Theology
Is the Bible Boring?
As a pastor, I shouldn’t be admitting this, but yes, the Bible is boring in some parts. On January 1, I began a reading plan to read through the Bible in a year. That means over the past 3 months I have read countless boring parts: genealogies, numerous censuses (or is it censii?), hundreds of verses of odd rules and regulations, and various boundary markers and travel routes. It’s at this point in trying to read the Bible that many…
Miss a Little, Miss a Lot
Have you ever been given a task to plan or a project to oversee only to have your best-laid plans go horribly awry? I have. Before I was a pastor, I was in bank operations. I remember a time when I spent months researching and preparing to implement a new system for the bank. After doing everything I thought possible to prepare for the change, everything that could possible go wrong, did go wrong. It took almost twelve months to…
The Other Guy – Understanding the Trinity
In Sunday’s sermon, we established that the Holy Spirit is completely and totally God, equal with the Father and the Son. As we try to understand the complexity of the Trinity, sometimes a little humor can be helpful.
Why Creation Matters… And so Do You!
Most people, at some point in life, have to wrestle with the question of whether their life holds any value. For some, you question if you are worth anything because of how other people abuse and misuses you, and for others, because of the things you have done to mess up your lives. The good news of the Gospel of Jesus, however, is that it doesn’t matter why you are doubting if your life has value, but that your dignity,…
A Designed World
There are some today that try to convince us that the random chance of the universe and the chaos from which everything came proves there is no God. But when I see pictures and videos like from the website linked below, I must admit I do not understand how they can miss something that seems so obvious to me. The grand design of the universe. The laws of nature, science, physics, etc. If we look, we really can see the…
Pope Francis Keeps Making Headlines
It seems to me that Pope Francis has been in the news more often in the past month than any pope has been in recent memory. You see, he is regularly speaking out about his beliefs, beliefs which push against the traditional stance of the Catholic church for centuries. At first, I found his comments to be refreshing, pointing in the right direction. In one interview, he spoke about how he wanted the church to be more focused on what…
How Would Jesus Vote?
As I finish up my last class of my seminary journey, Christian Ethics, I am being confronted with all sorts of issues related to the church, politics, and how Christians vote. I have read about abortion, capital punishment, war, marriage, poverty, politics, immigration, and racism. Before taking the class, I might have looked at each of these issues quite simply – yes, I support, or no, I am against it. But I have been surprised at how complex each of…