The Bible and Culture

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On my bucket list of things to do before I go to meet my Maker, was to get to hear one of our national treasures play and sing---- Paul Simon. The clock has been ticking on this one increasingly loudly because Paul Simon after all is 70.....70!! Which of course is a testimony to how old I am as well. I have already reviewed his fabulous recent album 'So Beautiful..or So What' on this blog so you can seek that out. In my book, it should win album of the year at the Grammys--- hands down. … [Read more...]

Of the making of Bible translations there is no end, and that actually is a good thing for two reasons: 1) we are constantly finding new info on the Greek New Testament in its earliest forms, and 2) English is a moving target, a living and developing language. If only for these two reasons we have a right to expect the continual attempt to communicate the original text in understandable contemporary English. In this particular post I want to focus on three recent translations--- one by an … [Read more...]

There are lots of different kinds of deliveries. There's regular mail, there's Fed Ex, there's UPS... we could go on and on. But when it comes to the delivery of the sermon it's not just about fast or slow, regular or irregular. There are more effective and less effective ways of communicating with a particular audience. Here, knowing one's audience is crucial. There is a difference between a word on target, and using the buckshot approach and hoping to hit something. Of course this means … [Read more...]

There is of course a long history of preaching, inside and outside of the church. It's called a sermon or revival message inside the church, evangelism outside the church, though it's only one form of evangelism of course. My concern in this post is to talk about the rather drab and dismal state of preaching in some quarters these days, even in Evangelical churches.While of course it is true that the Holy Spirit is involved in the process of preaching, and provides inspiration and … [Read more...]

The following is a devotional from James Howell the pastor of my home church Myers Park UMC in Charlotte N.C. --- eMoses - nothing worth doingNov 3Let us continue to reflect on Moses' last day, high up on Mt. Pisgah, surveying the Promised Land. How many heroes through history have not been there for the climax of their own mission? Martin Luther King, Jr., on the night before his assassination, spoke eerily on this very passage in his famous sermon in Memphis ("We've got some … [Read more...]

Leaning is a means of concentrating. The parishoner leans forward in the pew to listen more intently to what the preacher is saying. The preaching leans forward on the pulpit when he is making a particularly crucial point and wants to have the full attention of the congregation. I like to lean on the arm of the pew and incline my ear and heart to the Word. Some of us are more visual learners (especially the computer generation) some are more auditory learners, but whatever it is that you do … [Read more...]

Recently a Christian from Indonesia who writes to me with questions about the faith from time to time asked me about the Reformed theology of regeneration. Basically it goes like this--- you can't possibly have faith or respond to the Gospel unless God has already regenerated you so that you could do so, and you are not going to be regenerated unless God has chosen you to be so in the first place. Otherwise, you are a no-hoper. It's all in God's hands.Now there are a variety of … [Read more...]