Did Paul Tell Women to ‘Shut Up’ in Church?
I have been somewhat taken aback by the volume of material posted over the last four or five months regarding the oppression of women in the body of Christ. To my shame, I did not recognize this was as widespread an issue as it seems to be. The pervasiveness of the issue is clearly evinced…
Read MoreLiving in a Post-Truth Era
I had a deeply disturbing conversation with a dear brother in Christ last Sunday. My friend is an attorney and an elder with our church family. We meet early most Sunday mornings to visit, holding conversations that go down some wildly unpredictable avenues. I cannot recall the specific question I asked him, but in his…
Read MoreDon’t Give the Devil a Foothold
Some of you may remember the game Risk, published by Hasbro. You may still play it today, as it remains available for purchase. The concept was put forth by French filmmaker, Albert Lamorisse, in 1957, and it rapidly became one of the most popular board games ever published, paving the way for newer games like Axis &…
Read MoreThe Sky Fairy
The Game-Winning Insult One of the tactics the world uses against the Christ-follower is shame and embarrassment. For example, “Oh, maybe you should go talk to your sky fairy about that.” We, then, are expected to skulk away like a whipped puppy, with our tail between our legs. They got us! Oh, boy. The “sky…
Read MoreThe New Love
A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.– John 13:34, ESV John is the “love guy.” He’s “the disciple whom Jesus loved,”1 and the most likely author of the Gospel of John and the epistles of I, II & III…
Read MoreThe Song of Moses and the Lamb
I love to sing. It is something I used to do well, and it helped me pay my way through college. As I age, my singing has deteriorated, but it is still something I enjoy, particularly when singing praises to God. Music is strewn throughout the pages of scripture, but this week, I want to…
Read MoreDinner With Jesus
Are you comfortable around the downtrodden, the outcast, and the shunned? Are you okay keeping company with the societal lepers, tax collectors, prostitutes, adulterers, thieves, crippled, blind? Are you drawn to those by whom community elites are repulsed? If our aim is to be like Jesus, we need to become a magnet for the destitute,…
Read MoreSoldiers of Christ, Arise!
I know it bothers some folks that the Bible, a book of love about a God of love, is loaded with an abundance of military verbiage. Some of it is true action, history, while some of it is metaphor. But it is irreconcilable for many that the God who is our rock1 and our refuge2 is the…
Read MoreCan You Trust “The Name?”
Some diligent bloggers will blog months in advance, giving themselves a three-to-six-month backlog of material ready to roll at any time. Others, like me, blog in real time. I usually have the coming Monday’s post completed by Wednesday. My approach is certainly a riskier approach because there are times life throws us a curve ball,…
Read MoreWho Is My Neighbor?
At my day job, I manage software development projects for an engineering consulting firm. When a new piece of software is being developed, we often produce what we call an MVP release. That is the Minimum Viable Product, the “must haves” to be developed so the software can be used and accomplish what was intended…
Read More