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Fire – Lamentations 1:13
Discussing the symbolism of fire in scripture, highlighting its dual nature as both a sign of divine acceptance and judgment. It reflects on personal suffering and God’s sovereignty, emphasizing that while God’s fire can refine and cleanse, it often accompanies lament and discomfort, aligning with the broader pursuit of righteousness.
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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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The Value (or not) of the Spiritual Warfare Metaphor
My daily lectionary readings for the day included both Ephesians 6:10-24 and Mark 5:1-20. (I get my readings from The Voice.) It’s an interesting combination, because the Ephesians passage is the famous one about the armor of God and thus features in just about any discussion of spiritual warfare, while the passage in Mark, regarding…
Is Civility Our Greatest Need?
In the wake of the shootings in Tucson, much of the conversation has been about civility. I was just watching CNN as Wolf Blitzer interviewed Sheriff Dupnik of Pima County, Arizona. The sheriff was asserting that the caustic atmosphere created by people making caustic political comments contributed to making Jared Loughner go out at shoot…
The Bible and Abortion
John Hobbins is off to a promising start discussing what the Bible says about abortion. I’ll be interested in seeing his take on Exodus 21:22-25, and may post some thoughts of my own when the time comes.
Seeking Sinless Perfection
Image via Wikipedia Because I have some online watches for names of Energion Publications authors, I found the post In Search of Sinless Perfection, which quotes Alden Thompson. This comes from a Seventh-day Adventist background, but I must mention that I have been surprised by how much from my own SDA background simply translates into…
A Test to Determine if One is a Christian
Image via Wikipedia I’m pretty annoyed to have judges trying to make a determination of whether one is a Christian based on their knowledge. That reflects a very poor understanding of Christianity that probably comes from someone who has grown up Christian and doesn’t really understand someone who is a recent convert. The story is…
John MacArthur Discovers the Greek Word DOULOS
T. C. Robinson posted the promotional video, in a post titled John MacArthur Charges Bible Translators with Conspiracy, which I’ll embed here for reference: One must make some allowance here for publisher hype, but nonetheless I find the promo a bit cringe-worthy. One of the commenters asks what MacArthur did before he discovered the meaning…
Best Pew Bible?
Ken Schenck answers the question of what translation he’d endorse as a pew Bible. I must say that I give him the “Henry Neufeld award” for hedging his answer. For those of you who haven’t met me in real life, I’m known for giving long answers that provide plenty of verbal provisos or footnotes. At…
View on Justification
Andy Johnson of Nazarene Seminary has a nice overview. (HT: Cross Talk and Chrisendom)
Critical Views of OT vs. NT
I’ve noticed in conversation with a number of pastors over the last few years that many tend to take a more conservative view with regard to authorship of the New Testament than they do of the old. This is, of course, strictly anecdotal, limited to my own experience. For example, someone may argue vehemently for…
Almost Thou Persuadest Me
RJS at Jesus Creed has a post titled simply “belief” after the book by the same name edited by Dr. Francis Collins. In discussing the relationship between faith and reason, or perhaps faith and science, he poses the following questions: If someone approached you in a coffee shop and asked you what argument for faith…
More on Spiritual Fitness for Soldiers
I wrote earlier on this topic. Here’s another letter on the topic. I will only add that in my view there is simply no excuse for a Christian chaplain using the power of Caesar to attempt to get converts. I am strongly opposed to force and manipulation. This isn’t the gospel message and it misrepresents…
What Makes a Person Great?
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great man. Said today, that is a rather unremarkable statement. Back in 1968, when Martin Luther King was assassinated, it would have sparked intense, even violent, debate. To some he was a troublemaker. To others, evil. To yet others, he was a danger to society. And to certain parts…
Bob Cornwall Reviews Commentary on Mark
… at Christian Century. Of all the book reviews available, I think commentary reviews are the most valuable.
What is Cutting Edge?
The description of the ICON service at my home church, First United Methodist Church in Pensacola, FL, states that the service is: Cutting Edge Tradition Rich Art Embracing Christ Centered This worship service just celebrated its second anniversary, and I was happy today to see that the sanctuary was largely filled. It has been both…
The Problem with 1 Corinthians 14 Worship
In Sunday School this morning we touched on 1 Corinthians 14 and worship. I again brought up the issue I see with the way that 1 Corinthians 14 is applied to modern worship. On the one hand are those who use it to prevent innovation. To them the key verse is 1 Corinthians 14:40, “Let…
On Evolutionary Christians
The Christian Post has an article on a series of teleconferences that are available via evolutionarychristianity.com. The post uses scare quotes to set off the word “evolutionary” and in some ways I find the title troubling, just as I do the term theistic evolution. While I believe acceptance of the theory of evolution will have…
The Worship Service is Worship Too
Some time ago I read a post by Arthur Sido on The Voice of One Crying Out in Suburbia titled What is Worship? and I’ve been intending to respond ever since. The problem is that the topic brings up so many different issues that it threatens to become an incredibly long blog post. Those of…
Organizing Small Groups
Will Rice, Discipleship Pastor at University United Methodist Church in San Antonio, is suggesting retiring the term “small group” because he thinks it is not well enough defined (HT: Dave Black Online). It is hard to know precisely what one is talking about when one says “small group.” He’s right–it is hard. He also has…
Converts to Orthodox Churches
… are increasing. I don’t find this all that hard to understand. I personally have been enjoying more reading of the eastern church fathers, and have found much good material in the theology and liturgy of the Orthodox churches. Chron – Houston and Texas News reports on some churches in that area which are largely…
Making Events Fit Your Agenda
While I would love to see more civil discourse, I still fail to see evidence that the shootings in Tucson are the result of excessively heated rhetoric. Here’s another good discussion of the way people are using the tragedy to advance a preconceived agenda.
New Edition of the New American Bible
You can read about it at Unsettled Christianity. While it never has been one of my top tier of translations for regular use, I was impressed with the NAB because it combined strong idiomatic language with a fairly strong score for literal translation on the scoring system I use at MyBibleVersion.com. In addition, I like…
It’s Broken!
A little bigger than the one we were playing with! Image via Wikipedia “I know what’s wrong with it,” said six year old Steven. From the eminence of 12 years old, I was showing Steven my electric trains, most of which I had salvaged from other sets and lovingly repaired. Suddenly one of the engines…
See I Can …
And now for a rare humor break: Reminds me of all the things people think I should be able to do because I read Greek.
ISV Whole Bible Available
The ISV whole Bible is available in electronic form. It’s a sort of pre-release, with a module available for eSword, along with Word 2003 and 2010 docs. I now have the whole Bible, even though corrections may be made before printing, so I’m planning to check my key verses and make up my numbers to…