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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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Link: Expansion of the Universe
How Did The Universe Expand To 46 Billion Light-Years In Just 13.8 Billion Years? This relates to one of my favorite statements: Everything is a matter of perspective. Not to mention the apostle Paul’s statement: “If anyone thinks he knows something, he doesn’t know it as he ought to” (1 Corinthians 8:2).
A Different View on Hezekiah
I will now do on my blog what I did last night for my Tuesday night group. Contradict my previous post. Here’s the idea in a Monty Python sketch: What I did was quote a scholar whom I respect, and in fact who has been my companion through much of my study of the book…
Hezekiah’s Horrible Prayer
We’ll be continuing our discussion of Isaiah 36-39 tonight in my Tuesday night group, hopefully finishing that section. Last week, we looked at Hezekiah’s prayer for healing. For those who may not remember, it’s a short one: “Remember now, O LORD, I implore you, how I have walked before you in faithfulness with a whole…
Respect, Disrespect, and Conscience
I have seen a number of posts suggesting that those who won’t recite or stand for the pledge of allegiance are disrespectful, or perhaps just badly behaved. Good people, by implication, will say these words and join in the group. My view of this is formed by my upbringing. I am a United States Air…
Sin and the Church as Community
In what he confesses is a long post, but is still shorter than my normal post, Dave Black discusses how to translate the Greek word ekklesia, both in terms of an English word (he chooses “community”), and in practice. I’ve been discussing this in connection with the question of dealing with sin in the church….
But Did God Approve of That?
Last night in my Tuesday night group we were discussing the story of Hezekiah in Isaiah 36 & 37, in which King Sennacherib of Assyria attacks Judah, and things get pretty dire. Following a sneering message from the Assyrian king, Hezekiah, at the beginning of chapter 37, tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth, and goes…
Spiritual and Physical Decluttering?
I wonder if there’s something ironic, or perhaps just odd, about working on the interior layout of a book on Spiritual Decluttering while this is behind me? Actually, there’s less clutter than there used to be. I’m turning storage space into usable office space, and I’m about half done.
Philippians 2:1-11, Romans 12, and the Nature of Christian Community
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…
Is There Ever a Good Reason to Leave Your Church?
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 God That’s Cool
In the introduction to his book What’s God Really Like? S. J. Hill tells the story of a student who announced at the end of a term in a class he taught, that she had discovered that God was cool. I don’t know how you react to that, but the moment I read that line…
The Danger in Appealing to the Miraculous
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…
Is Your Worship a Joy
As I’ve been setting up a series of posts on thinking about God, I’ve discussed a little bit what our theology can do, and what it cannot. For example, in a video yesterday, I talked about how our theological knowledge cannot save us. Yet at the same time it can mess us up. I was…
Symbols, Actions, and Idolatry
I encountered a question recently that I’d like to explore a bit. The question comes in three parts, or perhaps with three perspectives. When God commanded the Israelites to look to the bronze serpent to be healed, was God commanding idolatry? Why would God give this command? Was this a good command? It’s easy to…
Knowing About God or Knowing God
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…
What Do I Do About Grace?
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…
Substitutionary Atonement: One of Many Perspectives
I have often annoyed people by saying both that I believe in substitutionary atonement, though I prefer not to use “penal substitutionary atonement,” and also do not believe it is the sole reason for, view of, or metaphor to describe what God did in the atonement. So it’s nice to link to Roger Olson, who…
Freedom and Responsibility
I posted an extract from Dave Black’s blog on The Jesus Paradigm today. (I do this because you can’t link to a specific post on Dave’s blog, and I have his permission.) Dave is talking about Galatians 5:13-15, and what freedom means. Rather than commenting on this passage myself, I want to put a quote…
Of Christians and Ayn Rand
There have been a number of articles recently discussing Ayn Rand and her Christian supporters and (supposed) followers. One of these is by Sheila Kennedy, who doesn’t do all that bad, though I still see things differently. Key Questions which I Might not Answer The key issues I encounter are: How can a Christian enjoy…
A Challenge to See
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…
Link: Linguistics and Gospel Origins
Dave Black had some interesting notes on this subject today, which I posted to The Jesus Paradigm. There is a constant debate on what is “correct” usage. We have this with regard to modern usage. I’ll have authors cite some manual against their editor, usually on optional items. So why do we expect all usage…
Link: Timeline of the Far Future
Via FiveThirtyEight.com’s Significant Digits, which I read religiously and daily, I discovered the Timeline of the Far Future on Wikipedia. I am particularly concerned that in 600 million years C3 photosynthesis will become impossible.
Link: Geneaology Mixup in Luke Manuscript
This from CSNTM will give you some insight into the study of manuscripts: From the Library: Luke’s Genealogy in NT Manuscripts.