Here it is April 1 and I am going to pull a cruel joke on you. I am going to spend the next few post talking about outreach. Yes, that is that thing that we Christians seem to be deathly afraid of. But, in my mind that is the primary task for us while we are on this earth. We have to constantly … Continue reading Country Club Christians?

Luke 4:16-21 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoner and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  These were some of the first proclamations that Jesus made when he started his … Continue reading Opening His ministry

As you can see from the last few posts I have been somewhat down the last few weeks. I have always found that reading Beatitudes is able to pull me up when I am down. I prefer Luke’s version to that Matthew’s. So, here goes: Luke 6:20-22 Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. … Continue reading Lifting up Christian’s Spirits…

Here is another impromptu post related to a discussion I recently had with another Christian. First of all I am a regular supporter, both with my time and money, of a local Christian shelter and soup kitchen. During my discussions with my Christian friend I mentioned that the support of our church to this mission has almost dried up in the recent months. I have … Continue reading Fair Weather Christians

I imagine everyone has heard the term “you reap what you sow”. There is a lot of reaping and sowing going on in the Bible but I have not been able to find this reference in any of them. Are some of the bad things that happen in our lives a result of our unchristian behavior? Some of the red letters around this theme are: … Continue reading Do we reap what we sow??

 I don’t know how many of you have read President Obama’s talk at the National Prayer Breakfast a few weeks ago. In that talk he told us how he came to faith in spite of not being raised in the active Christian household. And , no he was never a Muslim. Yes, his estranged father was at one time a Muslim before he became an … Continue reading Coming to Faith -Presidential Style

Since I have been doing book reviews for a while I wanted to break it up with something I have been pondering lately. Is there such a thing as a “couch potato Christians”? Of course there are, so maybe I should say “should there be such a thing? A verse from Ephesians is used frequently by many denominations to show us our salvation is a … Continue reading Couch Potato Christians???

                This is a follow up of a recent post about eliminating hunger in the world. I’m sure there are some, and probably many, Christian organizations who say “No, no, we must spend our money preaching the Word and not ministering to physical needs. After all our spiritual life is for eternity and hunger is only of this … Continue reading Basic Human Needs

 For those of us who grew up with MAD magazine the title of this posting is very familiar. Alfred E. Neuman the main character in the magazine was constantly captioned to say that. I know I am giving my age away with this knowledge since Mad magazine was published in the 1950’s and that was ages ago for many bloggers. I regularly spent my 35 … Continue reading What me worry??

It’s time to get back on to the red letters so here goes: Luke 12:48 From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. There are hard words for us in the first world countries, especially us in the United States. Some say these words only refer to … Continue reading How fortunate we are!

This is a continuation of the last post where I covered George Washington’s religious beliefs. I will conclude this topic by talking about Thomas Jefferson.  Thomas Jefferson — Jefferson was undoubtedly the strongest advocate for religious freedom of the Founding Fathers. This was quite evident when he composed the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom in 1777. Jefferson was definitely raised in a Christian household. He … Continue reading The Faith of our Founding Fathers – continued

I know I promised a book review for this post but something else has been on my mind lately so the book review post will come on Friday. Is it OK to question things about your faith, your religion, your theology, or must you take everything at face value with the so called “leap of faith”?  To me, that is a very important question. I seem to be … Continue reading Why???

I am making an unusual Tuesday post to add a little to the study of the Lord’s prayer.  As I mentioned before the only part of the prayer that I have significant trouble with is the petition “lead us not…” I recently received a message from a good friend trying to help me figure this out. Here is his comments: If you read Luke 22:40, … Continue reading Lead us not…. another view

Now that I am done with the “official Lord’s prayer” I want to address the red letter that come immediately after the prayer. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. I understand that Jesus by dying on the cross … Continue reading The Lord’s Prayer (the epilog)

We are now at the final part of the Lord’s Prayer which is: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. ‘ I must admit these are some of the most challenging words in this prayer for me. I certainly don’t expect God to tempt me with sin. He did that to Job but I think that was a very … Continue reading The Lord’s Pray (and lead us not into temptation…)

We are now at the third part of the prayer which is Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Of course we depend on God for our very existence. If he doesn’t want us around then we would no longer exist. We have free will to make our own decisions but not whether we exist … Continue reading The Lord’s Prayer (Give us today…)

Continuing through the Lord’s prayer we come to the following petition: your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Even though He knows what is best for us He gave us free will to do what we choose. Many times this gets us into trouble but without free will we would just be robots who mindlessly do what we … Continue reading The Lord’s Prayer (your kingdom come…)

 Let me get to work on my interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer. (see my previous post for more understanding if you missed it). Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, Sometimes we forget just who God is. He is not a buddy across the backyard fence who we chat with from time to time. His knowledge and wisdom are beyond our comprehension. After all … Continue reading The Lord’s Prayer (Our Father in heaven)

  Matt 6:9-15 To me the Lord’s prayer is not as mysterious as some would like me to believe. I take the Lord’s prayer to be a call to action for Christians and not just a general statement by God. I don’t believe God wants any “couch potato Christians” but instead wants us to actively practice our faith. The individual petitions in the Lord’s prayer … Continue reading The Overall Theme of the Lord’s Prayer – My Interpretation

  I have been off the red letters for a few days so now I am going to spend the next few posts on them alone. In the past few weeks I have been reviewing the various commentaries on the Lord’s prayer. Quite frankly many of them aren’t very helpful to me. No one seems to be able to come right out and say what they … Continue reading The Lord’s Prayer

Why do Christians and other religions put such value on the places where their deities or prophets roamed? Jerusalem and its environs have been in a steady state of conflict from before Jesus’ time until now and will probably remain so in the future. It seems like there are constant fights going on over that ground. That is because three of the world’s major religions … Continue reading It’s Just a Place