My thoughts

Verse mining is a practice that is done by both sides of the coin. Both believers and unbelievers. Those who wish to prove or defend the faith and those who wish to denigrate it. It is a practice that will ALWAYS lead to a shallower (at best) or horrifically wrong representation of all things God. We have hundreds, nay thousands of denominations, partly as a result of verse mining. What is verse mining? It is simply taking a single verse or passage, paying no mind to the rest of Scripture, either the immediate context of that verse or passage, or Scripture as a whole. One of the most egregious examples of this is what is known as the “prosperity gospel”. It is…

You can’t read a story nowadays without the word identity, or some variation of it, being included, if not it being the main thought in the piece. Most often the context of the subject has to do with the LGBTQ+ community. But, as I read these stories of people identifying as this and that and listen to the reactions to this from all sides of the issue, I was struck by how many who identify as Christian reacted. The reactions were all over the place, but, sadly, many were quite harsh, hateful, and judgmental, all of which are decidedly un or non-Christian in nature. And, while there is much to discuss on the subject of LGBTQ+, I was more interested in the…

Is the American Church prepared to exist in a post Christian America? Let me make clear what I mean by post-Christian American. First of all, I do not mean to suggest that American as a nation was ever Christian. No nation, as a whole, can be such. Only the individual can be a Christian. However, it is accurate to say “Christian American” in this sense. Since its founding, America has treated Christianity as a favorite son. Holding to the basic principles and tenets of its teachings, many would call this a Christian nation. Even those of an atheistic bent held to a “Ten Commandment-ish” morality. Christianity has enjoyed favored status for centuries and most who lived here professed Christianity. Those days are…

Most generations look back on history to see the changes in a society and culture. The church is in an amazing position to know the One who knows the future. Unfortunately, we, as fallen, finite, and fallible creatures, rarely take advantage of this. Today, we can see the relatively early stages of a major change in the history of our Western culture. I think we can all agree that the once favored place that Christianity held in the west has been slowly but steadily eroded. This knowledge should not make us fearful. It certainly isn’t the first time Christianity has fallen out of favor. It should however be a wakeup call for the Church. No longer is it sufficient to simply proclaim…

One of the arguments we hear from those in the LGBTQ+ community, seeking to normalize homosexuality and other gender forms within this community, is that they were “born this way” and they are just identifying as their “true” self, rather than the “self” that was foisted upon them at birth and that society (until recently) has forced them to live in. Is “born that way” a legitimate argument for a person with same-sex attraction (homosexual)? Is “born that way” a legitimate argument for any behavior? Can a person who professes Christ, for instance, use this argument to legitimately continue a homosexual lifestyle and be a follower of Christian teaching? Let’s first look at a couple of other examples of “born this way”…

  Today is called the Trans Day of Visibility. I didn’t know this until this morning when I saw it on my Yahoo homepage. Along with this, or more accurately as a result of this, there were many stories regarding the “T” in LGBTQ+. A couple of the stories were of those who identify as Trans and how freeing it was to finally be “honest” about who they are. They went on to describe how they live lives that are similar if not exactly like the rest of society, but for the fact that they identify as Trans. A couple other stories where about laws in several states that have passed or are attempting to be passed that are identified by the…

At our good Friday service, we briefly looked at the Last Supper narrative. Here we have Jesus, among other things, telling his disciples that one of them will betray Him this very day. “Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.” That statement alone would have been an attention getter. “The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking.” Ok, so they definitely were all ears now. They hear His declaration of the betrayal. It was clear that they were all paying attention to the subject at hand. They were no longer distracted by other conversations that were taking place at the table. “There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.  So, Simon…

I grew up in an “independent / fundamental” Baptist Church. There was a huge list of “dos” and “don’ts” that was our primary understanding of life. Our world view was to grudgingly hold to this list for fear of offending God and being sent to hell. Of course, in our own delusion, we lived as if it wasn’t so much wrong to do these things as it was to get caught. The “don’ts” were basically: no dancing, no going to the movies, no smoking, no playing cards (except for the game, Rook. For some reason this card game escaped the condemnation of the “fundys”), certainly no sex before marriage, no gambling, no sports on Sunday, and probably a few more that I…

What is the goal of parenting? I think to put it in a very condensed nutshell; it is to “train a child up in the way they should go.” Of course, that’s the easy part; defining the goal. Now, application, methodology, etc., this is what all the books have been written about. It seems to me that to some extent, most authors have approached the subject from an outcome based perspective rather than what I would consider a more biblical, obedience based approach. What do I mean by this distinction? An outcome-based perspective would simply be to find what works and go with it. However, the Scripture spells out very clearly that we are to live in obedience, and while our obedience…