Last time we studied the authors of Mark and Luke and in this post we will finish up with Matthew and John. As those who have been regular visitors to this blog know I believe that the Gospels are the absolute center of the Bible and the words of Jesus are the absolute center of the Gospels. I realize that for many of … Continue reading Authors of the Gospels – Part 2
Let’s spend a couple of posts investigating the believed authors of the four Gospels. I have to say “believed” because as with most of the Bible the authorship of the Gospels are often in dispute among various authorities. It is generally believed that Matthew and John were both part of the original twelve. Mark and Luke were not. They were much like Saint Paul in … Continue reading Authors of the Gospels
——————————————————————————————————————————————————— The two groups mentioned in the title of this post are indeed on the very opposite ends of world views. But I also believe that they have much more in common than either group would like to imagine. Let’s discuss some of their commonalities. Both groups are very rigid in their beliefs; some would say closed-minded to any other possibilities. The atheist … Continue reading The Atheist Scientist and the Puritan Evangelical…..
It s amazing to me the number of Christians who cling to the concept of the “Slippery Slope”. This mentality is similar to NRA not willing to even allow assault weapons or bullets known as “Cop Killers” to be banned for sale to the general public. They are afraid that once one weapon is banned it will lead to all the others being banned. I.E. the … Continue reading The Slippery Slope
Ok here we are at the third and last post thinking about Saint Paul. Here are the final questions: In his letters was Paul sometimes speaking of his times or was everything he wrote meant for eternity? What about the Jeffersonian opinion of Paul? Have others believed the same thing? Are we looking at Paul’s words with a 21st century mind or of the times … Continue reading Questions about Saint Paul …. (Part 3)
Let’s continue with our discussion of Saint Paul that centers around a series of questions. Here are the ones for today: Was Paul the most literate of the apostles? Did Paul believe that everything he ever wrote in his letters came to him directly from God? Did he have any idea that the letters he wrote would some day be considered by some as foundational … Continue reading Questions about Saint Paul…. (Part 2)
Anyone that has browsed my blog knows that I am a person full of questions. I constantly seek new knowledge and insight. I am definitely a believer in the saying “if you are not growing you are shrinking”. In that light I am going to do a few posts about Saint Paul and his many epistles in the New Testament. From his writings and the … Continue reading Questions About Saint Paul……
Here it is December 31st again. I won’t tell you how many I have seen go by but it is quite a few. My wife and I are past the stage where we stay up and ring in the new year. I am now usually sound asleep when that time ticks by. I try to live in Christ day-by-day but it still doesn’t hurt to look … Continue reading New Year Resolutions??
Many Calvinists like to try and pin the pre-destination label on Lutherans. I think maybe the Calvinists are just a little lonely in their corner of Christianity 😉 and are looking for someone else to huddle with. In tune with the last post here is another blog post by the CyberBrethren blogger on that topic. http://cyberbrethren.com/2009/12/16/refuting-calvinist-claims-that-luther-taught-double-predestination/ It does a pretty good job of refuting … Continue reading Lutherans and Calvinists???
Lutheran’s attachment to the phrase Sola Fida (By Faith Alone) as the foundation of their beliefs sometimes earns them the banner of being very weak in good works. I believe it to be generally true that many Lutherans (in all their synods) shy away from the concept of good works for fear that others will view them as adding works to the salvation pot. I … Continue reading A Lutheran Pastor’s view of good works and Martin Luther’s words
Merry Christmas to everyone. Let all Christians at least on this day join together to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. On that I’m sure we can all agree. I want to use the words of a very popular Christmas hymn to say what Jesus’ birth means personally to me. I have re-arranged them slightly to be in more of … Continue reading Christmas Eve
It’s good to remember that Jesus grew up as a poor Jew in a poor town. His life was not about having great material possessions, but about living for God in this humble and modest way. – Stephen Chapman, associate professor of the Old Testament at Duke Divinity School, on the discovery of the first dwelling in Nazareth that dates to Jesus’ era. (Source: USA Today) Continue reading About Jesus
…Get off the couch and back to work. This is the final post in this series that highlight from Jesus’ direct words what he expects of us. I will repeat again what I said as we started this series. I know that for those who believe that being a Christian just means taking an altar call and then laying back and letting the Lord’s … Continue reading To the fair weather Christian — Part 4
…Get off the couch and back to work. In part three I will concentrate on the Gospel of Luke. Jesus’ words are rather direct in that he expects us to act like Christians. Jesus gave us abundant instructions on how to live our lives. He did his part and he expects us to do ours. Luke 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is on … Continue reading To the Couch Potato Christian — Part 3
…Get off the couch and back to work. This is the second part of a four part series concentrating on Jesus’ words and what he tells us being his followers (disciples) really means while we live on this earth. This post includes the rest of the quotes from the Gospel of Mark. As mentioned in the previous post gathering these posts in one … Continue reading To the Couch Potato Christian — Part 2
…Get off the couch and back to work. This being the Christmas season where more emphasis is placed on Jesus and His birth I thought I would spend the next several posts returning to the roots of this blog by concentrating solely on the words of Christ with particular emphasis on how he tells us to live. For the most part I will let the … Continue reading To the Couch Potato Christian… (Part 1 of 4)
I want to do one more post on the epistle of John before moving on. It is widely believed that this epistle was written by the Apostle John who also wrote the Gospel text of that name. 1 John 2:3-6 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do … Continue reading Jesus Commands…. (again)
1 John 4:11-12 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. I happened across these verses in our Sunday Bible study recently. These words brought a new light to the meaning of “God’s love” to me. It is … Continue reading Reflect the Son…
This is going to be one of those difficult and probably controversial posts. Is Jesus Plan “B” whereas Adam was Plan “A” that failed? In other words did God really plan on Adam being the benevolent seed of mankind and when that didn’t happen he changed gears and came Himself (via Jesus) to do the job of fixing things? This concept has some pretty serious … Continue reading Plan “B”?
Today is Thanksgiving so I thought I would again share with you a prayer that I have been using the last few years. It is definitely for today but can really be used almost any day of the year. The author of the prayer is Samuel F. Pugh. He died just before Christmas 2007 at the age of 103. He spent more that 70 years … Continue reading Happy Thanksgiving
This is a quick post to tell you about a very interesting discussion happening on one of the blogs I frequent ( Kingdom People by Trevin Wax). The URL below is a very good post and comments about the basic differences between Evangelicals and the Roman Catholic Church. I take heart that two people with opposing views can discuss these types of issues without name calling. This seems rare now … Continue reading Some interesting discussions…
One year ago I brought up the Red Letter Living blog. To be honest I did it primarily to put down my thoughts on the many books and topics I have been studying the last few years. I just needed a place to think things through and put them to print. To that end this blog has been very beneficial to me on a personal … Continue reading The One Year Anniversary of RLL
I have been reading several new theologians lately and it suddenly struck me that none of them are female! Or for that matter I don’t think I have ever read anything by a female theologian? So as usual I did some digging and discovered that among the theologians who are espoused to have made significant contributions to the field no females made the list until the mid 20th century. … Continue reading Why are there so few female theologians??
We seem to constantly fragment ourselves in order to make us unique. We are not satisfied with just being one of many in a common boiling pot. We have to think of ourselves as someone like no one else. My father’s generation was not like we are. Many, if not most of them, took pride in the fact that America was a fabulous “melting pot” … Continue reading Finding our niche…..
I recently read an article in the June issue of Sojourners magazine ( http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0906&article=christ-and-i-whose-i-culture ) about Christ and Culture. It was related to past evangelism focused on stripping native culture in order to bring Christ to an aboriginal people. In my mind this has always seemed wrong and I can’t understand how it could not have seemed so to those doing it then. I just … Continue reading Christ and whose Culture?
Recently the Catholic church, and in particular Pope Benedict, came out with their own list of what they consider the seven social sins of the current times. It is interesting to see how this list is different from Gandhi’s of my last post. The seven social sins are: 1. “Bioethical’ violations such as birth control 2. “Morally dubious” experiments such as stem cell research 3. Drug … Continue reading Seven Social Sins (The Catholic version)
I know the above is not from a Christian person but it is certainly Christian in nature and principle. I found it under a pile on my desk. I wish it had remained on top but that was not the case. Anyway, it will now reside in a reserved section of my bulletin board above my desk. Of course this is a play off of … Continue reading Seven Deadly Social Sins (The Gandhi version)….
The term Cheap Grace was originally found in a book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer entitled The Cost of Discipleship. Bonheoffer was a Lutheran pastor and theologian in Germany during Hitler’s rise to power. He was hung by the SS as a traitor in 1945 as he rejected Hitler’s rule. To get started let’s look at the following excerpt is from Wikipedia: In Bonhoeffer’s words: “cheap grace … Continue reading Cheap Grace is VERY Expensive!!
Some seem to think that all that is required to be a Christian is to take an altar call and declare that Jesus is your Lord and Savior and then go on about your daily business as if nothing has changed. I know I have been in that mode sometimes myself. But, that couldn’t be further from the truth. That type of mentality is what … Continue reading Moment by moment…
I am a frequent visitor to several Christian blogs. One of the bigger ones I recently visited was discussing Matt 26:11 The poor you will always have with you. There were the usual posts saying that Jesus was inferring that “since the poor will always be here why bother to do anything about it”. These types of comments used to get me upset but I … Continue reading Our Sheltered Lives…..
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