The most recent version of this post is available here.
“Love often manifests itself in giving people what they can’t appreciate and don’t want, and
in demanding from them precisely what they most want to retain for themselves.” — Tom
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Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
The Numbers Game
“I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth …”
A few years ago I sat through a summer camp
message from an alumnus of Dallas Theological Seminary. I can’t remember
the man’s name now, and it doesn’t really matter. The thrust of his message was
that a very, very large number of people will ultimately come to the knowledge
of Christ and be brought into the fellowship of the saints. Comparatively few,
he said, would be lost.
I found him quite unconvincing.
Monday, January 28, 2019
Anonymous Asks (24)
“How do you separate from bad friends without hurting them or making them think you’re stuck up?”
That is indeed a tall order. And I suppose the answer depends very much on how bad your
friends are, and in what way.
There are two different situations we ought to consider: bad friends who are
professing Christians and bad friends who are not.
Labels:
Anonymous Asks
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Friendship
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Separation
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Testimony
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Reflections at 4 a.m.
“Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray,
who cry ‘Peace’ when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths.”
In the middle of a long night shift, one
often craves better coffee than may be had reheated from the canteen in the
office kitchen.
By “better” I don’t mean half an inch of George Clooney-level Nespresso® or a fresh cappuccino from Starbucks
(assuming, in the case of the latter, you can still manage to justify shoveling
hard-earned dollars into the coffers of Planned Parenthood via their favorite corporate
proxy). No, at 4 a.m. McDonalds will do, and do wondrously.
Yeah, First World problems, I know.
Labels:
False Prophets
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Micah
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Prophecy
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TV Evangelists
Saturday, January 26, 2019
How Not to Crash and Burn (43)
Proverbs is an ancient book. While it addresses the human
condition and therefore remains profoundly relatable, it also contains plenty
of references to things we might assume we understand, but generally do
not — at least not fully.
For example, the “gate” of 24:7 is not the gate of a house,
and “folly” is not merely the condition of immaturity or silliness. It takes
familiarity with Old Testament usage to recognize there may be more than meets
the eye to these few lines of antiquated-but-not-irrelevant advice.
Labels:
How Not to Crash and Burn
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Proverbs
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Thirty Sayings
Friday, January 25, 2019
Too Hot to Handle: The Best Men Can Be?
In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.
Hey, the new Gillette commercial is being talked about everywhere else. Why not here?
“Bullying. The #MeToo movement against sexual harassment. Toxic Masculinity.”
[Shots of pensive men of various types reflected in shaving mirrors.]
A serious voice intones, “Is this the best a man can get? IS IT?”
[Shot of a woman kissing a man on his shaved cheek from an old Gillette commercial.]
“We can’t hide from it. It’s been going on far too long. We can’t laugh it off, making the same old excuses: ‘Boys will be
boys.’ ”
Labels:
Masculinity
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Men
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Propaganda
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Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, January 24, 2019
Tolerating Evil: Moral Relativism and the Slippery Pole to Hell
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Hell
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Relativism
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Rules for Thee and Not for Me
“Do not preach” — thus they preach — “one should not preach of such things; disgrace will not overtake us.”
The only thing our society will not tolerate is intolerance.
Unless it is society’s intolerance to those who refuse to tolerate sin. Then
intolerance is just fine.
This is not a new development.
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Splendor and Disillusionment
At the church I attended as a teen, there
was a family of three. I suppose they were reasonably affluent, though
I did not pay much attention to such things in those days. After
I moved on, I heard that the father succumbed in middle age to a
degenerative disease and went to be with the Lord. Being a decent sort and forward-thinking,
he had made financial arrangements for his wife and disabled daughter so that
they would be cared for after he was gone.
That worked out well … until it didn’t. A con artist talked the gullible widow into a bad investment, and they lost
everything. Years later, they’re still struggling.
Monday, January 21, 2019
Anonymous Asks (23)
It is important to realize there are really two questions here, not one. Question one is “How can I be a witness to my
friends?” Good question, and it recognizes that Jesus Christ gave a job to his
followers when he ascended into heaven. He said to them, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses … to the end of the earth.” If you have believed in and confessed the Lord Jesus, you have accepted the same ongoing task they did. That’s fantastic.
Question two boils down to “How can I maintain my present relationships as they are while witnessing to something that
transforms lives, upends worldviews and tells people hard truths about
themselves they may not want to hear?
That may be possible. And it may not.
Labels:
Anonymous Asks
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Friendship
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Witnessing
Sunday, January 20, 2019
Things Ovine and Caprine
Schindler’s List was a very successful 1990s movie about a German businessman and member of the
Nazi party who saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish refugees
during WWII. While the screenplay certainly received the Hollywood treatment
and has been criticized for a taking a variety of storytelling liberties, one of which was being overly
sentimental, the story upon which it is based is said to be substantially true.
So there is a real-world precedent for the scenario
I am about to lay out for you.
Labels:
Judgment
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Matthew
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Sheep and Goats
Saturday, January 19, 2019
How Not to Crash and Burn (42)
We’re past the halfway point of the Thirty Sayings, and so
far we’ve covered a wide range of topics. This week’s selection is no
exception: the importance of truth, the joys of parenting, and warnings against
adultery, alcohol abuse and crime.
If there’s a way to wreck your life or to make it better,
God has something to say about it.
Labels:
How Not to Crash and Burn
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Proverbs
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Thirty Sayings
Friday, January 18, 2019
Too Hot to Handle: Fundamentalism and Modernism
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Evolution
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Modern Christianity
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Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Assumptions and Loaded Conversations
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Apologetics
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Proverbs
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Facts and Conjectures
The facts are these: about 57 A.D., give or take, the apostle Paul traveled to Jerusalem, where he was arrested
something less than seven days after his arrival. Initially at least, he
was (falsely or mistakenly) accused by the Jewish religious authorities of
profaning the temple. Later he was also accused of disturbing the peace, a charge more likely to be taken seriously by the Romans than any merely religious disagreement between members of a subject people group. His Roman
custodians took him first to Caesarea and finally to Rome when he made an
appeal to have his case heard by Caesar himself. He was imprisoned there for
approximately two years.
Contrary to what I thought as a teen and young adult, Paul did not die in Rome. Not that time at least.
I had my chronology muddled for years. In any case, even if martyrdom was
not the result, we can reasonably conclude these four-plus years in Roman custody
were not exactly fun and games.
And they were entirely voluntary.
Labels:
Acts
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Apostle Paul
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Guidance
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Will of God
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Faith, Fear and Prudence
Christians are entering troubled times.
I suspect we are already well on our way into a thick and rather gloomy forest, but because the sunlight has
been diminishing only a very little bit with each passing step, some of us have
been less attentive than others about exactly how far into the underbrush we really are.
When Alex Jones’ InfoWars was recently deplatformed by Apple, YouTube (Google), Facebook and
Spotify, few evangelicals noticed or cared. Most have no idea who Alex Jones is
in the first place, and many of those who do recognize the name are still getting their
news from CNN or other mainstream sources that despise Jones and his ilk and view them as unwanted and amateurish competition.
In any case, Jones’ speedy purge perturbed few. I would argue we need to start paying a bit more attention.
Labels:
Persecution
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Social Justice
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Social Media
Monday, January 14, 2019
Anonymous Asks (22)
“What if I have doubts about my faith? What should I do?”
I’m going to try to answer this in a very general way, since
you don’t specify any particular issue that is troubling you.
I like to think of faith as that not-quite-quantifiable thing
that bridges the gap between the evidence I already have in front of me and
my will to act on that evidence. That’s not a theological definition, but it
works for me. Properly understood, the biblical definition,
“the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” seems to me to amount to much the same thing.
Labels:
Anonymous Asks
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Faith
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Hebrews
Sunday, January 13, 2019
Criticism and Grace
The apostle Paul (and Timothy) to the church of God in
Corinth:
“For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it —
though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you,
though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were
grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly
grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas
worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has
produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation,
what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.”
You may already know the background here …
Labels:
1 Corinthians
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2 Corinthians
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Apostle Paul
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Discipline
Saturday, January 12, 2019
How Not to Crash and Burn (41)
There’s a little something for almost
everybody in this week’s selection of proverbs: children, parents and seniors, alcoholics
and other people with out-of-control habits, and most especially their enablers.
Even the envious get a quick name-check.
Never let it be said that the Bible isn’t
practical …
Labels:
Discipline
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How Not to Crash and Burn
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Proverbs
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Self-Control
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Thirty Sayings
Friday, January 11, 2019
Too Hot to Handle: Does Your Building Matter?
In which our regular
writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.
Tom: I’m prowling
the Internet, as is my wont, and encountering discussion on the subject of
whether a church building can impede one’s efforts to grow a local church. Take
for example this meditation, from Abby Stocker at Christianity Today:
“Our worship spaces matter. The music, preaching, and
community obviously influence our church experience, but building styles also
communicate something to the congregation about what is proper in worship. A
central stage outfitted with a drumset probably means the music will be
emotional and modern. Feel free to wave your hands, dance, however the Spirit
leads you. Kneelers will probably be dedicated to congregational, possibly liturgical,
prayer. Space for a mosh pit signifies ... you’re probably not at, say, a small
intimate gathering based primarily on discussion of a text.”
So here we are, left to consider how the apostle Paul might
have felt about a mosh pit. Immanuel Can, please help me out here.
Labels:
Building Up
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Church
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Edification
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Recycling
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Too Hot to Handle
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