The words of the Bible can be like cut flowers. The words of Jesus, like the laws of Moses, can be selectively chosen and arranged for anyone’s temporary purposes and enjoyment. But once the words are sheared from the stem and root of the story they are telling, they begin to fade in significance like [...]
Malachi, the last prophet of the Hebrew Scriptures, quoted God as saying, “I am the LORD, I do not change” (3:6 NKJV). Down through the centuries, however, many have noticed that, somewhere between the Old and New Testaments, the God of the Bible does seem to change. Instead of sending down war, floods, fire, and [...]
Sleigh bells jingle. But what jangles? The question surfaced as I bumped into the word in a King James version of the Bible. When I checked another version, I saw that “jangling” was a 17th century way of describing the sound of empty talk. According to the Apostle Paul, it can happen when someone tries [...]
What did Jesus mean when he said that “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27)? Could people be more important than the laws of God? The question is similar to the business-related question we’ve been discussing the last couple of days: Are people and relationships more important than [...]
Over the years I have occasionally noticed the similarity between my own values and those held by the enemies of Jesus. According to the New Testament and the first century Jewish historian, Josephus, the Pharisees were: People of the Book—Devoted to the memorization and study of the Law. Lovers of God—Deeply committed to the God [...]
Many of us are trying to understand why an army sergeant turned his weapon on five fellow soldiers at a stress clinic in the outskirts of Baghdad. What was going through the mind of a man who already had his gun taken away before coming up with another? (See article here) The soldier had three [...]
When Paul acknowledges in his 1st letter to the Corinthians that “All things are lawful” (1Cor 6:12), he uses a word that occurs about 40 times in the New Testament regarding whether a behavior is legally permissible. Since Paul adds in another letter that we are under grace, not law (Rom 6:14-15), how do we [...]
What if followers of Jesus won every election for leadership and public policy? What if, in the process, we collectively earned a reputation for being a decent and honest people? What if we were universally regarded, not as self-righteous, money-loving, hypocrites, but as faithful, sincere advocates of personal and social morality? What if all of [...]
There are a number of reasons to have issues with the Apostle Paul. Even Peter acknowledged that Paul had written things hard to understand (2Peter 3:14-18). But in addition to the fact that, in this text, Peter acknowledged Paul’s God-given wisdom and grouped his letters with “other Scripture,” here are some things I think we [...]
Hate crimes have a long history. Followers of Christ living under the Caesars were victims of torture and death. So were Jews under the Third Reich, Native Americans in the land of their birth, and Africans who were kidnapped, sold into slavery, used, bred, and traded like domestic animals. By nature, hate crimes are contrary [...]