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Leaks and Timing
The New York Times has returned to the glory days of journalism. They have to be as excited as the heady days of Watergate and the Pentagon Papers. They’re actually back to releasing truly bad news and casting bad lights on bad situations. They’ve released portions of thousands of pages of classified documents leaked to them about the situation in…
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Coming Aside
I will be taking a “mini-sabbatical” in August. It’s the first time I have tried this. I pastor a small church and we simply can’t afford to go longer with the time frame, but I am grateful for the opportunity to come aside. This sabbatical is crucial. I’ve been pastor at this church for 12 years. Earlier this year I…
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Dead and Not Knowing It
There is a movie called “Frequency” that deals a little with communicating over a 30 year barrier. A son communicates with his father over an old ham radio, but the father had died as firefighter 30 years before. The son saves the dad’s life, but then endangers his mother because of a serial killer. (It’s a long story, so hopefully…
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Two Books Evangelicals and Pentecostals MUST Read
Liturgical Theology, by Simon Chan. Desiring the Kingdom, by James K.A. Smith. No links. I’m not making money. These books are powerful and needed.
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Civil Disobedience
Chuck Colson is raising the possibilities of civil disobedience. I understand that there could be some point in my lifetime where there MIGHT be some issues that would cause a separation so severe that civil disobedience would be a course of action. What, in your opinion, would or would not constitute such a move?
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Zero
Is this thing on? Did I lose contact with the outside world?
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Whiplash Politics and Reactive Christianity
Another fine column by David Brooks in The New York Times illustrates our extreme unhappiness with all things government. We just can’t be satisfied. Those who want limited government really aren’t happy. Those who want government involvement aren’t happy, either. As Brooks points out, what HAS happened in the past ten years is government has become more pervasive, and that…
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Translations and Theological Statements
TC and Mark Stevens have posted thoughts on the choices we make in translations. Translations leave me schizophrenic. I like them all. So, I’m a liberal, tongue-talking, dispensational, cessassionist, Calvinist, Arminian, conservative who believes in a more literal translation while desiring to see women in ministry. Go figure. If I had my “druthers” I would have taken the TNIV. Since…
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Soccer… the “beautiful game”?
I watched Spain and the Netherlands in last Sunday’s World Cup Final. My love is baseball, but when the World Cup is on, I try and follow. One comment I hear consistently after a World Cup Final from commentators is they wished the final had been more “beautiful” or some such phrase. They feel, somehow, the final didn’t give a…
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The Liturgies of Our Lives
I am currently working my way through James K.A. Smith’s book, Desiring the Kingdom. Great writer! His analysis is that we all participate in liturgy. Every one of us. Saint, sinner. Believer, unbeliever. We have our liturgies and they form us. His analysis is very similar to that of Dallas Willard, who would say that everyone gets an education. It’s…
