Stop Paying Clergy and Ministry Staff to Do What We’re Supposed to Do Ourselves In part one of Embrace a Fresh Perspective about Church we looked at adopting a new, biblically enlightened view on the role that a church building should play for our spiritual community. Now we’ll continue that theme by looking at church […]
Discover the Revolutionary Way Jesus Fulfills the Old Testament When we consider that Jesus came to fulfill the law of Moses and the writings of the prophets, what’s important to understand is that we must see these passages in their proper perspective, informing our perspectives about church today. This doesn’t mean to ignore what was […]
Moses Presents a Model for Connecting with God When God gives Moses the Law, he sets three key expectations for worship, along with a lengthy set of mind-numbing details to guide the practices he wants his people to follow. God addresses this throughout Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These three main elements relate to the […]
A few months ago, we went to church on Saturday morning. Now we head off for a Saturday evening mass. Consider these four discussion questions about Church #50: 1. The worship leader directs us to “page one in the white book,” but what we find doesn’t match what they say. We’re confused and can’t follow […]
A Thought-Provoking Look at Faith, Persecution, and Navigating Right and Wrong Reviewed by Peter DeHaan The movie Silence is a fictional account of two Jesuit priests from Portugal who seek permission to travel to Japan in 1639. They desire to investigate what happened to their mentor. His written communication had stopped, and a rumor circulated […]
As Followers of Jesus We Become His Priests. It’s Time to Start Acting Like It Aside from sharing my first name, I like Peter in the Bible. His concise writing packs a lot of practical teaching into his two short letters. He writes to those who follow Jesus. He talks about us being priests. Peter […]
God Is Still Waiting for Us to Obey Him and Minister to Others It’s interesting to connect the Old Testament with the New Testament, to see what changes and what remains the same. Let’s look at what God says about his people being a kingdom of priests. A Kingdom of Priests in The Old Testament […]
Through Jesus We Become His Priests and His Temple, Which Should Change Everything In the Old Testament the people go to the temple to encounter God. The priests help them in this. They act as a liaison between them and God. In many ways we still do this today. We go to church to encounter […]
Luther Saw Marriage, Not Celibacy Vows, as the Preferred Option for Most Clergy As Martin Luther’s ordeal wore on, he eventually left the castle where he was hiding. He returned to Wittenberg, some five years after he posted his ninety-five theses. Though still a wanted man, some powerful people offered him a degree of protection, […]
The Evil Queen, Her Good-Bad Grandson, and the Influential Priest In today’s passage we read about Queen Athaliah, her grandson Joash, and the priest Jehoiada. Here’s their story. The Evil Queen Athaliah Athaliah’s son Ahaziah is King. As with most mothers, she influences her son. But she doesn’t have a positive impact on him. Instead […]