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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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Suicide Recovery at Church
This video is my interview with Dr. Veronica Sites, author of the newly released book Love Me to Life: Suicide Recovery at Church. I was particularly pleased both to publish this book and to do this interview because suicide is often ignored or swept under the rug in the church. This results in harm to…
Inerrancy and Understanding
I’ve just added Understanding the Bible – With and Without Inerrancy to the Energion Publications YouTube channel. I am the interviewer for this video, and am talking with two very good friends, Alden Thompson, who was my undergraduate advisor, and Elgin Hushbeck, Jr., a friend since the mid-1990s when we met on the old CompuServer…
The Healing Hands of Jesus
My brother, Dr. Robert Neufeld, preserved a recording of our father preaching, something he did not do all that often. Dr. Raymond D. Neufeld spent his life in service as a doctor. He didn’t talk about it a great deal. He just kept doing what he believed was right. In this recording, the final 2…
The Importance of Being Questioned
When I’m having a discussion of something about which I have some expertise, say biblical languages, it’s quite easy to get impressed with myself. After all, unlike the “average person” (actually, I don’t believe in average people, hence, the quotes, but that’s another subject*), If I am in doubt of a translation in scripture, or…
A Vaccination Test
… symptomatic Covid-19 cases fell 80 percent, hospitalizations declined 86 percent and deaths plunged 95 percent. Statista Get vaccinated. You will find more infographics at Statista
Disinformation on Facebook
The chart below is produced by Statista, and gives a visual of where disinformation originates on Facebook. It is built on Facebook data. You can read more about it here. It is worth noting where these attacks come from, with Iran just a little bit behind Russia. You will find more infographics at Statista
Technical Discussion via Zoom for Amateur Radio Operators
My brother, Robert Neufeld, amateur radio operator N3AU, who also has pretty much every commercial radio license and is a lifetime electronics hobbyist, is going to host a zoom technical discussion each Thursday night at 8 pm eastern time. He plans to have it run around an hour +/- depending on what questions people have….
Link: Our Radicalized Republic
It’s definitely worth reading Our Radicalized Republic from FiveThirtyEight.com. Lots of data to consider even if you disagree with some of the analysis.
Who Was Paul? – Interview with Timothy Dwyer
For those eagerly waiting for me to continue my perspectives on Paul (and everyone else!), here’s my latest “Who Was Paul?” interview, this time with Dr. Timothy Dwyer, author of the book The Gospel in Colossians. The guy with the stupid smile is me. Dr. Dwyer looks much more sane!
Love Is All You Need
Starting on Martin Luther King’s birthday, we have seen a number of quotes advocating love. I intended to post something that day, but as I frequently do I got diverted. I wrote something about this long ago. It’s unfortunate that love has become a sort of cliche for a benevolent feeling combined with inaction. We…
And Yet Another Week
I’m delaying the restart of my studies on Paul for another week. This week was not conducive to getting ready. I will be starting by applying the study of the law that I presented before thanksgiving to Galatians 2 & 3, particularly chapter 3. How should we understand law as we read these chapters. I…
No Study Tonight (01-14-21)
There will be no study tonight. I will resume on 01/21/21 instead. I will be posting a new interview in the “Who Was Paul?” series tomorrow and will link it here.
As Everyone Trades Scripts – Again
Immediately after the last election I wrote this. Please read it before you read this. I want to reiterate it today. I have meant it sincerely following every election in which I have been a voter, and I registered to vote at the first opportunity. Speaking with respect is not agreement. It is a way…
I’m Taking a COVID-19 Vaccine
I will get the COVID-19 vaccination when it becomes available to me. I could, of course, be wrong. But experience and mountains of data suggest that the best option is to follow the consensus opinion of those with the appropriate expertise.
The Value of Fact-Checkers
In their aim to express their anger at many things, sometimes even justified anger, people often rail at the MSM fact-checkers. Just using the MSM tag is an epithet indicating a lack of trust. On social media, especially Facebook, this anger goes against the efforts the company is making to correct false information. As an…
My Hippopotamus for Christmas
Several years ago our friend, Erin McClellan, found out that I like the song, “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.” Don’t push on the reasons. I just like it. Since Erin has a well-developed sense of humor, she gave me a plastic hippo that Christmas. I was delighted. Jody and I are generally light on…
Numbers Need Context Too
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” — Mark Twain But I can paraphrase what supporters of gun rights say: Numbers don’t lie. People lie. People use numbers to lie. Sometimes it’s unconscious. I can say, “Most people believe X.” But that word “most” is imprecise, and sounds like I may…
Perspectives on Paul 11-18-20
I wrote a short story as a lead-in to this study and posted it on The Jevlir Caravansary. It is titled About the Jump in Safety Violations. It illustrates what I’m trying to say about the law in this discussion. Video PowerPoint This is an embedded Microsoft Office presentation, powered by Office. PDF (4 Pages)
Let Us Worship Other Gods
In my book When People Speak for God, I discuss testing messages that people claim are from God. There is a passage in Deuteronomy 18:21-22 that is commonly used in connection with this. In that passage the message is tested by whether the word from God comes to pass. There are some interesting questions this…
Perspectives on Paul 10-28-30
I recorded this on 10-21-30 because of the approach of Hurricane Zeta on the evening of the 28th. Video PowerPoint This is an embedded Microsoft Office presentation, powered by Office. PDF
Perspectives on Paul for 10-21-20
I’m a bit behind posting these, but here are the files from the last Perspectives video. Note we will be continuing the discussion this coming week, as I only completed about half of what I had planned. The key theme text will be Jeremiah 31:31-34. Remember that a good deal of the material I’m covering…
The NIV Study Bible (Fully Revised Edition
(I’m writing as a #BibleGatewayPartner and a member of the #BGBloggerGrid. See note at the end of this post.) When a book that I generally like undergoes a revision, I approach it with a bit of trepidation. Is it going to match the older edition? Will it be better? Or maybe it will lose all…
Perspectives on Paul for 10-14-20
PowerPoint This is an embedded Microsoft Office presentation, powered by Office. PDF Video
Fear and …
Perfect love, we know, casteth out fear [1 John 4:18]. But so do several other things — ignorance, alcohol, passion, presumption, and stupidity. C. S. Lewis, “The World’s Last Night” Lewis took this in another direction, but I like the words to point out that, in certain circumstances fear can be a very good thing,…