(Developing a relationship with your Creator is a bit different than getting to know a new neighbor, co-worker, or classmate. Duh! But there are some similarities. For instance, openness to and tolerance for differences, not to mention humility and sincerity, can help grease the relational skids. The following is offered in the sincere belief that […]
Don’t Bite the Book that Feeds You, Part II: Go Woke, Wind Up Spiritually Broke The profundities of scripture are unlikely to be unlocked through the lens of 21st century wokeness. Examining scripture in light of woke sensibilities tends to result in finger-wagging at God and concluding that He falls miserably short of one’s own […]
Don’t Bite the Book That Feeds You, Part III: The Exclusivity Bugaboo In the pluralistic West, aversion to the Bible’s insistence on “one true God” is endemic. Our democratic mindset as regards governance is partially to blame. The American Constitution, a transcendent breakthrough in governmental architecture, guarantees the right to worship or not to worship […]
Don’t Bite the Book That Feeds You, Part IV: “Your Family and Culture Made You a Christian!” If you reject Christianity’s exclusivity because it is the dominant system of belief in your culture, as that presumably would encourage you to look down upon non-Christian cultures, you won’t have avoided the charge of ethnocentrism. Tim Keller […]
Don’t Bite the Book that Feeds You, Part V: Don’t Assume Grace and Judgment Can’t Co-Exist Many refrain from reading the Old Testament because of a mis-impression it is all about God’s wrath, and devoid of any mercy and grace. Some folks reject a God of judgment out of hand, without considering whether a God […]
Don’t Bite the Book that Feeds You, Part VI: Conclusion Bible critics may reject its inspiration and authority, but then where do they get their ideas of justice, human dignity and rights, compassion, and so forth? If you were raised in America, such ideas unavoidably were drawn from the bible, the foundational book of Western […]
How many Christian men and women owe their faith to a praying grandmother? Heaven is full of saints with praying grandmothers. […]
Do Christians Freely Choose Christ if God has Foreordained it? Part II: The Christian’s Role (Pre-Ramble: In Part I, we discussed three key decisions that bring an unbeliever to faith in Christ: God’s choice, an intercessor’s choice, and the believer’s choice. We covered God’s choice here in Part I, but now we’re skipping over the […]
Do Christians Freely Choose Christ if God has Foreordained it? Part I: God’s Choice Becoming a Christian generally involves (at least) three choices1: 1) God chooses a person to be saved; 2) A believer chooses to intercede in prayer on behalf of that person; 3) A believer chooses to follow Christ. Some reformed […]
Grace and Truce: The Cutting Edge of Christmas (Audio and Text) “Glory to God in the highest,and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” Luke 2:14 I want to share some thoughts on the message from the assembly of angels (“heavenly host”) in the Gospel of Luke, right after the angel’s announcement […]