Christianity 100: Defining Love

It seems like love is misunderstood. I don’t think this is a news flash really. I believe that love is a central, foundational part of the Christian faith. However, I run into many people who seem to almost regret that love is included at all. One author nearly said that love wasn’t biblical. I’ve heard several friends say something along the lines of “We need more (fill in the blank), as opposed to love.” The only thing I can figure from this is that many people have a real misunderstanding of what love is.

To be fair, we use the word love in many different ways. For example, in Greek there are four or so words for the different types of things for which we use the one English word “love”. This doesn’t help in understanding love. My Continue reading →

Can Conservative Rules Harm Women?


“I felt shame every time I was in a situation where a man would not meet with me, or ride with me, or talk with me simply because I was female. Those situations told me that there was something fundamentally wrong, and that my gender was a big problem.” (read the whole article for context)

Ladies, any thoughts? Have you felt this way?

As a guy, I’ve never thought of this before. I come from a background that taught being careful and not getting into tempting situations. At times people on the more conservative side would give a list of “rules” which shouldn’t be broken. I’m processing all of this, and what I’m coming up with is this: most any good thing can be taken too far. It is good to be careful, to try and do the right Continue reading →

Books I’ve Read This Past Year

I didn’t keep track, so I believe I read all of these in the past year. I may have also finished some others which I have forgotten.

  • Organic Church – Neil Cole
  • Search & Rescue (a.k.a. Ordinary Hero) – Neil Cole
  • Organic Leadership – Neil Cole
  • God’s Not Dead (and neither are we) (a.k.a. First and Forgotten) – Jerry Wilson
  • Christ In Y’all – Neil Carter
  • Blue Like Jazz – Donald Miller
  • Searching for God Knows What – Donald Miller
  • Mastering Audio – Bob Katz
  • Has Christianity Failed You? – Ravi Zacharias
  • One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven – Mark Cahill

  • Transformation – Bob Roberts Jr. (I can’t remember if I started or finished this last year or this year)

Book Review: “One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven”

Overview

I recently read the book “One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven” by Mark Cahill. I must admit, the title alone turned me off. It said to me that the author held to a common view of evangelism, one which I believe has some significant shortcomings. However, since a group I am a part of was studying it, I wanted to read it for myself and give it a fair chance. (Disclaimer: I have limited the scope of this article such that I am unable to fully develop and argue every point I bring up; to do so would to be to write a full book on evangelism.)

Overall, I found many positive things in the book. Nevertheless, I also have many criticisms, most of which are ironically tied to the compliments. The problem is that, in my opinion, Continue reading →

Funeral PSA

Up until two or three years ago, I thought that funerals were just for the people who knew the deceased. But I’ve learned that they are a good opportunity to show support to the friends and family of the deceased. It seems like such a small thing, and it doesn’t change the situation, but I believe people usually appreciate the support.

Friendship With the Opposite Sex, Addendum

Recently I wrote about non-“romantic” friendships between people of the opposite sex. After reviewing the comments and doing some pondering, I came up with a couple of further thoughts. First, I believe part of the idea is that it is healthy for us to have close friendships with multiple people. Generally speaking, we all need more than we can get from one person. To expect to have all our relational needs (love, encouragement, support, etc.) met through a single person is quite likely a recipe for frustration. I previously suggested that close friendships between people of the opposite sex are possible and can be rewarding. However if one (or both) of the people has no other close friendships, that cross-gender friendship will quite Continue reading →

The Message, Bible Translations

It is my understanding that there are many people who have issues with “The Message” translation of the bible. On one end, some people feel a need to always preface it by explaining “it’s a paraphrase” (in other words, not a “real” translation). On the other end of the spectrum, people feel it is a dangerous misrepresentation, leading people astray because of its perceived lack of accuracy. The Message does have its quirks, however I don’t have a problem calling a translation for several reasons.

First of all, in discussing translations, it is imperative to understand that there is no such thing as an exact word-for-word translation. Studying at least one language beyond one’s own primary language is beneficial for learning much Continue reading →