The People of Israel Ask Samuel To Intercede for Them Throughout the Old Testament, the Philistines show up as a recurring nemesis for God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel. The Bible mentions the Philistines 191 times in seventeen of the Old Testament’s books. In most of these cases the Philistines are doing something to […]
If We Claim to Know the Truth, That Implies Every Other Perspective Is Wrong The book of Job is mostly dialogue between Job and his four “friends,” with God having the final word—as he should. The words of Job’s four friends aren’t much help. At one point in Zophar’s monologue he claims that Job said […]
From an Eternal Perspective, Few Beliefs are Nonnegotiable When it comes to what we believe, should we hold loosely our theology or grip it tightly? Our initial reaction may be that we need to maintain a firm grasp on the things we believe. But this may not be the best approach. When it comes to […]
A Delayed Experience and Worth the Wait We visited this church as one of our original fifty-two, though I almost didn’t count it. On the Sunday we showed up, they cancelled their service because their minister had an emergency. With a start time of 11:30, it was too late to head anywhere else. Instead, we […]
The Dangers of Surrounding Ourselves with People Just Like Us It’s understandable that we want to spend time with others who are like us, with folks who all think, act, and believe the same. Yet when followers of Jesus do this it’s too easy to fall into a Christian echo chamber. A Christian echo chamber […]
Forgive and be Forgiven As followers of Jesus, we shouldn’t judge others, but we do. Too often, we judge Christians for their theology. We must stop. When we evaluate others based on what they believe, we diminish them in the process. And we smugly elevate ourselves over them. When we do this, our egos show […]
A Recap of Churches 27 through 44 The churches are starting to blur. Every week seems the same, offering only slight variations on a theme. I’m growing weary of our journey. I’ve realized this for a few weeks but didn’t want to admit it. Yes, I still notice kindnesses offered and innovations presented at the […]
Shun Division, Disunity, and Denominations in the Name of Jesus Just as church member status divides the church body into two groups, so does our doctrine. Instead of obeying Jesus’s instruction to love God and love others, we make a lengthy list of what we should do and shouldn’t do. We judge others according to […]
Knowing Jesus and Hearing the Holy Spirit Is Better Than Formal Education Most all churches expect their clergy to have undergone formal, academic education. Many insist on a seminary degree, especially for their ordained ministers. From a worldly standpoint this makes sense. But from God’s perspective I can imagine him laughing. Look at the credentials […]
We Must Correct Some Wrong Perspectives about Our Religious Practices We’ve looked at how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament to provide a new way for us and our churches to function, replacing the temple, paid clergy, and tithes. Then we explored ten New Testament practices and five New Testament examples to inform our church behavior. […]