Years ago, the squirrel population around our home seems to be on the increase. One of their favorite pastimes was gathering nuts from my neighbor’s trees and relocating them to my yard. For years this has been happening with acorns, resulting in me pulling up tiny oak trees each spring. Now they’ve added hickory nuts […]
Some of the Bible’s Most Significant Words Don’t Appear in the Old Testament I use the Bible to study the Bible. That is, I tap one passage to help breathe understanding into another. Sometimes when investigating a specific term, I do a word search to find out where else and how else Scripture uses it. […]
The sanctuary of this Roman Catholic Church is grand without being ostentatious. Modern and airy, it seats several hundred, with pews arrayed in four sections, each group angled to face the front. Behind the platform is an impressive marble wall with a large crucifix at its center. To one side, at floor level, is a […]
At a meeting, someone mentioned “the Acts 15 experience.” Everyone else seemed to comprehend the reference, so I chose to not interrupt by asking for an explanation. Since then I’ve read Acts 15 and searched online for answers. (An online search provided only a handful of matches, which weren’t helpful.) As I contemplate this, I’ve […]
When We Don’t Get Credit for What We Do As a child someone told me that Paul wrote the book of Hebrews. This has stuck with me, and I still consider Paul as the book’s most likely author. But as I look for confirmation of this early lesson, I find little support. Though initially attributed […]
The church has a contemporary service followed by a traditional one; we attend both. A Lutheran congregation, I expect a high-church experience (more formal and liturgical). However, their idea of contemporary is far different from mine. Their music is modern, yet shrouded in formality. Reading from the lectionary, we stand for the third passage, this […]
My bride and I were once talking with a young engaged couple and the subject of finances came up. I shared my thoughts and seemingly gave them something to ponder. I said that most people in the US live beyond their means. They live paycheck to paycheck, are overextended, and one little glitch sends their […]
I recently visited a church that upheld Acts 2:42-47 as their model for church. Shocked, I checked the passage to make sure I remembered it correctly. Here is what the Acts 2 church looks like: Their Four Keys The church in Acts 2 has four priorities: studying good teaching, hanging out, sharing meals, and praying […]
After prior discussions about adding to or taking away from the Bible, it gives one pause in considering footnotes in some translations, which effectively note that a certain phrase or verse is “not found in all manuscripts.” Consider the Lord’s Prayer. The end is one such example: “For yours is the kingdom and the power […]
The church we visited this Sunday is a nondenominational gathering that meets in a public school auditorium. In some parts of the United States it’s unheard of for a church to meet in a government building, but in our area, it is not. Though some would overreach, citing a need for “separation of church and […]