Featured Posts
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Worthless – Lamentations 1:15
When life’s challenges march against you rank on rank, pretending everything is fine won’t save you. Whether you’re facing spiritual warfare or just the exhaustion of daily life, where do you turn when panic sets in? Discover the power of trading denial for true, unshakable peace.
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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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Unseemly Glee at the Unknown
What is it that makes Christians frequently rejoice when told that something is unknown? I received an e-mail today from Breaking Christian News, which discusses odd coincidences or perhaps weird happenings amongst organ transplant recipients. Now bluntly I don’t see that there is enough here to get excited about. I think the writers grossly underestimate…
Historicity of Genesis 1-11
I think those of us who are not all that conservative, as in moderates and liberals, do everyone a disservice with the admonition, “Don’t take it so literally.” Unless, of course, we break down “not literally” a bit further. The word “literal” has gotten muddied in the public understanding, and is often taken to mean…
MyBibleVersion.com: User Configurable Still Coming
I was actually planning to work on it starting in about an hour, but I just got a service call that’s likely to take a couple of hours. I am really still planning to do this, so be patient!
If You Want to Pray, then Pray!
I worked with a pastor a few years ago who was frequently called up to counsel and pray with other pastors and church leaders. I won’t go into the reasons. In general, he was a bit impatient with talking about the problems, and just wanted to get praying. Normally he’d get a couple of the…
Handing School Administration to the Courts
In a previous post I mentioned that the proposed Academic Chaos Bill here in Florida was cowardly in that it created a very confused situation which others would have to navigate. The Florida house analysis of the bill says much the same thing: Finally, if a principal, the district school superintendent, or the school board…
More on the Original Text
I’m not going to link to every post in Tim’s series, but he has just posted his first substantive one, and I’d like to note a couple of things and then quote part of one paragraph. If you read his first post you will know that Tim is planning to make an argument for the…
Defending the Originals
Keep an eye on if i were a bell, i’d ring for more on this. He just attended a conference and has those intellectual juices flowing.
Notes on Scot McKnight – Teaching the Bible to Emerging Generations
Gavin has his rather useful sounding notes here. There are many aspects of postmodernism, especially as it looks when it gets to where I live, but there’s also a great deal of good in it. This is some of the good.
Threads Comment Policy
I was going to update it to emphasize comment moderation, but I see I already did that. The key point to note here is that I use comment moderation with as careful of filtering as I can. Inevitably it catches legitimate comments and puts them in the moderation queue. Since I work in front of…
XVIVO Claims Copyright Violation in Expelled!
As has been previously reported by a number of bloggers, XVIVO believes that Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed has infringed on their copyright by using portions of their video The Inner Life of a Cell. In a letter demanding that this material be removed prior to the movie’s release, and threatening legal action if it is…
Science Panel in Tallahassee
And a stellar one it is. This discussion is sponsored by Florida Citizens for Science. You can find details here.
New Poll: Who Does God Hate?
With the number of posts on this topic, I’d like to get an idea of how readers of this blog think or feel about God and hate. You’ll find the poll in the right sidebar. Please feel free to comment either here or on the poll page itself. I suspect this one needs a comment…
Bible Reading Poll
I think it’s about time to change polls, so here are the results of the last one: What is your most common reason for reading the Bible (i.e. the one that causes you to spend the most time reading)? Selection Percentage Votes Devotional 23% 8 Guidance for a specific personal situation 6% 2 Ethical guidance…
Three Reasons Florida’s Academic Chaos Bill is Bad
Of course, I refer to the misnamed Academic Freedom Bill. Yesterday I blogged rather angrily about this bill advancing. Why is it that this bill makes me angry and caused me to call certain legislators liars? I want to be brief, for once in my life. The bill is deceptive.The entire opposition to the Florida…
The More in Space the Merrier
It’s good to see that South Korea has joined those nations who have sent someone into space, in this case the youngest woman to do so. Congratulations! The more the merrier!
Hillary Clinton Should not be Blamed for This
All my readers know by now that I prefer Barack Obama out of the available options. Now we receive the exciting news that Bill Clinton disagrees with her on free trade with Colombia. Huge surprise there, considering he pushed NAFTA through, though it’s mildly surprising that he isn’t trying to cover it all up. Personally…
Book Meme Driving me Insane
A few days ago Peter Kirk tagged me with a meme. I tend not to like memes, but I thought this one would be interesting, even if it required me to annoy a few friends! I must confess, however, that I can’t do it. I can’t name a single book. The whole scenario drives me…
Does God Hate Sinners?
Peter Kirk reviews some comments to see if John Piper believes this. It’s a worthwhile, link-rich post. Check it out.
Piper: Suffering is Judicial
This is via a summary by Adrian Warnock, but I doubt Adrian would get a whole section wrong. There are a large number of things in this message that are right on target, and a few also with which I disagree. But the reason I’m posting a brief response is this: As has become standard…
If You Miss Expelled . . .
… try this idea posted on The Panda’s Thumb. I’ve already declared that I won’t spend money on the film, but it’s a good idea anyhow.
Florida Academic Chaos Bill Advances
The badly misnamed Academic Freedom Bill has advanced through the judiciary committee of the Florida senate. You can find an account of the event on the Florida Citizens for Science blog, and some additional commentary by Pete Dunkelberg on The Panda’s Thumb. Pete notes quite correctly that teachers are not prevented from presenting any scientific…
Of Ossuaries and Toilets
When the James ossuary was found I initially commented that I thought it looked like a forgery. This was a rather bold statement on my part, probably excessively so. I’m not a paleographer, and I only had a newspaper photograph to work from. Nonetheless, there was enough that I could see that I seriously questioned…
Dynamic Range: Breaking Bread and the Eucharist
This post is based on Acts 2:42 and 46. In the NLT of Acts 2:42 the phrase breaking of bread, admittedly a bit less than meaningful in modern English, is translated as sharing in the Lord’s supper. The NRSV reads “breaking of bread” but a note in the New Interpreter’s Study Bible suggests “Lord’s Supper,”…
Unlumping the Various Creationists
. . . or not, as the case may be. Almost two years ago I wrote about my difficulties with the term theistic evolutionist. (I dealt with these definitions more recently here.) My problem was, and is, that the theory of evolution I accept is not different from that accepted by non-theistic evolutionists. The theory…