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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Copyright Trolls
Laura at Pursuing Holiness notes one and presents a course of action. I think bloggers often move past fair use, but news outlets and going way too far the other way.
New Meaning to Language Police
This story gives new meaning to the idea of language or grammar police. (HT: The Agitator)
Five Sites I Read Because I Disagree
These are five significant sites I read because of the things on which I disagree with the writer(s). That doesn’t mean I disagree with everything, but rather that I was attracted to the site and continue to read primarily because of my disagreement. I read a number of news sources and some individual blogs on…
Speaking of Inerrancy
(I’m crossposting this from my Participatory Bible Study blog. It’s too short to bother with extract and link.) I found this post by Roger Olson via my reader (HT: Chrisendom) and it reminded me of my own recent post Inerrancy – Romancing the Term. Though my experience is largely outside of academia, I can relate to much…
More on Inerrancy the Term
I found this post by Roger Olson via my reader (HT: Chrisendom) and it reminded me of my own recent post Inerrancy – Romancing the Term. Though my experience is largely outside of academia, I can relate to much of what Dr. Olson says. Inerrancy is not understood in the pews of any church I…
Gifts to Build the Body
T. C. Robinson has a post on the gifts of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:13. He makes several points that I think are important, but I did not draw from that particular passage, though I did draw from Galatians 5:22-26 with the fruit of the Spirit. T.C. points to the importance of 1 Corinthians…
Staying Alive in Seminary
For many, cemeteryseminary is a difficult spiritual experience. That’s why many refer to it as cemetery. Danny at Boston Bible Geeks is on his second post of a three parter (I think) regarding improving seminary. I want to underline one of his points, which is his #1 in the second post of the series. It’s…
The American Patriot Bible is a Bestseller!
I gave my first impressions of this Bible last year. You can probably guess my viewpoint from the title: Another Reason to Hate Study Bibles. Today John Byron of The Biblical World comments on the American Patriot Bible reaching bestseller status on Amazon.com. With the number of Americans these days who are effectively equating being…
Appealing to Grace
While there is much violence in the Old Testament (and a certain amount in the New), the basic ideas of grace are still expressed regularly. Nowhere is this clearer, in my opinion, than in the appeal to salvation history in passages of judgment and of exhortation. The Old Testament passage and the Psalm for Proper…
Astonishingly Stupid
From the New York Times editorial today: But many of Mr. DeLay’s actions remain legal only because lawmakers have chosen not to criminalize them. Such wisdom! This is obviously why we need the mainstream media to keep us all straight. (HT: Volokh and Pursuing Holiness)
Christianity by Force or Manipulation
There is very little that offends me more than the idea of manipulating people into Christian events or trying to convert them by force.
Choosing a New Church
No, I’m not choosing a new church. In fact, I really like my home church, First United Methodist Church in Pensacola. But today I received an e-mail from someone who asked me to share a blog post with my readers. I get few enough such e-mails that I normally at least read them, though I’m…
Aiming Your Bible
I discuss letting the Bible convict you first in my monthly devotional post for the World Prayr devotional blog.
Spong vs Mohler
I found this video interesting, even though I don’t consider Spong one of the better advocates of a liberal approach to the Bible. From my perspective he’s slipped off the far edge of the map. I would suggest there is a position that does not affirm biblical inerrancy, yet maintains biblical authority. (HT: Exploring Our…
On the Ground Zero Mosque
I’ve been thinking of writing something about this for some time. The problem is that I think it’s fairly clear. First, there’s no legitimate legal reason to prevent the building of this mosque. Second, I don’t think it is appropriate, nor does it send a good message, for Christians to oppose those of another faith…
Word Ambiguities
HT: Language Log
Christian Carnival CCCXL Posted
… at The Jevlir Caravansary. Check it out!
Christian Carnival Coming
I’m hosting it at my Jevlir Caravansary blog. Deadline is midnight tonight.
List of Online Lexicons
Polycarp has a very useful list of online lexicons.
Gordon Fee on Reading Revelation
… and the Bible as a whole, but with a focus on his new commentary on Revelation. The video is at the Grace Communion International web site and is well worth watching. I would probably be a bit harder on the idea of literal interpretation for the Bible overall than Dr. Fee is, but he…
On C. S. Lewis
There’s an article in the Touchstone archives by Bishop Wright which I find very interesting, largely because it expresses some of my own feelings regarding Lewis. C. S. Lewis is, of course, a brilliant writer. I enjoy reading even those things with which I disagree, and not just because I like to be challenged. He…
Gordon Fee Discusses Interpreting Revelation
… in this video, which has been all over the biblioblogosphere. Sorry, I don’t even remember where I first saw it.
PNJ Picks 2 for Governor
Our local excuse for the press, the Pensacola News Journal, is in endorsements season, and like many papers, they pick one in each of the primaries. Thus they have endorsed one Republican and one Democrat for governor. I should note first that I have a problem with newspapers or media organizations endorsing politicians. I don’t…
Boycott BP – Maybe Not!
I live on the Gulf Coast, but I’ve continued to go to BP gas stations. Yes, I deplore what has happened, and the negligence involved, though I think our national push for more and cheaper oil is an underlying cause of the problem. But I hadn’t blogged about it. Allan Bevere did so on his…