The Gospel Reinvisioned

What if I told you there is a place where every wrong will eventually be made right, where every hurt is healed? A place where everything broken will be fixed, and where every one is freed from themselves so they can be whom they are supposed to be. Would you be interested? There is a place, and you have an open invitation. You can enter into the country of abundant life.

But this is a different kind of place, and only a different kind of person can see it. In order to be in this new country, you have to become a new person. In order to be fit for this kingdom, you must know the king’s son. You must become his student, his apprentice. If you think you have it figured out, if you think you have made yourself good enough on your own, you Continue reading →

Do We Assume God’s Role in Evangelism?

A while ago I was reading a book (The Divine Conspiracy I believe) which talked about God being in charge and in control of your life. It caused me to think, “How often do we take charge of something which is God’s responsibility?” This starts in our own lives. How often do we try and fix ourselves and try to conform ourselves to Christ? In reality, Christ directs us to follow him and he will transform us. This is difficult to explain because it is a subtle even if important difference. Our responsibility is to love him, follow him, and love those around us. Everything else is his responsibility.

I learned long ago that the first thing to understand in evangelizing is that it is God who works in people’s lives. We don’t save anyone; Continue reading →

Book Review: The Bible Tells Me So…

“The Bible Tells Me So…” is a recently published book by Peter Enns. He offers a summary on the cover: “Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It”. The book came across to me as though Enns was frustrated and has a bone to pick. The purpose of the book is to try argue that the way many Christians—specifically those more conservative—understand the Bible is wrong and to convince these people of the correct way (according to Enns).

I am actually on board with Enns’ premise, explained through the first chapter: we need to try and understand the Bible as it is, in it’s ancient context, as opposed to trying to fit it into our expectations of an encyclopedia or modern textbook. We should be honest about it: there are a Continue reading →

Being a Real Victim Verses Victim Mentality

I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard a lot about “playing the victim” or “having a victim mentality”. This is condemned as bad and unhelpful. A friend of mine pointed out that, if not balanced, this could be used to shame and blame honest victims. It’s true that the way some people talk, it’s as though it’s not acceptable to actually be a victim. But I believe it is healthy and necessary to recognize when a true wrong has been committed and therefore victimization has occurred.

I heard a speaker recently talk about the problem of a person over-emphasizing how they’ve hurt others, or for other people, how they have been hurt. The speaker had said that balance is needed in recognizing how you have been hurt, how you have hurt others, Continue reading →

Jesus the (Only) Way?

One point of contention among people is how most religions claim they are exclusively correct. Of course there are many people out there who disagree and hold that there are numerous paths and that all religions are basically the same. And I agree with this—in part. I believe there are many paths to spirituality. (Many people seem to think religion is just about spirituality.)

I think of religion as a set of dogmas to defend and actions to perform or abstain from. But I think the new order Jesus established is specifically un-religious. The Jews had an elaborate religious system. Jesus doesn’t break it—he supersedes it. For Jesus, it’s not about dogmas or rules, it’s about attitudes and character.

I don’t believe Jesus is Continue reading →

Do You Know What is Biblical?

Evangelicals talk about being biblical a lot. Do you know what is and isn’t biblical? I find that many Christians don’t actually know the Bible that well. Too often when a Christian talks about biblical, what they actually have in mind is something which they heard a speaker or author say is biblical. On top of this, many conservative evangelicals have the view that everyone else is against us and therefore we need to fight others in order to support our beliefs. So some Christians are ready to fight to the proverbial death over something which they were only taught is biblical and important, but isn’t something they know to be biblical from having read and understood the Bible for themselves. My point in writing this is to encourage and Continue reading →

Questions: God’s Love?

Dale Fincher recently shared a short video in which a pair of prominent theologians speak. He used this as a launching point for discussing God’s love. This video sparked a number of questions in my mind. Watch the video and consider the following:

What do you think? Is it dangerous to share God’s love? Does that make people apathetic? What do we mean (or think of) when we talk about love and/or God’s love? Do we think of love only as soft and sappy? Does Jesus fit our picture of love? Do people need to have the “hell scared out of them”? Is the fear of God’s wrath the door to salvation? For everyone? Or do only some people need this? Does God’s love need to be balanced with “truth” or “wrath”, etc.? Are those things in tension? Does God “detest the wicked”?

photo credit: Lex”i”con via photopin Continue reading →

Quotes From “Life After Art”

Select quotes from “Life After Art” by Matt Appling.

(As a young child) “Creating just made you incredibly, unabashedly happy, fulfilled, and satisfied… That moment in time so long ago was the freest you have ever been in your entire life.” (p. 23)

“Somewhere along the way children learn that failure is something to be feared, rather than to be learned from and embraced.” (p. 113)

“Fear of failure looms over everyone in some way. Somewhere in your life, you are holding back, hiding yourself from others, despite what you want to do. You want to do something fun. You want to share with others. You want to be generous with yourself. But you perceive the consequences of failure to be too great. So you become a self-fulfilling Continue reading →

Worrying About Giving the Appearance of Sin Is Not Biblical

I’ve addressed this before but it has come up again. I think it’s worth revisiting. The idea that Christians should avoid appearing like they might be sinning is (in my impression) a widely held belief among conservative evangelicals. Since this is my background, I was surprised to discover not too long ago that this idea isn’t biblical. This stems from a misunderstanding of 1 Thessalonians 5:22 in certain English translations. The King James version translates this verse as “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” With few exceptions, the only other translations to use the word “appearance” are either other versions of the King James or are themselves well over a century old. Nearly all modern translations say “every form of evil” or “every Continue reading →

Questions: Relationships

  • Do you believe that God should be the one to fulfill all our needs? Does the fact that God said it wasn’t good for Adam to be alone (Genesis 2:18) conflict with this idea?
  • In saying it wasn’t good for Adam to be alone, did God mean that it wasn’t good for Adam to be unmarried or simply without other human companionship?
  • Is family merely biological or something else?
  • What is the difference between friendship and marriage?
  • What is the purpose of dating? Marriage? Friendship? Family?
  • Where does the idea that one’s spouse should be their best friend come from?
  • What is the relative importance/priority of various relationships: spouse, friends, family, other members of your church? From where do these priorities come?