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…
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Pundits Are Generally Wrong
I always thought so, but now it’s official. (HT: Allan R. Bevere.)
Loosening One’s Doctrine of Scripture (Resources)
I just completed a post on my Participatory Bible Study blog which includes a couple of pages from the book When People Speak for God. I’ve been connecting one’s understanding of inspiration and extended reading of the Bible for some time. In my view, we have tended to focus on inerrancy and simultaneously on the…
Reading the Bible Frequently and Thoroughly
I love it when someone famous says all the things I like to hear about Bible study. One thing I regularly say to Sunday School classes or to groups I’m invited to teach is that if they were looking for a five minute a day method, they invited the wrong person. It takes more than…
Shifting Theology
Click the image for a larger view Last week I was talking about doctrinal distinctives, and today Scot McKnight has a post very close to that topic. He’s more specific, talking about pastors who shift theology. I think he would have done better to illustrate this post with something other than pastors who have become…
On Doctrinal Distinctives
Dave Black links to an article regarding the recent statement on the traditional Southern Baptist understanding of the doctrine of salvation. Craig Benno comments further. You may well wonder what a United Methodist is doing commenting on this particular issue. Is it any of my concern whether Southern Baptists accept Calvinism or not, or which…
Glorious Stories
… or “My Wife Reposts Me.” Every so often I write a devotional for my wife’s devotional list. She’s been faithfully writing a devotion each weekday (with a very few short breaks) for around 10 years now. You can find here at Jody’s Devotionals. She’s a master of the short devotional form, while I’m not,…
Link: Great 4th of July Story
As the son of naturalized American citizens, I really appreciated this story from a guest blogger on The Agitator. My own citizenship is derived, as I was a minor when my parents were naturalized, but I distinctly remember going with my parents to the ceremony in Atlanta, GA where they took the oath and became…
Jury Nullification in New Hampshire
Since I will always favor justice over strict adherence to the letter of the law (and I believe the two frequently collide), I’ve always kept an eye on stories about jury nullification. Nullification is a fact of life, though not all that frequently is it done openly and explicitly. There is rather little that a…
Discovering What Young Adults Want
I hear (and participate in) many discussions about what young adults want from the church, usually in the context of asking why the youth and young adults don’t attend church services or the events we put on for them. I’ve arrived at an age where waitresses at restaurants ask me if I want my senior…
Trusting God less than the Government
Or I could say, I think we trust the Gospel (God’s plan), less than we trust the government. Yesterday I posted something from Dave Black to Energion.net (with permission), and e-mailed several of my friends (and Energion authors) to see if they might have a comment on it. As I’ve been thinking about the post,…
Christianity Today on Short Term Mission Trips
Christianity Today has a good article giving multiple views on short-term mission trips, specifically those that are travel-intensive. I like getting the multiple views. As someone who has participated in and even led mission trips that were “travel-intensive,” I would suggest that leaders and organizers should give serious attention to these evaluations. Don’t take just…
Quote of the Day: God’s Word and Our Words
I’m working on editing Creation: the Christian Doctrine by Edward W. H. Vick. It’s quite an enjoyable task. I regularly learn new things while reading Dr. Vick’s work. In this case he’s talking about knowledge of God. He has already contrasted this with knowledge of the natural universe. We, as finite creatures, cannot by normal…
Free Book from My Company
Giving away one free copy of God’s Desire for the Nations: The Missionary Theology of John Piper (Energion Publications).
Witnessing and Friendship (Again)
Some time back I wrote a post titled Witness without Being a Pest. There are a number of things that make Christians pests when they witness, but I think the most important is when we think witnessing is a separate activity that we “do” as opposed to something that happens when we live. If you…
Not Following the Herd
Really? It’s hard not to resemble this cartoon from The Naked Pastor: (HT: Exploring Our Matrix)
Have You Ever Crossed the Street?
No, I don’t mean this in the very literal sense, but either in the spiritual sense or in terms of affiliation. One of the defining experiences of my life involves crossing the street in this sense. I grew up as a Seventh-day Adventist. That involves quite a number of things, including keeping the Sabbath (Saturday)…
Free Copies of The Jesus Paradigm
My company Energion Publications is offering five free copies of The Jesus Paradigm by David Alan Black. All you have to do is comment on the post and you’re on the list from which five recipients will be selected.
What Makes a Doctrine (of Creation) Christian?
I put “of creation” in parentheses, because the question might be answered in similar ways for other doctrines. What follows is a short quote from a book, Creation: The Christian Doctrine by Edward W. H. Vick, my company is about to release. I’m doing a number of “final” things on it right now. This caught…
About Not Blogging
I’ve been even more irregular than usual in my blogging over the last couple of months. My excuse is that my company, Energion Publications, has been going through a transition which has kept me incredibly busy. The transition is a good one. We were in a position to improve some of our equipment and tools…
Book Review: She’s Got Issues by Nicole Unice
Note: You may be asking why a guy is reviewing this book. The reason is that I’m not. This post is a guest post from my wife Jody, who decided to review this book after seeing on the list from Tyndale Blog Network. I am crossposting it her from her Jody Along the Path blog…
In Which I Discover that I Am Not a Thinking Person
I just made this discovery this morning. I mentioned Jerry Coyne’s site in an earlier post Five Sites I read Because I Disagree, and I still read it. I get some good information about evolutionary science and great cat pictures and videos. But Jerry Coyne is not particularly friendly to believers. Now I want to…
Asked to Move in Church?
I’m one of those people who tend to sit in or near the same place every week. In fact, in one church I attended, when I consciously decided to move, someone jokingly told me that I shouldn’t have moved, because they used to find their pew by seeing where I sat, and then sitting a…
March Biblical Studies Carnival Posted
… at Zwinglius Redivivus.
A New Testament Political Theology
Dave Black has some very useful comments on political activism, responding to a video by N. T. Wright, which I’ll embed here: I appreciate this video for several items, but I even more appreciated Dave Black’s comments. I personally am politically active. I always vote. I often advocate for various causes or candidates, and…