When I heard of the bombings during the Boston Marathon, it first horrified me—then struck me with the dark irony. Boston enjoys a substantial Irish population, some of whom supported and may still support the Irish Republican Army. Why is this important or relevant? Well, you might say the IRA invented street bombings. Just Google “IRA street bombings.” Now, God …
Forgetting to Breathe and Preventing Spiritual Anorexia
Preventing Spiritual Anorexia: Believing Differently Preventing spiritual anorexia as I have written before, requires seeing differently, we must believe differently. Changing what I believe is usually difficult. Fasting used as a focal lens for prayer and as a tool to help me understand my true dependency upon God can aid me in shifting and changing my framework of beliefs. Getting …
Without God, Worship Much Easier
Without God, maybe I can improve some things at church. About halfway through Sinclair Lewis’ 1927 classic, Elmer Gantry, Elmer boasts to another minister about all his church programs, how fast his church is growing, and how many new members have joined, etc. After this braggadocio, the other minister asks, ‘Elmer why don’t you believe in God?’ Until recently I …
View of Others? Changing It Requires Raising the Dead
In thinking about how to change my view of others or forgiving, I find it appropriate and divinely serendipitous that today’s writing in Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest coincides with my reading of Mark 9 and occurs the week before Easter. During Easter I think more about miracles. This relates greatly to what I think and believe about people. …
We Might Be Pharisees If…
The Jews knew the Pharisees as the strictly religious people of Jesus’s day. Consequently, readers of the Bible interchange Pharisee with self-righteous. To think as a Pharisee generally requires a social group to reinforce self-righteous beliefs. As a recovering legalist, I know how easy it is to slide into self-righteous attitudes. Without an on-going relationship with God, I slide into a self-righteous …
Celebration of Obscurity
A celebration of obscurity counters the message of my culture. My culture labels me irrelevant and obscure, and one ignored by greatness. In contrast, the love of God, my wife, my children bless me in abundance. Any disturbance caused by Ecclesiastes in that ‘even those who are yet to come, will not be remembered by those who follow,’ will pass on …
Westboro Baptist Church – A Shining Light
I confess that sometimes it takes a while for me to fully understand situations, and I’m a little slow. The activities of Westboro Baptist Church used to worry me. Since non-Christians and neutral observers viewed them through the media, I worried that they would think Westboro Baptist Church represented Jesus and and his message. I truly failed to recognize the …
New Version of the Bible
To Promote Relevance a New Version of the Bible is Available To promote tolerance, pluralism, ambiguity and ambivalence, a new version of the Bible has recently been released. This new version of the Bible, called Anybody’s Version of the Bible (ABV), promises to be one of the most exciting versions released in recent history. As some church leaders and consultants …