…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 found an interesting book a while back by Phyllis Tickle entitled “The Words of Jesus”. Phyllis Tickle is the founding editor at Publishers Weekly and is author of more than two dozen book about Christianity. In this book she attempts to take the red letters found in the Gospel accounts and separate them from the surrounding text. She does this, among other things, in … Continue reading The Words of Jesus
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…..
Charity has always been an important Christian characteristic. Jesus was constantly giving of himself to others. Often times when he did it he said not to tell others about his act. His giving is the reason that we have salvation. Jesus clearly expects us to also have charity, especially to the poor and needy. Here is the verse we will use today to study this … Continue reading Charity….
James 4 This post is the final post of my study of the epistle of James. Today we will study chapter four and five. James somewhat changes course in these chapters. The previous three chapters focused primarily on faith and works. These two chapters view of living a Christian life. As before James’ words are in blue and mine are in black. When you ask, … Continue reading The Epistle of James Study 3
James 2 This post is a continuation of my study of the epistle of James. Today we will study chapters two and three. As before James’ words are in blue and mine are in black. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. — Of course this was the constant mantra of the … Continue reading The Epistle of James Study 2
I am going to do something I don’t do often on this blog. I am going to concentrate the next few posts on an epistle. Particularly the epistle of James. Some of the reasons I am doing this is because James, being brother of Jesus, was one of the few people to know Jesus his entire life. (A short sub note here — I have … Continue reading The Epistle of James Study 1
I will admit for the first time on this blog that I am currently a member of a Protestant Church (but I won’t tell you which one 🙂 ). Of course the Protestant church had their origin in the 16th century when Luther challenged the existing church authorities. Lutherans like to think of this encounter the same as when Jesus remanded the existing Jewish church … Continue reading Upon This Rock? ……..
Is it possible to know too much about Christian theology. I didn’t used to think so but I am tending to come to that conclusion recently. It seems that the more I study Christian theology/doctrine/dogma the more I see the disharmony in Christ’s church. Because of that I am beginning to wonder if anyone really has it right! To me the most important verses in the … Continue reading Like Children…
Is it possible for the Christian Religion itself to be an idol? I believe it can be and here is why. Yes, if it’s point is to show our superiority over others. Many of us Christians sit in our churches and seem to snub our nose at those who are not like us. We are convinced that we have all the answers to life and … Continue reading Is Religion an idol??
This post is more or less a follow up of the previous post discussing the differences between Christian sects. I have been thinking lately about why there are so many versions of God and in particular Jesus’ Church. The more I study theology the more versions of Jesus I seem to come across. There are more than 35,000 different Christian sects out there now and … Continue reading Why So Many Versions of Christianity?
This is an awfully theological sounding title and is not typical of what I do on this blog. But as a result of the previous post I just wanted to study a little more on this justification issue. In particular I will be looking at how the major dominations differ in their views of justification. In order to make this manageable let’s break this down … Continue reading The Varying Theological Views of Justification
This post will be the last and the most difficult post for me in this series on personal reflections in my walk with Christ. Justification is an issue that I personally have troubles with. What is the theological definition of justification: a forensic term, opposed to condemnation. As regards its nature, it is the judicial act of God, by which he pardons all the sins … Continue reading Justification?…
This is a continuation of my personal reflections on how I am doing at “being” a disciple of Jesus Christ. During his three year ministry on the earth Jesus judged no one except the religious establishment. Judging is a major idol in that Its purpose is usually to make us superior to others and that takes away our focus on God who is the ultimate … Continue reading Judging—
This is a continuation of my personal reflections on the world and where I might fit into it. Is doing “church” separate from doing discipleship? Let’s investigate that question. I have always assumed that the two were actually the same but recently I have come across a couple of definitions of church that seem to separate the two practices. Here is a definition of “church” … Continue reading Doing church vs. Doing Discipleship
In the next few posts I am going to do some personal reflections. Will they be objective; of course not, after all they are personal to me and where I am in my life right now. If I am nothing else I am compassionate about things I truly believe in! I don’t pretend to have answers to the questions I have but I am constantly … Continue reading Two Types of Worldviews…
God put this unrelenting urge to find the meaning of life into us for a reason. He wants us to constantly seek him of our own free will of course. He loves us so much that he had his son become a human to die for us. His love is an all encompassing love (agape) for us. When Jesus said “I have come that they … Continue reading What is the meaning of life? – Part 3 The Real source.
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