I was raised to hold tightly to the ideology of freedom and liberty. It is an ideology that the Bible commends. My Baptist ancestors were champions for religious liberty, hazarding their lives for it. And I have always lived in a culture that at least on the surface, valued the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of…
Category: <span>Life</span>
This is the second half of part 2 discussing difficult Bible texts and the four legs of interpretation. Part 1 and Part 2a can be found by clicking on those links. The last installment will be a case study in the book of Matthew. These articles are meant to give practical help to the Bible student who encounters hard to…
I have tried several times since Sunday to write an article expressing my thoughts about the tragic shooting in the Orlando nightclub early Sunday morning. But I just can’t seem to say anything that I think would be helpful or profound. My mind was immediately drawn to Ecclesiastes 7:2, where the Wisdom teacher tells us that value of the “house…
My daughter is nearly three years old and living in a house with three older brothers, it can get kind of confusing for her. She loves and idolizes her brothers, wanting to do everything they do. Recently she told me that when she grows up she wants to be a boy. I don’t blame her, those brothers of hers have…
Some people have asked me what my political leanings are for the upcoming elections and who I am voting for. One of the greatest parts about living in a democratic society as a Christian who believes in the sovereign authority and righteousness of God, is that I can cast my vote that affords me a clear conscience and then trust…
This is Part 2 of the two part series on the difficulties and blessings of systematic exposition. You can read Part 1 here. “. . .So is it worth it? Should we abandon systematic, passage by passage, exposition of entire books of the Bible? Should we go to a topical approach of preaching? Or perhaps one popular method today is…
This is a two part post. Part 2 will be posted tomorrow. My target audience is my fellow pastors/preachers and those who would desire this office of “Overseer.” There are real difficulties in committing to preach systematically through entire books of the Bible in what we call passage by passage or verse by verse exposition. Part 1 will deal with…
*of course there are valid reasons why someone cannot go to church on any given Sunday (illness, out-of-town, work, etc.) that is not what is being addressed in this article. The intent of this article list is to deal with the avoidable excuses for not being faithful to attend your local church. You need to be around other Christians. “Let…
I am relentlessly challenged by the magnificence of the Psalms, especially those penned by David while he was in despair. To those Christians who have or do struggle with the gloomy darkness of depression, these Psalms are like a sweet salve to the soul. I love the way David’s writing always begins with sincere honesty of his depressive struggle, but…
What Do We Do Now? This morning, as I read the decision by our nation’s Supreme Court to declare gay marriage legal in all fifty states, the first thing that came to my mind was, “What do we do now?” There is a real fear over the continuation of religious freedoms that American churches have enjoyed for a long time…