The question has a history. Before it was first asked, human experience was limited to a paradise of undisguised trust and innocence (Gen 2:25). Then… from behind the mask of one of God’s own creatures, the hellishly subtle question was asked, “Has God said….?” In the next few words, Genesis gives us a hint of […]
Is tolerance of wrongs a sin? Could intolerance be even worse? In asking such questions, it seems to make sense to wonder why some of us believe that God cannot tolerate sin? Am guessing we might say something like, “Don’t all followers of the Bible believe that? Could anything be more obvious? Isn’t God too […]
We’ve been looking at the tension between Jesus the peacemaker, and the Disturber who said, “Don’t think that I’ve come to bring peace, but a sword.” Together we’ve thought about how the Teacher carried out his mission of reconciliation while creating so much conflict in the process. His Sermon on the Mount is no exception. […]
Who among us hasn’t seen the pain we can bring to ourselves and others by thoughtlessly saying the truth without humility, love, or wisdom. Those who accused Jesus of being a sinner, or worse (demon possessed) weren’t all wrong. They were followers of Moses. They had heard the rumors about Jesus’ birth, and were not […]
I’ve noticed over time an awkward pain that can show up in followers of Christ in their later years. My first memory of what I’m referring to came when an aging pastor invited me as a young man to have lunch with him. I’m sure that we talked about many things in the hour or […]
I remember hearing my dad describe how surprised he often was to hear the second side of a conflict. He said that when a co-worker came to him with a complaint about another, his first impression was to think the person really had a case. But if he took the time to hear the other […]
While reading a fairly technical book this week on Bible interpretation, I came across a statement that reminded me of the wonder of what God has given us in his Son. In a world that is struggling with difficult questions about meaning in texts, relationships, and life, a scholar by the name of Zimmerman writes, […]
How seriously do we need to take the claims that the Bible is full of contradictions? More than a few have written books or hosted Web sites to say that they lost their faith after finding glaring inconsistencies in the Bible. Some have spent a lot of time compiling lists of apparent discrepancies in both […]
Over the past decade, there has been growing controversy about “a new way of doing church.” Many of our sons and daughters are forming or joining congregations that don’t look or sound like our kind of church. Yet, they are likely to tell us they are just trying to be authentic followers of Jesus, and […]
Growing up in the 1950s, I remember the television series Dragnet. Each episode began with the notes of an ominous theme. Then the rich voice of announcer George Fenneman intoned, “The story you are about to see is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.” Producer and actor Jack Webb narrated […]
