A friend challenged me today to do some thinking about why authenticity keeps showing up as a value of young people. Looking for a place to start, I checked out some dictionary definitions for authentic. What I found wasn’t surprising: Definition: Not false or copied; genuine; real But then I bumped into something I want […]
I’m on edge today. Here’s what’s happening. I’ve agreed to make a presentation to a group of church leaders on the subject of marital abuse. The invitation came as a result of materials and programs we have done on the subject. As I prepare for the presentation, I find myself with mixed feelings. I’m not […]
Seems to me that we can be thankful that God’s ability to care for us is not limited to obvious suspensions of natural law. Your responses to my post on “Miracles” shows something better than “first century” expressions of supernatural power. The fact that none of us have seen anyone feed 5000 people with a […]
Someone has observed that, “There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; or you can live as if everything is a miracle.” In my last post on miracles I said that, much of the time, I’m inclined to take the second point of view. One of your comments […]
Have you ever seen someone go into a healing meeting with a withered arm or leg, and come out whole? Have you ever seen someone go to a miracle healer with advanced Parkinsons’, a cleft palate, or a prosthesis of any kind and come out completely and totally healed? Now, don’t get me wrong. I […]
I remember, years ago, talking to a Christian counselor who told me he’s convinced that, as a church, we have done a far better job understanding Christ’s death for us, than we have understood the implications of his resurrection. He went on to say that while he believes our reliance upon Jesus’ sacrificial death for […]
Without hope no one can live. Yet, hope can be cruel. Solomon reminds us that, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Prov 13:8). So much of our unhappiness is the result of thinking we are going to get something better than we end up with. Yet no one will argue that disappointment and despair are […]
I heard it 40 years ago. I was taking what seemed to be a fairly uninspiring course on the historical geography of the Bible. At the time I didn’t realize that the professor was teaching his last class. His health failed mid semester and he didn’t return to teaching. Even though my memory is a […]
Why do you think so many followers of Christ start strong and then become disillusioned over time? Or maybe I shouldn’t assume that’s what you’ve seen. Maybe I should ask you a more balanced question. Is it your hunch that most people who begin strong end up being as hopeful, as warm hearted, and as […]
Scandals among followers of Christ almost always raise questions about the validity of our faith. As regrettable, unnecessary, and damaging as such moral failures are, I’m convinced that they confirm– rather than deny– the wisdom of our constant need for Christ. Here’s another discovery that has changed the way I look at the Bible. See […]
