Apprentice 2 Jesus

  • Dan

    Living Dead in the Midst of Plenty

    As I work my way through the Live Dead journal I am constantly challenged with the thought, “How can I possibly live dead in the midst of doing well?” I am not going to Africa. I’d like to go teach and preach in Africa or other places in the world, but I am a pastor and a teacher. I live in…

  • Dan

    Difficult Thoughts on Penn State

    While I maintain the superiority of baseball over all other sports (and have fun doing so), I do love sports in general. And I had a passion for college sports over pro sports. There was certainly an admiration I carried for years for Joe Paterno because he seemed to do things the “right” way in football. Of course, it has…

  • Dan

    Hooked on Facebook and Nothing to Do About It?

    Obviously, if you’re on Facebook you’ve probably seen the posts that are spam links taking you to sites you just don’t want to go to. This story gives some details if you’re not on Facebook. Here is the problem, and I face it personally: even in our outrage we probably won’t quit Facebook. It’s the vehicle that best gets the…

  • Dan

    Jesus Wept

    I came across this apocryphal story of Jesus the other day: One day Jesus was walking through Galilee and came upon a little girl who was crying. He leaned down to her and asked, “Young lady, what is wrong?” She said, “My doggy was run over by a cart. He’s hurt so bad!” Jesus saw the dog and touched it.…

  • Dan

    Love and Fear of God

    I’ve actually made my way into the third volume of Barth’s Church Dogmatics. I think I’ve understood a total of 50 pages in the first two volumes… total. Okay… I’m lying. It’s less than that. In II.1 he takes up the doctrine of God. Barth combines the love of God with the fear of God. The love of God actually…

  • Dan

    Why Baseball is Better Than Football

    As I watched part of the Lions/Bears debacle yesterday that some would call a “football game,” I reflected on why baseball is better than football. Seeing the refs have to pile on to break up numerous fights in this game (which the typical Bears fan will now rage about the nastiness of the Lions, and the Lions fan in turn…

  • Dan

    Verses That Bother Me

    Luke takes time to emphasize the poor in passages that are similar to Matthew (like the Sermon on the Mount). It’s probably why I like Matthew better! 😉 22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and…

  • Dan

    Veteran’s Day, Pacificism, and Free Speech

    While I certainly have strong opinions as to the use of military strength at times in the history of our nation, I am reminded on weekends like this that even for those who are pacificists, they need to thank God that someone didn’t believe fully in pacificism with them… and fought for their right to maintain that ideological stance. I fully understand…

  • Dan

    Living Dead in Prayer

    My prayer life just lacks. The Lord has me camped out in Matthew 6 and I fully understand why. My prayer life is junk. I don’t follow any decent pattern of Kingdom prayer in my life. I walk with anxiety and not release. I struggle with his provision and lose sleep. The enemy begins to call the shots in my…

  • Dan

    Not Using the Talent is a Grievous Sin

    My text for Sunday is Matthew 25:14-30, variously called the parable of the talents or the parable of the coins or the parable of the gold… something like that. Reading Barth again, I happened on a passage in I.2 where he refers to this parable. He uses this parable as an illustration of the Church that hears but does not…