Blessed by Blogging Disagreements
There have been several posts in the last week that several people have had disagreements with. I am really happy about that. The reason is not because I like disagreement but because people have been so kind. Usually when people on blogs or websites disagree there is this kind of slow-motion shouting match that takes […]
Law, Grace, and Love – Think in Terms of Wedding Vows
It is clear as can be that the New Testament contains commandments and the Old Testament contains grace. So it is hard to draw lines between them when it comes to what God was looking for in each. I tend to think he was looking for the same thing in both testaments. He was looking […]
The Crucifixion of Christ
We don’t like to leave Christ on the cross for very long. Our theology often gets in a rush to the resurrection. But the resurrection lacks its own possibility if you exclude the crucifixion of Christ. Anyone who has watched the movie The Passion of the Christ was moved by the brutality of what Jesus […]
What Role Do We Play in Our Own Salvation? – Colossians 1:22-23
I think Paul sums up the partnership we have with God very nicely in Colossians 1:22-23, “But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move […]
The Old and New Testaments Have the Same Message
Fortunately over the last 30 years there have been significant voices trying to break the Christian misconception that the Old testament was a book of commandment keeping with little to do with love and grace and the New Testament was more about love and grace and less about commandment keeping. What had been overlooked in […]
Ten Reflections on the Importance of Scripture
I really do love the Bible. It has meant so much to me in both the peaks and the valleys of life. It is like a long standing relationship that just gets better and better with age. I have had the times when the Bible fell open to just the right text at just the […]
Attractional or Distractional – Part 1
We hear a lot about attractional models of worship, evangelism, and all the rest “doing church.” I wonder at what point attractional becomes distractional. Moving Away from Worship as Penance: I don’t want you to mishear me here. I am not trying to say the duller and more irrelevant our worship services are the more […]
“Falling into Sin” – A Phrase We Need to Drop
I hear it all the time. It sounds so passive. I did it again…I fell into sin. It’s like a “woops” or an “uh oh.” I was walking along just doing the best I could and the next thing I knew I was flat on my back looking up at the sky…I slipped. I fell […]
How Do You Motivate Once Guilt is Removed?
People still think of the Sunday morning service as the “have to” part of Christianity. There is no doubt about it in my mind. Why else would many churches only get 30-50% return, if that, on Wednesday night? Things that have led to our current situation: The motivation of guilt is being removed. Some used […]
Effective Evangelism – The Difference Between Conversion and Subversion
One of the things that gets people in trouble when it comes to evangelism is trying to subert people rather than convert them. The word subvert comes from a combination of the words sub – from beneath and the Latin vertere – to turn. The word convert is similar but rather than turning from beneath […]