Bible Study
Bonus Post: Jeremiah 29:11
In 2015, I wrote a blog post addressing the believing community’s practice of wrenching Jeremiah 29:11 from its context, and how we need to give greater care to context and show greater respect to God’s original intent when working with various passages of scripture. I continue to see this passage pulled from its context and…
Read MoreThe Importance of Understanding Hyperbole
We could argue at length regarding what is the most misused word in the English language today, but I do not believe we could argue that one of the top ten misapplied terms is the word, “literally.” It literally drives me nuts! Well, no, not literally. I am still quite sane. “I literally died laughing.”…
Read MoreJeremiah 29:11 Revisited
I wrote a blog post about four years ago regarding the believing community’s tendency to wrench Jeremiah 29:11 from its context, and how we need to give greater care, and show greater respect when working with passages of scripture. We will revisit that concept today. Jeremiah 29:11 is ubiquitous, easily found in memes, on Tee…
Read MoreThe Bible is Not God
While serving in full-time ministry at Kansas University, a student to whom I was ministering saw me making notes in the pages of my Bible, and reacted with great intensity, as though my doing so was evil played out before his eyes. For the record, I write all over the pages of my Bible. I…
Read MoreText Out of Context
For about ten years, I sang and played in the horn line of the band of a rather large congregation of believers in Bellingham, WA. One of the more popular tunes we played was a song drawn from Jeremiah 29:11, quoted directly from the modern NIV translation. The song had something of a Caribbean beat,…
Read MoreLoving What Others Consider Work
My daughter and I made a long drive into the county and got lost a couple of days ago. We were trying to find a gentleman who was selling one of his cars. My daughter was in serious need of a reliable car. We did at last find the man’s house, haggled over and eventually…
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