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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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New Greek New Testament
I haven’t used it, but it’s getting good reviews, including for an easily read font and quality paper. I’ve put a 25% discount on it in my aer.io store. Learn More
Overspiritualized Decision Making
The question came to me after I had been talking about intercessory prayer and hearing God’s voice, but it came as a surprise. “What should I do about sharing knowledge I get from God about other people? Can I tell other people so that we can pray more specifically?” I had not been talking about…
The Danger of Making Things Tougher
I don’t spend a great deal of time talking about it, but following my MA in Biblical and cognate languages, I took one quarter in a MA in Theoretical Linguistics program. I had a full ride fellowship with a stipend, but after one quarter I resigned the fellowship and headed for more interesting places and…
Generations!
My theme text for ministry is Psalm 78:1-8, particularly verses 5 & 6 which talk about passing the message down through generations. Some see this as a simple passing on of the data of faith, but the passage is talking about relating the experience of the community with God from generation to generation. In other…
Link: Interview with Brent A Strawn
This interview is excellent, though in some ways frightening, and in all ways challenging.
Authorship of (Pauline) Epistles
Evangelical Textual Criticism has a post with the following graphic: While I imagine there might be minor variations in a survey of American scholars, I think the results would be similar. It’s always fun to see the numbers on Hebrews, since I would describe myself as uncertain (with the nine and not the 100), but…
Just a Closer Walk
I love both of these performances. Some music to get the brain cells moving along!
Signs and Guidance
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,…
What Is the Most Frightening Verse?
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…
Measuring the Wrong Thing in the Wrong Way
A few years ago I heard a story about a Methodist District Superintendent who was visiting a church in his district. The church was conducting an afternoon training event. At the height of this event, the superintendent asks the pastor of the church how many people he thought were in attendance. The pastor looked around…
Accuracy of Predictions
There’s very little checking done of the accuracy of the prediction of pundits, which is a major reason I avoid even hearing what they have to say. One exception to this rule is Nate Silver and his crew at FiveThirtyEight.com. They’ve just published an analysis of as many of their predictions as possible. It’s worth…
Discerning Manifestations: A Quick Transitional Note
In a previous post I discussed how I see the question of whether a doctrine or behavior is Christ-centered and whether it acknowledges Jesus as Lord can determine whether such action is right or wrong for the Christian. I also noted that I suspected my answer was going to be unsatisfying to many. The reason…
Review: Kayla May and Kerry Sandell present Collected Stories
I took the opportunity to see this play last Saturday night (March 30, 2019) as part of the SWAN (Support Women Artists Now) program coordinated by PenArts. At first I didn’t intend a review, because I don’t have much business reviewing plays. My only experience was in high school. I don’t even watch movies or…
New Book on the Trinity
This is by Chris Eyre, chief editor since this past summer of Energion Publications. It’s in our Topical Line Drives series. Buy (Featured Image by Philip Barrington from Pixabay)
Starting Leviticus
I mentioned in my post about completing the study of Romans that our next book was Leviticus. This was by choice of the group, but it is surely driven somewhat by the number of references I have made to Leviticus. While I experienced Leviticus as a child, going to a Christian school where we read—really…
What Does It Mean to Call Jesus Lord
A commentator noted that I was not all that helpful in my post yesterday, since I hadn’t made any effort to say just what it would mean to have Jesus as the center of a doctrine, nor what it means to call Jesus Lord. In response, I obviously had to create a new, more ambitious…
Finished Romans Class
Earlier this evening I finished my Wednesday night class on the book of Romans. For the study of Romans 16, I used a sermon by Dr. Fred Craddock off of YouTube. Here it is: I have never found anything that is quite like this as a presentation on Romans 16. Dr. Fred Craddock was indeed…
Evaluating Doctrines regarding the Holy Spirit (Pneumatology)
I have encountered a few questions lately regarding the work of the Holy Spirit, particularly the manifestation(s) and gifts of the Holy Spirit as they may be observed in a church setting. There is always a problem with evaluating theology based on the visible actions of God, because this gets confused with identifying God’s actions….
Pious People Popping Platitude Pills
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…
A Grasshopper on the Circle of the Earth
Isaiah 40:22 speaks of God sitting on the circle of the earth and the inhabitants are as grasshoppers. There is an interesting twist on idolatry that I think happens very frequently, and it makes a problem for people in understanding and accepting the doctrine that we, as humans, cannot do good of ourselves. Normally we…
Of Isaiah 40 and Grasshoppers
Last night in our Tuesday night group we discussed this rather interesting chapter, one that I believe expresses the basics of the gospel message well. Now I don’t mean by this that it mentions the name of Jesus or even directly predicts anything about his ministry. There is some material here that is used of…
A Morbid and Boring Christianity
The quote above comes from chapter 1 of S. J. Hill’s book, What’s God Really Like?, and I’d like to spend some time with this, looking at it from different angles. The first angle is one of worship. I was in a church committee meeting some years back where a room full of people were…
Making Theology Accessible
One of my concerns as a publisher is making the material accessible to everyone who is interested. This means learning to communicate ideas about our faith and about God clearly and effectively. I am certainly not a master of this goal, but I believe it’s always worth pursuing. One person who has mastered it, I…
On Violence in the Bible
Allan Bevere reviews L. Daniel Hawk’s new book The Violence of the Biblical God. Learn More I cannot resist calling attention to a much earlier book by my undergraduate advisor and mentor Alden Thompson, which it happens I publish! It’s Who’s Afraid of the Old Testament God?. Learn More