My thoughts

Presupposition: to suppose or assume beforehand; take for granted in advance. I’ve often talked about conversations I’ve had with people online. People of all different beliefs. Relatively recently, I had a conversation with a guy that comes from roughly the same background as me, that being fundamentalist Baptist. He experienced much the same on the negative side of things in that environment that I did. The difference between where he is today and where I am today is the result of what could be described as, “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”. He has gone through a process known as deconstruction. It would take much longer than I care to take here to fully describe what that process is and his current status of belief , so I will just…

Something I appreciate about modern society is that it is thought provoking to the extreme. When I was young, I had no idea how much thought would be necessary in the future. If it’s true what they say that exercising your brain helps stave off things like dementia and other “old age” problems, I figure I should be the mental equivalent of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s physique, that is to say the physique of his competition days. One of the things that is most prevalent in modern society is what I would call advocacy. Advocacy is defined as: the act of pleading for, supporting, or recommending; active espousal. Of course, we are all advocates of one thing or another. There is nothing wrong with advocating for something or someone. However, the proper place…

In present day society, when there are two positions on a subject, there is rarely the putting forth of a case for one of the positions. Rather, more often than not, each side denigrates the other or seeks to distort and exaggerate the opposing position. We see this most often and most blatantly in politics, but not politics exclusively. Neither side appears to be interested in an honest exchange of ideas nor do most seem to have the slightest interest in actually understanding the opposing position. Once key words enter the conversation, each side begins broad brushing and caricaturing the other and this turns off the intellectual process of seeing clearly what is being said. Each side writes the other off as…

The further away one gets from the origin, the more distorted the original gets. We can see this on two primary fronts. First of all, as a nation, established as a constitutionally limited republic, this is evident in the lack of knowledge of, and unwillingness to enforce and continue what the creators of that document (the constitution) said, meant, and intended. Secondly, on the moral front. The sin of man has been consistent from the days of Adam, so don’t get me wrong that I’m suggesting that things are worse now than ever. Not the case. However, speaking about my lifetime (nearly 7 decades), this is the case. We have lost our will to fight the real enemy. Again, the church falls…

Even when Peter chastised Jesus for saying that He was going to suffer and die, and did so out of a kind of innocence/ignorance, Jesus’ response was direct. Of course, Peter’s rebuke was based on what he perceived to be the cause that he was following. It was founded in his wishful thinking. Peter, as I’m sure we could say of most of the other disciples and the throngs of people that followed after Jesus, had his own agenda. He had his own idea of what a “messiah” needed to do. He had his own idea of what they needed to be saved from. He probably looked around himself as we do today and made a judgment call on what the solution…

"Much of today’s world is dominated by ideologies which, if not totally false, are alien to the gospel of Christ. We may talk of “conquering” the world for Christ, but what sort of “conquest” do we mean? Not a victory of force by arms. Our Christian crusade is far different from the shameful crusades of the Middle Ages. Listen to Paul’s description of the battle. “Our war is not fought with the weapons of flesh, yet they are strong enough, in God’s cause, to demolish fortresses. We demolish sophistries, and the arrogance that tries to resist the knowledge of God; every thought is our prisoner, captured to be brought into obedience to Christ.” This is a battle of ideas, God’s truth overpowering…

When we are young, all things old seem insignificant. We roll our eyes at dad’s jokes, we scoff at mom’s warnings to be careful, and we tolerate Grandpa’s stories of bygone eras. When we look at those who came before us, we see a hardness, a rigidness, sometimes a sadness that is almost repulsive. Youth has its own energy. It is an energy that is self-sustaining, though limited in its scope. It is self absorbed and ignorant of its own ignorance. It is an energy that looks out on the world with no frame of reference, no sense of consequence or what is real. If it is not careful, it will become its own worst enemy. Youth was never meant to be…

“In this most awkward cultural predicament, evangelicals must be excruciatingly clear that we do not speak about the sinfulness of homosexuality as if we have no sin. As a matter of fact, it is precisely because we have come to know ourselves as sinners and of our need for a savior that we have come to faith in Jesus Christ. Our greatest fear is not that homosexuality will be normalized and accepted, but that homosexuals will not come to know of their own need for Christ and the forgiveness of their sins.” (Albert Mohler) Dr. Mohler made this statement a couple years ago in a post on his blog. Given the headlines of late, I thought it was a good jumping off…

It is contrary to our nature to invite criticism. I know I don’t like it when someone points out an apparent or potential flaw in my thinking. None of us want to think that we may be wrong. In fact, we go to great lengths to protect our perceived "rightness". For the Christian, this may be one of the great ironies . Over the past several months I’ve had an ongoing conversation with a friend who is of the agnostic/atheistic persuasion. Our conversation (carried out on line, through email and Facebook) can get pretty contentious at times but usually ends (for the time being) with a smiley face or a light-hearted bit of humor. This is, of course, necessary to express the…

This simple three word phrase made popular by our current President, may not be as simple as it seems. All peoples of the world would like to have hope. Hope for a better life, hope for good health, hope for a bright future for them and their children. Hope for peace. Hope for cures for all the diseases in the world. I could not agree more. Only a cold, unfeeling, irrational person would not wish for this little phrase to be true, when defined as I just did. However, all sayings, even the ones that on the surface sound good and compassionate and rational, do not apply to all things. Sometimes the noblest notions can be completely wrong when miss-applied. For instances…