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Thursday, April 30, 2020
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Hope, and the Problem with People
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Hope
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Soren Kierkegaard
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Quitting Before the Final Whistle
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Hope
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Soren Kierkegaard
Monday, April 27, 2020
Anonymous Asks (90)
“Why should I talk about my faith at school?”
Here’s a thought: maybe you shouldn’t. Or at least, maybe
you shouldn’t make some kind of formal policy out of it.
When I was growing up, we recited the Lord’s Prayer in
public schools. There was something close to a common consensus that the
Christian faith encouraged character qualities which, if not practiced by
everybody you knew, were at least almost universally acknowledged as values we’d
like our kids to have. And if helping your children learn the merits of honesty,
loyalty, hard work, persistence, hope, patience and kindness could be
accomplished by telling them stories about Jesus, most parents were okay with
sending their kids off to Sunday School too.
Labels:
Anonymous Asks
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School
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Witnessing
Sunday, April 26, 2020
The Point of Faith
“I will show him how much he
must suffer for the sake of my name.”
Imagine for a second that at the time you came to Christ you
had been told that your life from this day forward was to be characterized by
people throwing rocks at you, telling lies about you, betraying you and letting you down, calling you names,
hitting you, throwing you in jail and trying to kill you. Moreover, in addition
to all the abuse you could expect as a matter of course from your fellow man
for the sake of your testimony to Christ, you could also expect more than your fair
share of all the nasty, apparently random things that happen to people the
world over: getting mugged, having to work hard, getting no sleep, getting
sick, suffering chronic pain from old injuries, lacking food and having your
transportation fail regularly in spectacular and dangerous ways.
Would that have changed anything? Might a bout of frantic
back-peddling have ensued?
In some cases, maybe.
Labels:
Apostle Paul
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Christ
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Jordan Peterson
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Suffering
Saturday, April 25, 2020
Time and Chance (33)
Once upon a time, one of the richest, most powerful and wisest men in all of human history set himself the task of discovering the meaning of life. He found himself frustrated. He also recorded his search step by step for us in the book of Ecclesiastes. He added one observation to another seeking to uncover what he calls “the scheme of things”.
In doing so, oddly enough, he found himself repeatedly looking not just at the created world, or
at society, but at individual men and women. In their own existential thrashing about, the more alert unbelievers today do exactly the same thing: they look around at
others in hope of finding lives well-lived and lifestyles worth emulating — people of integrity and consistency — and, informing those qualities, perhaps some coherent explanation of our place in the universe that will satisfy their thirst for meaning and purpose.
After all, you are not terribly likely to discover a coherent worldview in a brothel or under a barroom table,
are you?
Labels:
Ecclesiastes
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Meaning
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Time and Chance
Friday, April 24, 2020
Too Hot to Handle: A Methodist to Their Madness
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Denominations
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Multi-Site Churches
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Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, April 23, 2020
Ten Commandments That Failed
It seems morbid, perhaps, to be raising the topic of 9/11 going on two decades later. It was a
sad, bitter moment, one that we might all wish to forget.
But wisdom does not always come quickly, and events of this magnitude take a very long time to
understand. There are some things which are best left unsaid in the heat of
the moment, but are better brought slowly to the surface when due time has
passed. Such is the case with what I am writing today.
Even now, the fall of the World Trade Towers is not an easy subject.
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Fifth Business
Facing pressure from his publisher to explain the meaning of his new book’s title, Canadian novelist Robertson Davies cooked up the following phony quote:
“Those roles which, being neither those of hero nor Heroine, Confidante nor Villain, but which were none the less essential to bring about the Recognition or the denouement were called the Fifth Business in drama and Opera companies organized according to the old style; the player who acted these parts was often referred to as Fifth Business.”
I read the otherwise-rather-grubby novel in my teens and the only part of it that stuck with me was the term Fifth Business. It seemed like a very apt description of a lot of people’s lives, I thought at the time.
They used to be called bit players. Nowadays we give them awards and call them character actors.
Labels:
Baptism
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Christ
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John the Baptist
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Recycling
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Above My Pay Grade
“That’s above my pay grade,” said the former senator.
It was 2008. The subject was abortion. Presidential candidate Barack Obama had been asked, “At what point does a baby get human rights?”
At bare minimum, his response indicated an aversion to being
pinned down on the subject and a desire to avoid conflict over the issue as he
campaigned to be president of the United States of America. There were “larger issues” at stake, he
undoubtedly thought. He was prepared to let evil slide for the sake of what he
perceived to be the “greater good”, which presumably included his assumption of the presidency.
Monday, April 20, 2020
Anonymous Asks (89)
“Is physical healing part of Christ’s atonement?”
There is a sense in which it is. Revelation speaks of the
leaves of the tree of life, which are “for the
healing of the nations”. We also read that in the New Jerusalem, “death
shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning,
nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Without the sacrifice of Christ we would have none of this to look forward to.
All our hopes for eternity are tied up in him. Everything we have now and
ever will have is a direct result of his death on the cross.
But that’s obviously not what’s being asked.
Labels:
Anonymous Asks
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Healing
Sunday, April 19, 2020
91 and 19
You will surely remember Psalm 91.
That’s the one which begins, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty ...” It’s often
attributed to Moses, and is famous for being very comforting — I heard it read
at a funeral recently — and even more so for being quoted
by Satan in his temptation of the Lord Jesus.
It also includes two statements which we might be inclined
to try to apply to nasty little flu viruses that kill people, among other
things: “For he will deliver you from ... the deadly pestilence” and “no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.” On a
quick reading, it sounds as if dwelling in the shelter of the Most High and
making God our refuge is the ticket out of most of the unpleasant and disturbing
things that can happen to us in this life — not just new and virulent diseases, but
war and
wild beasts and even
unfortunate accidents — as well as being the absolute guarantee of
a long life. What a sweet spot to live in!
But does 91 really apply to COVID-19? Can Christians reasonably claim its promises in connection with the current pandemic?
I hate to be a party-pooper, but a careful reading of scripture does not
allow us to appropriate this familiar psalm for our own comfort quite so freely.
Saturday, April 18, 2020
Time and Chance (32)
“A man’s got to know his limitations.”
I have a feeling that’s an old Clint Eastwood line from somewhere. At any rate, the next six verses
of Ecclesiastes are all about human limitations in a fallen world. Verses 19
and 20 have to do with mankind’s moral limitations, verses 21-22 with our interpersonal limitations, and verses 23-34 with our philosophical limitations.
Basically, we are sinners who don’t get along. Moreover, outside of God’s word, we are incapable of
coming up with any reasonable explanation why that might be. We don’t act
right, we don’t socialize right, and we don’t think right. That’s a fairly
hefty indictment.
Labels:
Ecclesiastes
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Morality
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Philosophy
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Society
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Time and Chance
Friday, April 17, 2020
Too Hot to Handle: Days of Programs Past
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Too Hot to Handle
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Youth
Thursday, April 16, 2020
A Dose of Worldliness
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Christian Music
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
God’s Photo Album
The Bible is full of pictures.
Now, illustrations — whether they are symbols, metaphors,
or even when they come in the form of full-blown parables — are not
reality, and it does us good to keep that in mind. They are useful snapshots in
which we may catch glimpses of ourselves, of God, and of spiritual truths we
might otherwise miss. To ensure we don’t, God has given them to us in a form we
can easily process and relate to, one which often stirs an emotional reaction
that can bring us to repentance, awe, appreciation or some other good state. For
example, Nathan’s story about the
poor man’s ewe lamb drove David into a righteous rage ... until he
realized the story was all about him.
Labels:
Figurative Language
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Parables
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Symbolism
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Can a Mormon be Saved?
In a recent post, Amy Hall at Stand to Reason entertains the possibility that some Mormons may be saved. It’s a
thoughtful piece, and Hall describes several conversations she’s had with LDS
members that are enlightening as to the differences between Mormons and Christians
in terms of our hopes, goals and understanding of Jesus Christ and what he has
done for us. In the end, she concludes a saved Mormon is theoretically possible but doubtful.
I found myself more or less agreeing with Hall: LDS theology
is pretty far removed from the Christian faith in many respects. It would be
difficult to imagine attending an LDS gathering for any great length of time
without cluing in to that fact.
Labels:
Denominations
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Orthodoxy
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Salvation
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Sects
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Stand to Reason
Monday, April 13, 2020
Anonymous Asks (88)
“What should I say when someone morally offends me?”
When you set out to correct people, one of several things may
happen: (1) they reject your advice and never think about it again; (2) they
reject your advice now, but take it to heart later when they have time to
reflect; (3) they accept your correction politely, but only in order to
get you to stop talking and go away; or (4) they accept your correction
politely and actually learn from it.
It also happens occasionally that your intended target rejects
your advice, but other people come to know of it and benefit from it. That
is not the ideal outcome, but it is still a pretty good one.
Labels:
Anonymous Asks
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Offences
Sunday, April 12, 2020
The Fate of the Coward
We are living in scary times. People are afraid.
Biblical fear can be good or bad. Perfected
love banishes it, but in a fallen world, fully mature love is a rarity and
fear still serves the
occasional valid purpose in God’s dealings with us. For one, Christians are
encouraged to bring our pursuit of holiness to completion “in the fear
of God”. For another, fear sometimes gets your attention in a busy world when
nothing else will.
Our modern translations tell us one of the things the
miracles of Christ regularly produced was awe,
usually accompanied by giving glory to God. The word for “awe” in Greek is phobos, more commonly translated “fear”.
This is fear at its most useful.
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Time and Chance (31)
Anecdotal evidence is not
conclusive in any court, but it’s still evidence. What you have observed in
this life has a profound effect on what you believe. What you think you’ve observed may have an even
greater influence on you.
So what is it that really matters? What sort of life would your neighbors call “good”? There are very few
people out there who haven’t yet decided. Some of them are making very silly
choices, but they are still making them. Having “seen everything” (in their estimation),
they are now deciding what course of action makes the most sense for them. If
you ask them nicely, they will often tell you why.
Labels:
Choices
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Ecclesiastes
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Time and Chance
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