Palin – I thought it Might be This
Read some of the comments from other, not anonymous McCain staffers here.
What Have They Done with Jesus – Roundup
I have delayed the final post in my notes on Ben Witherington’s book What Have They Done with Jesus? for quite some time. In the meantime I have read Backham’s book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses [my review]. Bauckham provides a much more coherent account of the principles that it appears Witherington is using, partially because…
Perspective – Talking As If
And Joshua said, “By this you will know that the living God is among you, and that he will certainly drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites.” — Joshua 3:10 The king and his men went to Jerusalem, against the Jebusites who…
Scientific Study of the Supernatural
In a post a few weeks ago I commented that science could not study the supernatural. Regular commenter Lifewish, who blogs at Metasyntactic, brought up the expected and proper question in a comment: Please insert the usual question here about why precisely it is that supernatural effects wouldnt be subject to science. Are we using…
Chief of Staff Position is not Bipartisan
Those who are complaining about the appointment of Rahm Emanuel as President-Elect Obama’s chief of staff should chill out. I can’t think of any expression but “abysmally stupid” for the idea that this would be a bipartisan position. It’s a position for a loyalist with an arsenal.
Dr. James White Declares me (among others) Evil
No, he presumably doesn’t know who I am, and didn’t mention me by name. But I voted for Barack Obama on Tuesday, and I also voted against Florida’s amendment banning gay marriage. I am a Christian, a Bible teacher who normally spends hours daily studying the scriptures. I found this video by Dr. James White…
Patience for the Nuts and Bolts
Last night I attended a Bible study in which my pastor was teaching on Romans 1:22-32. If that verse selection doesn’t fully make sense to you, consider that he was simply following up from the point at which he stopped the prior week. My pastor is Dr. Wesley Wachob, an accomplished exegete. One of the…
Christian Carnival #249 – Deep Breath Edition
The U. S. election is over and we have a new president-elect. No matter how happy, indifferent, or distressed you are about the result or not, take a deep breath and remember just who is in charge of all this. I am thus taking my theme from Daniel 4. I’m taking the posts in order…
Reflection after the Election
Since I had decided long ago what my vote would be, and the man I thought the better (though not nearly perfect) candidate won, it was enjoyable for me to watch. I really don’t want to dwell on the details. The greatest problem for President-Elect Barack Obama may not be any of the crises with…
Expect Christian Carnival #249
. . . sometime this afternoon. Thanks for the submissions!
Reflection before the Election
I have been fascinated by politics for as long as I can remember. The first presidential campaign I recall thinking and talking about was in 1968 when I was 11 years old, though I had certainly read and talked about many. There was never any doubt that I would register to vote as soon as…
Christian Carnival 249 Coming UP
. . . right here!
Biblical Studies Carnival XXXV Posted
. . . at Abnormal Interests. Besides the fact that I have a post from my Threads blog listed, there are a couple of major sections that are particularly worth taking a look. First, there are numerous posts relating to recent discoveries relating to the history of Israel. Duane did a great job of showing…
Stupid Scam E-Mail
I often read a few lines of these scam e-mails just because they are so poorly written. Today I got a new one purporting to be from one “Sgt. David Brown” a “U. S. Marine Capt.” in Iraq. The stupid scammers should spend more time on research.
In Which God do we Trust?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I’m never one to shrink from producing a thousand words–or ten! I wonder what a video is worth? A certain number of words per frame? In any case, I wrote earlier about God being mocked in the campaign and I even commented on how “In…
The Advantages of Stoning False Prophets
Yesterday I was listening to the radio in my car and heard a woman caller inform the host that God had told her who to vote for in the election. She hadn’t been sure, and she had been inclined differently herself, but the good Lord told her to vote for Obama, and she trusted God…