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…
Being Memorial Day it is a time to mourn all the people who have lost their lives in the world’s many wars. If only we would learn the lessons of Jesus they could all have been prevented. God grieves with every death, especially when we futilely take up weapons against each other. Jesus said two thing encompass all God’s laws: To love God with all our hearts … Continue reading Memorial Day….
Given the large loss of life due to the Goplin Missouri tornadoes recently I got to thinking about why we call tornadoes and other such events an act of God? Isn’t it really just an occurrence in nature? Did God really conger up these weather events to kill so many people in that city? Many search throughout the Bible for the answers to these types of questions and they … Continue reading An Act of God???
So here it is Monday and I am right where I was last week. What happened to the predicted rapture? Of course this prediction that failed to happen is among a long line of similar predictions. Every time someone insists that they know the heart of God in minute details they tarnish Christ a little more. He seems to be very tarnished lately. The only … Continue reading Another Sad Attempt….
Has the phrase “I am a Christian” lost its meaning in today’s world? A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament. That is one definition out of many. Here are some of the words in Wikipedia describing a “Christian”: The term “Christian” is also used adjectivally to … Continue reading What Does “I am a Christian” Really Mean??
Source: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/19/6677671-is-the-bible-full-of-forgeries Just a short note to refer you to the article above. It is about the Bible and how it was written. For those who think the Bible is 100% from God this article will probably be somewhat disturbing. The article reports that through the ages many believe that most of the books of the Bible were probably not actually written by those whose … Continue reading About the Bible
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42769004/ns/travel-destination_travel/ The above article is about the ten most beautiful churches in the world. Since I take my life lessons from Jesus I went to his words to find his opinion about building monoliths to God. I did not see anything that remotely suggested that God wants us to spend massive amounts of our resources in monuments to Him. Quite the opposite appears to be … Continue reading Christian Spending on Massive Churches???
When it comes to the Bible some Christians seem to fall to the concept of “can’t see the forest for the trees”. That is they concentrate so much on the words they totally miss the underlying messages. Some, at the drop of a pin, can quote chapter and verse for many of the sayings in the bible. I am definitely not one of those people. Yes, … Continue reading Can’t See the Forest for the Trees…
This series was about looking at the Bible as a human document. That is, it was written and assembled by humans with different life experiences, viewpoints, and passions. Much of their thoughts and words obviously came from inspiration from God. When I study the Bible I try to understand the reasons why some of the writers might have penned what they did. Of course, I am also a human … Continue reading About the Bible – Part 6 Closing Thoughts…
This is the fifth post on this series about the Bible. If it is not obvious by now I want you to understand that I put my Christianity on Jesus Christ not on a book about him. I will try to keep this brief as it is really a wrap-up of the past posts. About the Literalists: Panic – In some cases I see almost total panic … Continue reading About The Bible — Part 5 Summary
This, the fourth post on the Bible centers around where I see some others may have gone astray in regards to their beliefs surrounding the Bible. Some have replaced the Holy Spirit with the book called the Bible… They put so much power in the Bible and so little in the Holy Spirit. Compared to the others in Trinity studies there is very little in-depth … Continue reading About the Bible — Part 4 .. Misguided Beliefs?
This time I am going to go over a short list of things that are somewhat widely accepted by some twenty-first century Christian denominations but of which I basically disagree. Most of these topic titles are from texts of discussions I have had with Christians on various topics. I put them in a special category here because they were so deeply felt by others. All … Continue reading About the Bible –Part 3.. Other Views
This is a continuation of the last post to finish up some of my fundamental beliefs about the Bible. I have not come to these beliefs on a whim. They are the result of many years of thoughtful prayer and study. I am also not trying to prove anyone wrong. Everyone should come to God in their own ways. So let’s get on with the final four … Continue reading About the Bible— Part 2 .. What I believe (con’t)
It has been a while since I have done any “deep” posts so this post will start a series on how I view the Bible and how that might differ from some mainline denominations today. The first two post are about how I personally view the Bible and other related Christian text. The third post is about how some of these belief are contrary to how others, … Continue reading About The Bible — Part 1… What I believe
I have been getting more questions lately from some in our old church asking why we haven’t been there for such a long time. I got a very heartfelt note in the snail mail today from one of those friends. She said that she really misses my wife and me on Sundays especially in the Bible classes. She mentioned that when I had a disagreement … Continue reading Where Have You Gone??
The title question came to me from a fellow blogger of the Quaker persuasion. The premise around the question is at the end time will there be more people in heaven or hell? If you answer hell then it appears like satan wins. From an evangelical Christian perspective I’m sure the answer is satan will win. By their very nature evangelicals believe that if you … Continue reading Is God a Winner or a Loser??
Remember being a Christian is all about Jesus Christ. Everything else is small stuff. Continue reading Happy Easter Everyone
We Christians seem to like to take ownership of others actions. If a missionary is killed in South American we say that proves that we are suffering and dying for Jesus Christ. Somehow or another that death gets attached to our individual selves as if we were the ones who died. We just can’t live vicariously through other. We are each responsible for our own actions. The … Continue reading Taking Ownership of Others Actions….
Why did God go to all the trouble to create the universe? By any standards that was a massive undertaking. I am one who believes in the day age interpretation of the Bible. In the last century or so God has given us the scientific understanding to know that the creation of the universe took millions if not billions of years to complete. Why did … Continue reading Earth As A Proving Ground???
I spend a lot of time on this blog trying to convince you that Jesus intended us to help each other out. Especially those less fortunate than us. I have mentioned that I volunteer to do the cooking a couple of days a week at a soup kitchen. That is one way that I attempt to do what Jesus says. But I don’t think I … Continue reading Helping “The Least of These”…
Sundays continue to be a strange time for me. Up until last November I could always be found in a church pew on Sunday morning. At that time I was told by my church of eight years that my views of God no longer aligned with what their denomination expected of members. Instead of going through an inquisition I choose to separate my self from … Continue reading Sundays???
It is strange how we choose different words from the Bible to latch on to. Yvonne and I just returned from a two-week vacation through West Virginia, Maryland, and Virginia. We visited some historical sites there and some mentioned the Appalachian Baptist who made the foundation of their faith handling poisonous snakes. They centered their religious experiences on the Bible verse that goes “and they … Continue reading The Words We Choose….
At the bottom of this post is a link to a heartfelt post by a convinced Quaker. A convinced Quaker is one who has come from outside the sect. In this person’s case it evidently was from Catholicism. This post struck me deeply as I saw myself in much of Laura’s writing. For those not going to the original post here are a couple of quotes that … Continue reading Should this be harder? – Thoughts from a Convinced Quaker
A question came up during a Bible class I attended some time ago about the differences between the different main religions of the world. Those include Christianity, Judaism, Muslim, Hindu,and Buddhism. Looking at Wikipedia there seems to be about a dozen other large ones but let’s concentrate on the five largest. The question was: “Are we all praying to the same God?” I mentioned that … Continue reading Are We All Praying to the Same God???
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