What makes something biblical? The easiest answer may be that, “If something is found in the Bible, it’s biblical.” But that means polygamy, slavery, and genocide all qualify. Another approach is to say that an idea or practice is biblical if it is consistent with the values and nature of the Bible. That’s probably a […]
Am guessing that when you see the following short list of famous pairs, you will think of other duos that have a way of doing together what neither could do on their own. In addition to bacon and eggs, there are, Sherlock and Watson Tom and Huck Abbot and Costello Batman and Robin Lewis and […]
When are we really happy? What do we thoroughly enjoy doing? Under what conditions are we tempted to say, “this is heaven”. I ask because I’ve been thinking about what David said about “Delighting in the LORD.” In the 37th Psalm he said, “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires […]
Never before have so many people had access to so much information. With human knowledge doubling every few years and search engines like Google and Yahoo! at our fingertips, the potential for learning seems endless. The horizons of knowledge—According to Reuters News Service, the Hubble Space Telescope has found 10,000 galaxies in a window of […]
After surviving the horrors of Nazi concentration camps, Elie Wiesel wrote a novel titled The Trial of God. Reflecting Wiesel’s own crisis of faith, he created a character who accuses God of “hostility, cruelty, and indifference” for silently turning His back on His people in their time of need. In this plot, the only one […]
The grave of a soldier who died in the service of his country is marked today with renewed expressions of family and friends whose hearts remain broken by their loss. In the silence, I’m reminded of the value of a person. The cumulative assets of the whole world could not equal the life of that […]
I woke up this morning thinking that I need to move the conversation along to something else, as promised, because of the frustration that erupted over our last discussion. Then I read the comments posted overnight, and heard the heart and reasonableness of friends who expressed that they felt I was just making the Bible […]
Has something changed in the way we read the Bible that is affecting our view of reality? Is it possible that we are no longer engrossed in its own story, but instead are flipping through its pages looking for interesting thoughts or anecdotes? Several recent experiences have me wondering. On one hand I recently heard […]
Yesterday, I read an article in USA Today about a Christian leader who removed his name from a group that supports the rights of Muslims to build mosques in their communities. The article went on to explain that the person was responding to those who felt that the Interfaith Coalition on Mosques crossed the line […]
I’ve been trying to go to school on the discussion following my last post on forgiveness. Along the way I’ve had doubts about whether I should have once again re-introduced the idea of knowing when to “lovingly withhold forgiveness.” The very suggestion resulted in so much misunderstanding that at times I feared that I had […]
