Jesus’ parable of the weeds in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 is a tough passage to preach on unless you’re a Calvinist because basically it says that some people will always be weeds who have been planted by the devil that God leaves alone until the end of time when He throws them all into hell. Now a lot of preachers cheat when they get stuck with this passage by trying to make the weeds into bad “attitudes” or “feelings” in a... Read more
My buddy Derek wrote a post yesterday about how it’s not inappopriate for Christians to either mourn or celebrate in response to a presidential election. I agree with what Derek had to say; it was a legitimate reminder to be gracious in responding to the emotions of our friends. I do also think that all Christians regardless of our political views need to be called to humility and repentance. We have just been through a very acrimonious campaign season in which we have all sinned by saying... Read more
Lord, we take many things for granted in our country, but the fact that we are able to accomplish a peaceful transfer of governmental power every two years is truly a blessing for which we should thank you. We thank you for the judges who were able to put their partisan affiliations aside and rule justly concerning measures that could have compromised the integrity of our voting process in Ohio, Florida, and other places. We thank you for all that... Read more
I thought I I would share a share a summary of the blog posts that I’ve written related to the election since it’s the day before. As I’ve often shared, I think Christians can find justification in our faith to vote for either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. What I do hope is that you would not vote based on an ideological false narrative about a group of people that you’ve swallowed without thinking about it. I have been quite... Read more
I wrote a rap version of “This is my Father’s world” in 2009 for the kids in my youth group to perform in church. The song with its original lyrics seemed like a farce to sing in the hood because it talks about rustling grass and rocks and trees and so forth, not the world of concrete where my youth live. So I had to change the lyrics a little bit and put the music in a minor key. The... Read more
It’s time to start writing my first book. As many of you know, I had a very powerful spiritual encounter four years ago that permanently stamped Matthew 9:13 on my soul, where Jesus says to the Pharisees, “Go and find out what this means: ‘I desire mercy not sacrifice.'” I have become increasingly convinced that Matthew 9:13 is what Jesus would say to the American evangelical church today. We are in need of some major corrections in our theology which... Read more
I’m not sure how long the manilla package sat in the bin beside my desk. It was postmarked September 14th. I noticed the package yesterday a few days after I had written a blog post speculating about the postmodern language barrier that may have caused Al Mohler’s misunderstanding of Rachel Held Evans’ new book A Year of Biblical Womanhood. Inside the package was the book that had served as the excuse for my tangential theorizing. I opened it and dove... Read more
When the Reformation happened in the 1500’s, there were very different assumptions in place about who had the authority to interpret scripture. The Biblical “literalism” that evangelical America takes for granted today was not at all the standard. It’s important for evangelicals to recognize that “literalism” is not a claim about the authority of scripture, but about the authority of the interpreter. It concerns whether I need a priest to interpret the Bible for me (which would be a conservative... Read more
Early 21st century American politics presents a unique historical context for Christian contemplation because the two sides of our partisan divide can be described as a rupture between the two halves of Jesus’ Great Commandment. One side champions personal holiness (love of God) and thinks that the role of society is to create a basic system of law and order that will allow individuals to succeed or fail according to whether or not they make responsible choices. The other side... Read more
Mercy Not Sacrifice
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