Have you ever wondered whether our knowledge of the Bible could be used like a handful of cut flowers? Is it possible that separated from their root and purpose, inspired proverbs, parables, predictions, stories, or letters could be used in ways that leave them unable to bear the fruit for which they were written? Think […]
Since my comments to some of the questions and thoughts raised by the last post are too long to put in the form of a comment, here’s what I’m thinking, even though a lot of this has already come out in the discussion. Much of what the God of the Bible tells people to do […]
What are we to make of Jesus’ warning that his Father will turn us over to prison and to torturers until we pay everything we owe if we do not forgive our brother and sister from our heart? (Matt 18:34-35) And is there any connection between this statement and the way (one chapter later) Jesus […]
Before Jesus returned to his Father he challenged his disciples to teach others what he had taught them. At this point, questions linger from our past conversations. Were Paul, Peter, James, and John faithful to that Great Commission, even though they seldom quoted their Teacher in their New Testament letters? Seems to me that their […]
We started in our last conversation to talk about why the term “disciple” fell out of usage in the New Testament after the Gospels and the record of Acts. Its formal absence from the letters of Paul, James, Peter, and John catches my attention just as I’ve often wondered why those same writers didn’t make […]
Why does the word “disciple” suddenly stop being used in the New Testament? While “disciple” or its plural show up over 250 times in the Gospels and Acts, they don’t show up once in all that follows. My guess is that there is a connection between this disappearance of the “disciples” and the fact that […]
On the eve of the 2012 Grammy Music Awards, Whitney Houston died. With her passing millions will remember a voice and songs that did more than make her one of the most recognized and awarded female vocalists in music history. Who among us can forget the emotions stirred by her endlessly played “I Will Always […]
Is there anything that followers of Christ can do to get the attention of those who dismiss them as uneducated and backward? Our Lord had a reputation of being “unschooled”. He drew crowds of people by healing them of all kinds of diseases (Matt 4:24) (John 7:15). At one point he sent his apostles out […]
The good news of our age is that information is king. Knowledge rules. So by desktop, smartphone, or tablet, we have instant global access to the exploding journalistic, scientific, and commercial data of the world—sort of. The challenge is that we have a bit of an issue getting past the unnerving discovery that every question […]
There is such irony in our last conversation about Jesus’ words to “hate” family so as to give full attention to him (Luke 14:26). When any other religious leader asks for such commitment, most of us assume that the person is self-absorbed and dangerous. But for those who believe that the words of Luke 14:26 […]
