Featured Posts
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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…
Social Notes (see all)
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Please Vote in the Midterm Elections
This is written to my American readers. Please go out and vote int he midterm elections tomorrow. I say this irrespective of your political views. There are a number of groups who are more likely to vote in presidential elections and then ignore the “less important” midterm and local elections. But that is not the…
Separating Church from State
I believe in the separation from church and state. I’m not talking about the principle derived from the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, though I do accept that as well, but rather about a Christian principle. I believe that the more we depend on the power of Caesar to accomplish our goals, the…
Barriers to Hearing the Word
It turns out that I was off the track a bit in saying what we would discuss in Sunday School this morning. I think it’s one of the problems of teaching from a book I wrote. Everything is familiar and I can’t remember precisely what we’ve discussed and haven’t. I should perhaps take better notes,…
Replacing Israel and Using Titles
At church today our pastor (Dr. Wesley Wachob) made a couple of points I’d like to repeat here. They may sound disconnected, but they both derived from the scripture lesson, Matthew 23:1-12. The common theme was “remember” as he tied us as a congregation into the history of the people of God. This was tied into…
Recording: The Community through Time
Continuing on my comments on my Sunday School class discussion, I will be talking about tradition in the sense that it is part of scripture. Simply claiming that something is inspired by God doesn’t not make it authoritative scripture for the church as a whole. I may hear from God something that is just for…
Hearing the Word: Testing the Claim
I’ve had a rather intense week and haven’t done any blogging, so as I use the extra hour I got as we switched to standard time, I’m going to talk about Sunday School. Last week we discussed considerations of hearing. I’m going to include an extract below, with the subheading “Testing the Claim” from that…
Conversation on Social Justice
Tonight I’ll be hosting two Energion authors with strongly opposed viewpoints on the question: Is Social Justice a good thing? The questionf and answer app for Google Hangouts on Air will be enabled, so bring your questions. You can also tweet questions to @energion. Arguing against “social justice” as a useful concept will be Elgin…
Headed to Reimagine Brownsville
I’ll again be giving out books at a table at this important event. You can find out more about Reimagine at their web site. I’ll try to post some pictures through the day, but those who know me, know that taking pictures and remembering to post them is not one of my gifts!
Major on the Clear Stuff
I get disturbed when I see people around me disturbed by the latest Bible mystery, or obscure interpretation of prophecy. These things sell books, and bring in offerings, but I don’t think they produce better followers of Jesus. I don’t have a problem with discussing difficult or controversial passages, but the church has been living…
Link: Elgin Hushbeck on Hebrews
I’m posting this in the middle of the action, but Energion author Elgin Hushbeck, Jr. is blogging (and teaching) through Hebrews verse by verse. He’s in chapter 10, so follow it back to the beginning first if interested.
Unconscious Traditions Fight Change
I’ve said quite a few times that I think that the job description we have for a pastor in most churches is ungodly. It’s also inhuman. The pastor can’t do all of that, so many times they fail. Those who succeed do so through extraordinary talents, gifts, and dependence on the grace of God. But…
My Wife Writes about Suicide
My wife Jody has written a post on suicide which I think is worth passing on.
Seeking, Dialogue, and an Ecumenical Center
I’m an advocate of dialogue in everything, certainly including matters of faith. Sometimes, however, dialogue is confused with seeking. There’s nothing wrong with seeking, but it is not identical with dialogue, though they do overlap. Dialogue can and should occur between people who do have an idea what they believe. It’s hard to have an…
Prophecy and All Believers
We had an interesting discussion today in Sunday School. We were discussing the 3rd chapter of my book When People Speak for God, titled Messengers – God and Prophet. The questions at hand were just what is prophecy, who are God’s messengers (with a side-order of how can you tell) and how does getting a…
Happy 60th Birthday, Jody!
Today is my wife Jody’s 60th birthday. She’s 60 years young today. I know that’s a cliche, but in her case it’s also very true. At heart she is quite flexible. Attaining the big six oh has not cost her sense of humor, her flexibility, or her ability to relate to young people. I’ve always…
Some Notes and Links
Yesterday I ranted about the church. Dave Black pulled some of the better material out of it and commented, so I posted it to The Jesus Paradigm so we’d have a link. I also posted some notes on recent releases and some not-so-recent ones regarding the church on the Energion Publications news blog. I blogged…
Not Looking for the Perfect Church, but …
Via Allan Bevere I located this interview with Scot McKnight, in which McKnight makes a number of interesting statements. The one that caught my attention most was: … A proper kingdom theology leads people to the middle of the church, not away from it. So it makes a difference when church is on the decline…
Dating of P52
This article is fascinating, both because of subject and because of how it demonstrates how paleography functions (HT: Dave Black Online). I’m posting it here both for the interest and because I have cited P52 in discussing the dating of the Gospel of John with various classes. Just a few points: 1) In my own…
Tentmaking in Silicon
The title of this post is a mite more exciting than the contents. It’s a bit of personal reflection on my own life and business. It’s just over 10 years since I started Energion Publications. In fact, I was rather surprised, when I looked at the first book we released, to see that it has…
Remembering Dr. Leona Glidden Running
Dr. Leona Glidden Running, 1916 – 2014 (I’m not sure of copyright on a picture I’d like to use, so see it here.) When many people in theology and religion are asked about influences on their views, they’ll list major figures, such as Tillich or Barth. My tendency is to list people closer to home….
Discussion on Verbal Aspect
I exchanged a few e-mails today with Dave Black about Greek verbal aspect. He has quoted me on his blog, and I’ve extracted the material for the jesusparadigm.com site, so there’s a permanent link. What I said wouldn’t make a full discussion, so it’s best to read it there in the full context. My own…
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 – What Paul is Thankful For
I couldn’t end this run of posts on 1 Thessalonians 1 without commenting on the content of the passage: Paul’s prayer of thanks. (See posts on structure and translation survey.) I think it’s important to notice what Paul is thankful for. He is thankful first for the fact that they received the Word and that…
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 – Translations
My wife reminded me after her own study of 1 Thessalonians 1 today that those who don’t read Greek don’t necessarily see the same divisions or indicators of divisions. Translation does often involved changing the sentence structure and might require changing the division of paragraphs. I noticed that the commentary Dave referenced (see this post)…
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 Structure
Dave Black commented on the structure of this passage, and I’ve been trying to work with it a bit. I do a loose form of phrasing when I study, in which I break pieces of the passage in some detail at times and leave others less chopped, so to speak. This morning, my Sunday School…