NEW BOOK LINK: CLICK HERE Maybe of greater importance for the church is this: How is it that after June 26, 2015 a disciple of Jesus suddenly abandons the biblical worldview of marriage as being between a man and a woman, and instead advocates the acceptance of homosexual couples in the church? Such a position adopts public policy as the …
Is The Valley of Slaughter Coming to Our Children Soon?
As has been noted there is one thing all Christians of every stripe actually hold to be true: all humans are sinful. We cannot stop being sinful. The sinfulness of humans continues to be demonstrated by several billion participants. Violent eruptions more senseless than Cain killing Abel happen every second. So why would we, given our sinfulness, steadfastly oppose any …
Polycarp’s Enduring Witness To Trumpdom
In a 2nd century letter from the Church at Smyrna to the church at Philomelium witnesses to the martyrdom of Polycarp, Bishop at Smyrna, described what happened the day of Polycarp’s martyrdom, February 23, 156 a.d. Polycarp, according to church tradition, had been discipled by the apostle John. Years after John’s death Polycarp finds himself confronted by the Roman proconsul …
Do Not Destroy the Work of God for the Sake of Trump
I read words such as “I cannot believe that 81 percent of all evangelical Christians voted for Trump.” These Christian writers proceed to judge these millions of Christians as utterly degenerate. Then other Christians envision Donald Trump as their patron saint and proceed to condemn to outer darkness all those who might see it otherwise. Certainly as of today’s …
The Foolishness of The Information Age
Young children and their parents within the church are in great need of wise counsel and sound words. Internet information stored in our heads, without being tested or interpreted , is not reliable knowledge. Information only becomes knowledge when it is properly interpreted. The Internet will not do that. Knowledge becomes wisdom when it is tested and practiced, and the …
Musings From 75-The Final Quarter
Senior connotes an age reached; a season of retirement to uselessness. Retirement is seen as a point of self-indulgence, a time of slackening. A time when learning and leading stops. This is the temptation of seniors. This self-indulgence takes us out. Makes fools of us. We stop taking ourselves seriously. We are undermined, defeated, diminished, and deflated as disciples; reducing …
Growing Old In A Market Driven Culture
We medicalize aging and death; the body is little more than a machine. Aging and death has to do with the breaking down of the parts of the machine that make it work. We see no meaning in aging and dieing other than the failure of the machine’s parts to work properly so as to sustain life. When the medicalized …
THE CALL AND THE RELEASE (1984-2017)
In November of 1984 a broken beggar with a heart to preach preached a fill-in sermon at the Lake Highlands Church in Dallas, Texas. That sermon began a thirty three year season of leadership which included for us the roles of leader, pastor, elder, preacher and teacher. I use the pronoun us because my wife Donna is the ezer of …
Second Childhoods Kill Churches
We live in a time when we are going to church less and enjoying it more. In any given church good members may attend once or twice a month at most, may or may not be in a house church or small group of any kind and will only attend when it meets their needs. We talk about how the …
Freedom for Faithfulness-Not Success
A couple reflects on the practices of their lives which led to their recent divorce. “We did not have the strength to “work on” falling in love again in our marriage. And as everyone knows good relationships take work. Which is not to say that we are against work. We perform many tasks. We can pick up our girls from …