Psalm 119:83 – Burned Up (and Out)
I discuss the difficulty of interpreting certain biblical passages, emphasizing the uncertainty in translations and the need for broader understanding while maintaining dependence on God for truth.
Psalm 119:57 – Still Mine!
You are my portion Lord.I have said that I will keep your word. It’s interesting to look at multiple translations of this. Many of these translations reflect ways in which my meditation was going even before I read them. Some are straightforward, such as the NRSV: “The LORD is my portion; / I promise to…
Psalm 119:48 – Meditating
And I lift up my hands to your commands which I love,and I will meditate on your statutes. I haven’t been entirely consistent in how I translate the first word of each couplet in this section, but they begin with the Hebrew letter vav (or waw as is sometimes taught in classical Hebrew). This would…
Psalm 119:17 – Order of Operations
Deal fully with your servant,So I may live and keep your word. There are numerous translation questions, including differences of opinion about precisely what the word I translate “deal fully with” actually means in this context. Another good option is what Bob MacDonald does in Seeing the Psalter: Grow your servantI will live and keep…
Psalm 119:16 – Ways to Forget
In your statutes I delight.I will not forget your word. If this were not poetry, I might be tempted to talk about the rather optimistic promise of not forgetting God’s word. But then I remember how many times I have said, “I’m not going to forget that” in reference to some planned task or another….
Why I Still Like the Wesleyan Quadrilateral
Yes, I’ve heard the complaints, and those who say it isn’t actually Wesleyan or has deteriorated through the years, but I met it in the United Methodist Discipline before I first joined a Methodist church (though without the name) and I still like it. For those who may not be aware of the quadrilateral, it…
Pious People Popping Platitude Pills
Tacky title, eh? I don’t apologize. I had fun constructing it. The other day someone asked me whether there were any scriptures I liked to go to when I was having problems. I gave the answer immediately and then explained, but I’m going to do the opposite here. I’m going to explain and then tell…
Energion Google Hangout on Air Tonight – Creation and Christianity
Tonight at 7:00 pm central time for the weekly Energion Google Hangout on Air I’ll be moderating a panel of four authors. You can find the event information on our Google+ page. The participants are: Dr. Herold Weiss, author of Creation in Scripture Dr. David Moffett-Moore, author of Creation in Contemporary Experience Dr. Robert D….
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…
Speaking for God: Inspiration, Authority, and Interpretation
In about a half an hour I will be leaving for church where I will teach a small Sunday School class. The class has chosen to go through my book When People Speak for God (wow!). I start my discussion in this book by looking at the human factor and the divine factor. It is…