We Must Do Better at Our Religious Meetings “Why do you so hate the church?” Shocked, I furrow my eyes and scowl at my friend. “I don’t hate church.” “But you’re always criticizing it in your blog.” This gives me pause. True, much of my writing about church doesn’t celebrate what she does well but […]
Why We Shouldn’t Join a Church A few decades ago American Express unveiled the tagline: “Membership has its privileges.” Their ads implied that great benefits awaited those who qualified to carry one of their exclusive cards. To start, there was a high annual fee and, as I understand, minimal annual levels of usage for their […]
The Holy Scriptures Are So Much More than a Sacred Icon or Guidebook for Living I revere the Bible. Every morning I reserve time to read its words and study its meaning. It informs who I am and reforms what I do. It exposes me to God and his ways. This is why I love […]
King Solomon Mixed Religious Practices and God Was Not Pleased In the Old Testament of the Bible, God tells his people to not marry those from other nations, folks who believe differently and worship other gods (Deuteronomy 7:3). This isn’t so much to keep the bloodline of his chosen people pure but to keep them […]
The undercurrent to society’s willingness to cheat on just about anything goes back some thirty to forty years. It began with the assertion that there are no moral absolutes, that each person must decide for him or herself what is right and what is wrong. This opens the door for unrestrained cheating. Therefore, if it […]
Reading the Bible Helps Inform Us of Who We Are I love reading the Bible. While the entire Bible is useful to teach us about God and inform our faith journey (2 Timothy 3:16), I particularly enjoy the stories about the people, our spiritual ancestors. I like reading about Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, […]
As Followers of Jesus We Can Point the Supernaturally Curious to God Premodern people saw everything as spiritual. Though modern thinking attempted to remove the spiritual from our everyday reality, the postmodern view is open to reunite them. For that I am glad. Yet not all that is spiritual is good. Consider all of the […]
It’s critical to build our spiritual house on a strong foundation if it is to last We live in a day where people make up their own religion. It seems silly to state our present spiritual climate in those terms, but that’s what people do, even those who say they are Christians. For some this […]
I recently read a series of movie reviews in a conservative magazine. With three pages of critiques to consider, all but two movies earned advisory warnings. With no R-rated movies covered, several cautions were for PG and even G-rated movies. Their items of concern struck me as overly critical. One obscure line from an animated […]
Consider the Importance of Church Attendance I often write about the importance of being in meaningful community with other followers of Jesus. I also lament that churches frequently fail to provide significant community. While many churches offer superficial community, few are able to provide a deep, nurturing, caring place. I long for this level of […]