This is a continuation of my collection of snippets from the book by Philip Gulley entitled If God is Love. The Psalmists boats, “Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hate. I count them my enemies” (Psalm 139:21-22). Hatred, when directed at those we have judged wicked, becomes … Continue reading If God is Love (Part 2)
Since judgment day seems to be on the short list of things Christians talk about lets look at the story about it as spoken by Jesus Christ: “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. “All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from … Continue reading The Least of These…. The Final Judgment
I have been getting hit by some because I don’t quote the Bible often enough for them. As I have stated many times before I am just not a “chapter and verse” Christian. I do read the Bible frequently but instead of memorizing the words I try to learn the lessons behind the words and then attempt to make those lessons a part of my … Continue reading Lessons Learned….
I am going to start a series of posts around quotes from some of the many books I have read. One of the favorites is the book “If God is Love” by Philip Gulley. Here is the quote for today: When Jesus redefined kinship, he was challenging their exclusive circle by declaring that anyone in any place who did the will of God regardless of … Continue reading If God Is Love… (Part1)
The Old Testament has always been a struggle for me. I find far too many places where God’s wrath is brutally shown. This is in such a total contrast with Jesus Christ I know in the New Testament. It is almost like the good cop/bad cop scenarios that play out so much on the TV cop shows. I tend to refer to it as the … Continue reading Contemplating the All Powerful God and the All Loving God…
Source: Wanted: 1,000 Pastors For the Poor – Jim Wallis – God’s Politics Blog. Sojourners, which is a Christian based organization founded on the principle that Christians are called to be their brother’s keeper and that governments are accountable for the well-being of all their citizens. The source post is a call for 1,000 pastors to come forward and say cutting the safety net out from … Continue reading Wanted: 1,000 Pastors For the Poor
This is going to be a short post about the religious establishments of today. I hope this closes out my recent thoughts in this area. I really want to move on to other things about Jesus. This post is based on some words in the book entitled If the Church Were Christian by Philip Gulley. Here are those words: We have built a vast institution based on these … Continue reading A Vast Institution Based on a Few Bones…..
I must admit that I have become pretty turned off by most theological things. At one time I was deeply embedded in theology and studied it on almost a daily basis. But after several years at it I discovered that, like the original Bob Newhart TV show character did about psychology, that theology is pretty much a crock! 🙂 Of course the business of theology … Continue reading Reading Too Much Into the Words…..
I’m sure according to the theologians I have the wrong word in the title but in this post I want to spend some time pondering the duality of Jesus. That is Jesus the man and Jesus the God. Here are some words of a Quaker friend of mine: It is not that Jesus is God more than he is human, or human more than he … Continue reading The Duality of Jesus??
I have been away from the red letters for a while now so it is time to get back to them. Let’s look at Matthew 7. In that chapter Jesus talks about heavenly things including doing the will of God. Jesus uses several parables and other stories to relay his message about the heavenly kingdom and who and how we are to get there. One … Continue reading Getting Back…
I was a fervent member of a church for most of the last twenty-five years. You could count on my being in a church pew almost every Sunday morning. Of course part of that time was listening to the current clergy leader give his sermon. After a while I tended to see a pattern to most sermons. They would always contain at least a dozen different tidbits … Continue reading Mining for Tidbits…..
This is the second post in the series about how I believe today’s Christian establishments disappoint God. If one believes that God is only really concerned with a couple of issues, it becomes easier to ignore others. But human life and particularly the words of Jesus are just too complicated for this kind of reductionist approach to our faith and beliefs. How can we even … Continue reading Two Issue Christians…..
In a previous post I asked the question “why didn’t God write a book?”. One possible answer to that question came from a Quaker friend. He said that if God had written a book then man would have a relationship with a book and not with God. God want us to come to him not to a book about him. But that did not end … Continue reading If God Were To Write a Book….
Before my “literal and inerrant” friend became frustrated and stopped dialoguing with me he often asked the question why I have so much an ambivalence towards today’s churches? I repeatedly tried to tell him that it isn’t so much ambivalence as it is a disappointment. I will use this post to explain one of the major reasons for that disappointment. Before I start I need to tell you a … Continue reading Disappointments about Today’s Christian Establishments…
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