The Danger of Forgetting How to Read the Bible
Student and pastors need, therefore, to become technical, devotional readers. Here every exegetical skill remains, yet we also read like children, letting the word speak to our hearts again. We can find what Paul Ricoeur called a “second naiveté.” We are both technically astute and spiritually receptive. Our study lets us to explain and apply God’s Word to the church and to ourselves. Then we hear God’s Word, so it does its work in us once again, so we purify our hearts, cleanse our hands, and walk in the ways of the Lord.
5 Practices Toward A More Radical Christian Life (a challenge to my readers)
Yes, the Kingdom is backwards on every level. The ultimate reality I discovered was that I was not free to fully embrace this new way of living until I was free from the unhealthy love affair I was having with myself, and with my possessions. The secret to the Kingdom is that you find your meaning through giving your life away– the exact opposite of what empire teaches!
What If People Stop Coming To Your Church?
Simply preaching the gospel may or may not draw a crowd. Certainly there are many large churches that are devoted to the gospel without manipulation. But there are even more gospel churches that struggle to draw a crowd. Same message. Different results. So is one church really more successful than the other? God would say no. For him, success has more to do with obedience than numbers (Isaiah 6).
It Is Our Duty To Never Be Offended
If you think about it, only people who have power over another can even be offended. If you’re poor, at the mercy of others, then you can never be offended or you will simply be punished. Being offended is something only the wealthy, those in authority, or those beyond reach (television, press, etc.) have the luxury to declare. That alone should demonstrate its conflict with following Christ.
Faithful pastor, you’re not crazy
What feels like loss is, in fact, re-investment. You were a profound man before, and now you are even more profound. For the rest of your life, when someone comes to you who has just taken a torpedo amidships and they’re going down, you will understand, as few men can. You are now equipped as never before to comfort sufferers.
We are in an age of ageism where many of the young men I meet today in the church do not know how to relate to older men in ways that honor them and God all at once. The demise of the family, and the absence of strong godly men to lead their children, has left a void in our young men (and women too for that matter) leaving them ill equipped in simple yet significant ways. For those who do cry out for help, wanting to be mentored they can end up sending all the wrong signals.
Why Jerusalem renters are wary of the Messiah’s arrival
In apartment contracts around the city, there are clauses stipulating what will happen to the apartment if or when the Jewish Messiah, or mashiach, comes. The owners, generally religious Jews living abroad, are concerned that he will arrive, build a third temple, and turn Israel into paradise – and they will be stuck waiting for their apartment tenants’ contracts to run out before they can move back.
Things I learned during the Alabama Legislature’s Ten Commandments debate today
– If you proposed an amendment to the Alabama Constitution about the Ten Commandments, Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, will give you a quiz in which he repeatedly refers to them as the “10th Amendment.”
– The 10th Amendment was adopted before the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea because Moses didn’t get to cross the Red Sea. – Rep. Bridges responding to a question from Rep. Holmes.
Bill Russell serves LeBron James after Mount Rushmore comments
Hey, thank you for leaving me off your Mount Rushmore. I’m glad you did. Basketball is a team game, it’s not for individual honors. I won back-to-back state championships in high school, back-to-back NCAA championships in college. I won an NBA championship my first year in the league, an NBA championship in my last year, and nine in between. That, Mr. James, is etched in stone.
After reading the article on the debate in the Alabama legislature over the 10 commandments I will make two obervations.
1. I am always amazed at how little most of us who claim to follow the Bible actually know about its contents.
2. I am glad I recently moved to Georgia, even though it is possible that the same problem could exist here, since it does most places on earth.