The Second Best Verse in the Bible Perhaps the best-known verse in the Bible is John 3:16. It says that if we believe in Jesus we will experience life eternal. What could be simpler; we just need to believe. God does the hard part, providing a...
What Does it Mean to Break Bread? I’m always perplexed when the Bible talks about breaking bread. What does this mean? In some contexts it seems to be a euphemism for eating, for sharing a common meal. In other cases, it seems to be a colorful...
Can We Be Baptized For Dead People? A perplexing verse in Paul’s letter to his friends in Corinth mentions being baptized for dead people. What in the world does this mean? It sounds heretical. Can we be baptized for dead people? Well, I suppose...
An Epic Fail in Church Promotion Easter this year was a few weeks ago, on April 5. A week and a half later, on April 15, I received a postcard inviting me to attend a church’s Easter service. Aside from arriving too late to do any good, the...
Do You Excel at the Grace of Giving? There is a curious phrase in the Bible: “grace of giving.” It occurs only in Paul’s second letter to his friends at the church in Corinth. Without it appearing elsewhere in the Bible, there are no other verses...
A Fresh Start: It’s Time to Plant, Water, Nurture, and Prune A friend recently shared how much she was enjoying spring, of seeing flowers bloom and once dormant grass turn green. I connected with her joy, warmed by the thought of spring and the...
Were Adam and Eve Married? The Bible Never Says that Adam and Eve Married To consider Adam and Eve had children without the benefit of marriage is disconcerting to many; it assaults our traditional idea of matrimony and having kids. The Bible...
What Do We Do To Dishonor God? In his letter to the Christians living in Rome, Paul talks about people who attempt to live life according to a bunch of religious rules, that is, the law. The result is that God is disrespected, not so much by the...
Are We Merely Human? Can We Have a Superhuman Spirituality? Paul reprimands the church in Corinth for many things. One time he points out that they envy one another and argue a lot. There is jealousy and quarreling in their church. It happened...
Reflecting on Church #52: Misrepresented Services With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #52. This church offers two services. They call the...
