Pursuing a holistic expression of Christian faith that is true to the Bible and applicable for today’s world.
The Bible is a Book About Jews and Their Relationship to God The Bible isn’t really a Christian book. It’s more so a Jewish book. Without question the Old Testament of the Bible is Jewish. It’s about Jews, and it’s for Jews. It looks at their faith journey as a people, records their history, and […]
When We Focus on Theology We Miss the Point of Following Jesus A lot of people today work hard to form a correct theology. Almost every church has a theology, be it formal or implicit. They use theology to determine who’s in and who’s out. Every seminary has its own theology as well. If you […]
Both Groups Commit Theological Errors We Must Avoid In Jesus’s lifetime, there were two major sects in Judaism: Pharisees and Sadducees. Both sects appear in the Bible, with Pharisee mentioned ninety-nine times and Sadducee occurring fifteen, all in the New Testament and mostly in the Gospels. Though Jesus extended love and acceptance to all people, […]
Social Media Has Trivialized What It Means to Follow Someone and Be Their Friend Today when we think of the word followers, our mind quickly takes us to Twitter. As in, “How many Twitter followers do you have?” Instagram and Pinterest also lists our number of followers. And when someone wonders about the number of […]
What Can We Learn from the Ending Sentence or Thought in Each Book of the Bible? As a writer I know the two most important things of anything I write are the beginning and the ending. A strong opening draws readers and keeps them interested, while a powerful close gives readers something to take with […]
Lessons of Art Appreciation Can Help Us Study the Word of God Until recently I never considered myself a creative person, and I certainly never considered myself an artist. However, I recently realized that I create art through words. I guess that makes me an artist. As such, that means I’m studying art (writing) and […]
The Best Christian Community Happens After the Service Is Over Last week I asked, Why do people show up for church late? My wife and I try to arrive ten minutes early, a practice we developed when we visited fifty-two churches in a year. This allows for time to interact with others, to enjoy a […]
The Timing of When People Arrive at Church Reflects Their Priorities When my wife and I went on our grand adventure of visiting fifty-two churches in a year, we decided we’d try to arrive at church ten minutes early. In doing so we would avoid breezing in at the last-minute, and we would have time […]
Technology May Keep Us Connected but It Can Leave Us Empty As a society, we’re more connected than ever before. But many people also feel lonelier than ever. With all our connection opportunities, why is this? Our smart phones and social media allow us to communicate and stay in touch with more people than we […]
Study Scripture in a Different Way to Glean More from It For most of my adult life, even going back to my teenage years, I’ve read the Bible most every day. Yet there were a few times when I needed to take a break, when my Bible reading practice had fallen into a rut—the deep […]