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Thursday, May 28, 2020
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Anatomy of a Genocide
Serious efforts to exterminate Jews have happened more than
once, and the word of God assures us they will happen again. The book of Esther
is the story of a relatively early attempt.
The Medo-Persian empire was not Nazi Germany, and it is not
Armageddon, but there are still a few interesting things to be observed about
genocides, how such things can even come about at all, and what a persecuted (or
soon-to-be-persecuted) minority can learn from them about how best to conduct
itself in the face of overwhelming numerical opposition.
Labels:
Esther
/
Government
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Persecution
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Sound and Unsound
It is difficult to miss the adjective “sound” in the first
couple chapters of Titus. In fact, it occurs more times in Titus than
anywhere else in the New Testament. In instructing his younger associate, the
apostle Paul refers repeatedly to both “sound doctrine” and being “sound in the
faith”, the latter being the result of the former. Soundness was the apostle’s
desire for the Christians in Crete, and indeed for all believers everywhere.
In Greek, the word “sound” is hygiainÅ, which means “healthy”. It has the sense of fitness and
functionality. In Luke it is contrasted with both sickness
and injury.
Monday, May 25, 2020
Anonymous Asks (94)
“Is it possible to go a whole day without sinning?”
No.
Shortest Anonymous Asks ever.
Okay, I suppose I could elaborate a little. It is only possible to imagine you have
gone a whole day without “sinning” if your definition of sin is grossly deficient,
if you are stupifyingly un-self-aware, or maybe if you happen to be in
a coma.
Labels:
Anonymous Asks
/
Nehemiah
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Sinlessness
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Good Applications and Bad Ones
Billy Graham noted that the character of our loved ones, friends, and acquaintances may change. Jesus does not.
TL Osborn says that because Jesus Christ does not change, you
can count on being healed from sickness, just as he healed the sick in the
first century.
A commenter at Christian Forums says the fact that Jesus Christ never changes means
dispensationalism is false teaching.
We all agree that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and
forever.” However, it is evident we do not all agree about
precisely what that means.
Labels:
Application
/
Christ
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Hebrews
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Immutability
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Time and Chance (37)
Last week we encountered
the term “vanity” for the umpteenth time in the book of Ecclesiastes, and
considered another entry in the Preacher’s list of realities he found
frustrating, and which he could not hope to understand without direct
revelation from God. In this case, he had observed that there is a species of
wicked people who move freely in polite society and who, far from being punished
for their crimes, are more often politely indulged ... and sometimes even
celebrated.
He continues this thought in the next couple of verses, in the process adding yet another “vain thing” to
his list of conundra.
Labels:
Ecclesiastes
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Joy
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Time and Chance
Friday, May 22, 2020
Too Hot to Handle: Getting Relevant
In which our regular writers toss around
subjects a little more volatile than usual.
I heard that most young people drop out of church today, either for a short or
indefinite time, around age 18-19. I was concerned: after all, if we lose
the next generation, what’s going to happen to the church? But then I found
this glossy new resource, and it’s really helping me to understand what today’s young adults are going to
find relevant by way of spiritual stuff. I’m sharing it with you, Tom, because
I know you’ve got young-adult children of your own.
Just in time, eh?
Tom: Uh, thanks, IC, I think. Why is it that some Christians seem to think that being “relevant” actually
means “pandering” or “condescending”?
Labels:
Church
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Discipleship
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Recycling
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Too Hot to Handle
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Youth Work
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Contradictions and Contradistinctions
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Contradictions in Scripture
/
Jordan Peterson
/
Paradoxes
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Everything Louder Than Everything Else
Ian Gillan of the seventies metal band Deep Purple reportedly
once asked the sound engineer mixing the band’s live album, “Could we have everything louder than
everything else?”
I’ve always loved that line. It just sounds like a title for the perfect rock and roll anthem.
But when you think about it for half a second, the request is
absurd. If the bass is louder than the high hat, the high hat cannot simultaneously
be louder than the bass. If you mix the snare drum louder than a guitar cranked
up to eleven, you cannot make that guitar louder in the sound mix without reducing
the volume of the snare. It’s absurd.
“Everything” cannot be louder than “everything else”. It
doesn’t work.
Labels:
Money
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Poverty
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Priorities
/
Recycling
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Diagnosing the Problem
“Behold, we are slaves this day ... behold, we are slaves.”
“We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone.”
You can’t solve a problem unless you know what it is.
John 8:33 records a very strange statement, the second
one I have quoted above. It appears to have been made not specifically by the Pharisees
or Sadducees (though there may have been some of these present, of course), but more generally, by men who had just made a public confession of belief in Christ.
The statement was this: “We have never been enslaved to
anyone.”
Monday, May 18, 2020
Anonymous Asks (93)
“Is it wrong to wish for something?”
There was a time when the Lord Jesus wished for something
with all his heart. Luke says he prayed for it earnestly, in agony, to the
point where “his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground”.
Here is what he wished for: “Father ... remove
this cup from me.”
Labels:
Anonymous Asks
/
Prayer
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Lost Light
How does the word of God go missing among God’s people? How
does the plain teaching of scripture get overlooked for months, years and even
centuries, only to be suddenly rediscovered? You would think it impossible if
we didn’t have both historical and biblical evidence that it happens, and
happens with sad regularity.
For example, in the days of King Josiah, the Book of the Law
was found in the house of the Lord and taken to the king and read to him. When
Josiah heard the Law read, he
tore his clothes, humbled and stricken by the degree to which the people of
God had departed from his commandments and the wrath they had incurred because
of it.
Saturday, May 16, 2020
Time and Chance (36)
As mentioned in earlier
studies in Ecclesiastes, the Preacher uses the term “vanity” repeatedly. This
is usually read as an expression of disgust, as if Solomon is saying, “Pointless,
pointless ... it’s all futile and pointless,” as if the order God has set
in place since the fall of man — and it is very much evident he believes God
is behind it all — is not worth further investigation.
And yet, on he goes investigating anyway. Can’t be all that pointless, can it?
Labels:
Ecclesiastes
/
Time and Chance
/
Vanity
/
Wickedness
Friday, May 15, 2020
Too Hot to Handle: Stinkin’ Selfish
In which our regular writers toss around
subjects a little more volatile than usual.
Megachurch pastor Andy Stanley inadvertently
opened a can of worms with comments he made in a sermon earlier this month:
“When I hear adults say, ‘Well, I don’t like a big church. I like about
two hundred’ or ‘I want to be able to know everybody’, I say,
‘You are so stinkin’ selfish. You care nothing about the next generation. All
you care about is you and your five friends. You don’t care about your
kids or anybody else’s kids.”
Now of course he quickly and abjectly
apologized the moment the predictable blowback started, but Stanley’s not backtracking on his
dislike of traditional-sized churches, just the ill-conceived and insulting way
he expressed it.
Labels:
Andy Stanley
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Megachurches
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Recycling
/
Too Hot to Handle
/
Youth Work
Thursday, May 14, 2020
What’s Behind Faith?
— Hebrews 11:1
“I consider rationality (in a nutshell) to be: ‘an accurate apportionment of belief in a statement concerning the objective nature of reality, with respect to the available evidence.’ I can think of no better definition of faith than the exact opposite of this: ‘A grossly inaccurate apportionment of belief in a statement concerning the objective nature of reality, with respect to the available evidence.’
However, I invite those who have faith, and profess it as a virtue, to submit their definition of faith.”
— Joseph Dorrell, Ted Talks, 2012
Okay, Joseph. Let’s play.
Labels:
Faith
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Rationalism
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Recycling
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
Stating the Obvious
When you make a life-long habit out of reading other people’s
mail, strange things tend to become commonplace.
I should probably unpack that a bit.
I’m enjoying the book of Hebrews once again, as I make
my way through the New Testament in my morning reading. But the problem with
having been acquainted with the scriptures since before I could read them
for myself (and it’s not the worst problem in the world to have) is that
arguments which should puzzle any modern, thinking, Gentile reader seem perfectly normal to me. My familiarity
with the passage makes it difficult for me to be surprised by it, though it should surely surprise me.
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Crossing the Gulf
“... with patience, bearing
with one another in love.”
Easily said, isn’t it?
“Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed.” So said
Abraham to the rich man suffering the torments of hades. That chasm is not crossable. “They which would pass from
hence to you cannot.”
Speaking naturally, there is also a great gulf fixed between
you and me. Not all of you, of course, but certainly some of you. Cross it we must. Our first step is to recognize it is there.
Labels:
Communication
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Death
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Empathy
/
Love
Monday, May 11, 2020
Anonymous Asks (92)
“Are soul mates for real?”
When Jonathan watched David slay Goliath, he recognized a
kindred spirit.
Like David, Jonathan was a brave man who trusted in God almost
to the point of recklessness. Climbing a hill fully exposed to enemy arrows
in order to take it to an enemy whose numbers dwarf your own seems like a crazy
stunt, but if the Lord has given the enemy into your hands, it’s a cinch.
Jonathan and his armor bearer had prevailed against 10:1 odds.
It’s holy conjecture, but I suspect if his father had
allowed it, Jonathan might have taken on Goliath himself. But Jonathan knew
that would never be permitted. Why would the king of Israel risk his own crown
prince in what he believed was an unwinnable duel? It would have been a huge PR
win for the Philistines and a political disaster for Saul.
David was comparatively expendable. Saul couldn’t even put
a name to him when asked.
Labels:
Anonymous Asks
/
Relationships
/
Soul
Sunday, May 10, 2020
Semi-Random Musings (20)
Of all the books in the Bible, Esther seems to have the
least to do with 21st century Christianity. It is basically a book of
Jewish-centric history which tells how the nation of Israel (for the umpteenth time) survived
extermination at the hands of its enemies. God is not even mentioned in its
pages. The national feast inspired by the events in Esther (Purim)
is nothing like the God-ordained celebrations of Leviticus 23. Purim
commemorates the “days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies”, and is
(or at least originally was) more like today’s secularized Christmas
celebrations than any of the seven
feasts of Jehovah, all of which were rife with rich spiritual symbolism,
speaking to generations about the meaning of the death of Christ
and its consequences for mankind.
So why is Esther in our Bibles?
Labels:
Artaxerxes
/
Ezra
/
Jealousy
/
Semi-Random Musings
Saturday, May 09, 2020
Time and Chance (35)
Let’s back up and remind
ourselves where we were last week in Ecclesiastes 8, because the subject
under discussion in the first five verses continues just a little longer.
The Preacher was considering
the temptations and opportunities that face people under authority in the
performance of their duties; in this case, servants of the king. There are
really only two possibilities: either the servant is doing the will of the
king, or else he is using the king’s authority as cover to promote his personal
agenda, or to advance some ideological position.
Labels:
Decision-Making
/
Ecclesiastes
/
Government
/
Time and Chance
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