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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Dave Black on Christians and Nationalism
He posted an excellent article on his web site titled A Lesson from Ethiopia. Further comment at Mt. Tirzah Baptist Church.
Ministry Mistakes (or not)
The Internet Monk has a list of his most bone-headed ministry mistakes. It’s worth a read. Some of them aren’t really mistakes, in my view. For example, #4: 4. Two of my deacons made a big deal about me taking the a.m. service ten minutes too long two weeks in a row, and they humiliated…
Mistakes, Love, and Parenting
… or any other human relationship, for that matter. I got back yesterday from displaying books at Methodist annual conference for Alabama/Northwest Florida. We had the joy of having our daughter Janet join us there to help out, and we got to chat a bit. We were talking about raising children–she has two–and I mentioned…
A Thought on Leviticus 16:13
I was struck by the wording of Leviticus 16:13 tody. There is a long list of instructions, followed by the clause “that he may not die.” It’s just 2 words in Hebrew. It seems to me that the Israelites approached the issue of God’s judgment against them very differently than we do. Rather than seeing…
New Methodist Blogger – Rev. Geoffrey Lentz
I’ve been meaning to post this for a few days, but it’s been busy, as you can tell from my low level of blogging. Geoffrey Lentz is the associate pastor of First United Methodist Church of Pensacola, and a former student of mine. In fact, I met Geoffrey in the first class I taught for…
Christian Carnival CCLXIX – Summer Vacation Edition
I planned to get this posted early this morning, but my job–you know, my paying work–intervened. Advance copies of one book arrived from the printer yesterday, and then the first release copies of two more showed up today. For a small publisher, that’s a heavy couple of days! In any case, even though it’s not…
Way to Go Omaha 1st UMC
I really like this: Why do I like it? Because besides collecting some help for folks in need, this gives kids a taste of the experience of others. Hopefully it will stimulate their thinking and result in many new ideas as the years go by. We need to harness the imagination and energy of the…
Christian Carnival #CCLXXIX Coming Here
I will be posting Christian Carnival #CCLXXIX some time tomorrow. In the meantime you have some time yet to submit your best work from the past week. If you are new to the carnival, Jeremy Pierce has an excellent plug for it here.
Advance/Review Copies of The Jesus Paradigm
My company, Energion Publications, is about to send out free advance copies of The Jesus Paradigm, a new book from Dr. David Alan Black. If you’re interested in reviewing an advance copy and are a blogger or write for a print publication, please see this post and let me know.
Chris Smith has a Suggestion for California
… the legislators, that is. He makes it here. I’m also wondering how many voters who won’t finance education feel they have a right to it anyhow. There’s probably a subset of the voters who voted “no” on funding, would be horrified at Chris’s suggestion, and think education will happen magically anyhow.
Christian Carnival #CCLXXVII Posted
… at Boston Bible Geeks. No how cool is that as a blog name? Go check it out!
There ought to be a law …
A few days ago I wrote on my business blog about embracing Web 2.0 as a publisher. Today I read this op-ed from the Washington Post, in which Bruce Sanford and Bruce Brown think there ought to be a law–or bunches of them, to protect print journalists from the pernicious arrival of the future. His…
On the Future of Information Technology
I’ve posted some thoughts as it relates to my company, on the company blog.
In Which I am Included . . .
The “which” is a list of bibliobloggers compiled by John Hobbins. Through it I discover that I am on the extended (not the top 50) list at Biblioblogs Top 50. Thanks to all of the above, and to Biblioblogs.com which provides a valuable service to the Bibliblogosphere.
Scot McKnight on Kenton Sparks
He’s working through Sparks’ book God’s Word in Human Words, and doing a great job. Good stuff, and it relates to my recent topic of interpretation. (Link is to the third part, beginning here.)
Interpreting the Bible VIII: Biblical Literalism, Attitude, and Avoidance
This is a continuation of my series on interpreting the Bible. The first post in the series is Interpreting the Bible I: Obvious Exegesis, while the most recent one was Interpreting the Bible VII: Christians Contribute to Confusion. As a reminder, my starting point was a number of comments that suggested that those who take…
Ten Questions I Always Ask Myself When Studying the Bible
No, not me! Lisa Robinson at Parchment and Pen. But I should, and so should you.
Leviticus Study
I’ve been following through the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary in my study of Leviticus for the last few weeks. Unfortunately, the way I like to study these passages involves reading the text in Hebrew, reading and annotating the commentary, reading the text in the LXX, hunting down materials in other commentaries and translations, and so forth. …
Christian Carnival #CCLXXVI Is Coming
Find the details here.
Hard to Lead? (Easter 6B, Acts 10:44-48)
Scripture: Acts 10:44-48 OK, for those who might be unacquainted with the lectionary, let me note that the Acts passage takes the place of the standard Old Testament reading this week. To keep things together, I therefore categorize it as Old Testament. Acts is in the New Testament, obviously! How hard is it to lead…
Book: Collapse of Distinction
I review Scott McKain’s The Collapse of Distinction on my computer services blog.
Leviticus 9:1-24: Eternity in Liturgy
I have had very little time to post on Leviticus over the last few weeks because of my business, in which I’ve been working on three books simultaneously. But Leviticus has not been very far from my mind. The more I read Leviticus, the more I like it. I’ve read through it with a variety…
Borrowing and Inspiration
I want to discuss inspiration just a bit, partly because it is relevant to my next post on Biblical interpretation (I hope to post it later today), and partly because there is someone on Twitter who is spouting a great deal of nonsense with regard to parallels and borrowing. (For those interested, he is @BibleAlsoSays,…
Tips for Studying the New Testament
Chris Tilling gives three. I’m linking because of #2–read the New Testament, which could be said for Bible study in general–read the Bible. Odd how many miss that!