Perplexing issues have plagued me recently, a couple thorny issues. So I started looking around for my magic wand, the one I used to use when I was a pastor. Then I remembered; I never had one. I still don’t. Neither do you. A friend reminded me this week, “You can’t fix everything.” Neither can you. There are no magic […]
The Twist. Watusi. Ballroom. Square. Tango. There are all sorts of dances made up of all sorts of steps. Left. Right. Shuffle. Hop. Forward. Back. Sometimes the most important step in a dance is a step back. This past week there was a discussion about a complex issue that involved many people and organizations. People were taking positions. People were […]
God’s followers are not heart-less; we are heart-left. No matter what hurts our hearts, minds and bodies, we have “heart left”. Many things disappoint us. The outcome of a game. Things that happened at work. Someone else got a position. The kids are doing this and not that. The fig tree has not blossomed and there is no fruit on […]
Jesus criticized the Sadducees saying, “You are deceived because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” (Matthew 22:29) While there continues, rightly, to be emphasis on Christians reading, studying, learning the Scriptures, what do we know about the power of God? What should we consider when we think about God’s power? When did you last contemplate […]
Jesus’ statement to Peter has been banging around my mind this week, “You do not have in mind the things of God but the things of man.” Ouch. Or, touché? What things do we have in mind? Are they God’s or Man’s? Are they God’s or THIS man’s? Carl Trueman has written both The Rise and Triumph of the Modern […]
I do not mean what Adam and Eve did and what that has done to us. I mean the fall, autumn. It is crazy. If you think about it. Why in the world do the leaves do that? The colors. The variation. We can determine how. Because of changes in the length of daylight and changes in temperature, chlorophyll breaks […]
Are you a fan of long books? I am part of a reading group that has met for many years. When my one friend has a turn to pick, the next selection is sure to be a long one. I bet he has read The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; I never even tried. Often […]
They are called transliterations. They are words from another language that come into English by just changing the letters from the foreign word into English. Take words like mystery, Philadelphia, phobia, narcissism, and fame. For instance, how would you say “fame” in Greek? Well, pretty much you would say fame. We have just changed the Greek letters into English and […]
Conservative. Liberal. Progressive. How would you label yourself? How would you name yourself? What do you mean by the distinction? How much does that distinction shape your view of the world and your place in it? We Christians might be better served to avoid them all. What if we thought of ourselves differently. What about “reconciliationist”? Our place in the […]
Do you have trouble understanding the positions other people take? Do you find it difficult to see the reasoning behind decisions they make? Of special difficulty is the realm of moral decision making. What are people thinking?!?! Better, how are they thinking? It has to do with the filters that people use. In The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are […]