In Naperville Illinois residents have designed a field of flags to honor veterans, and donations from purchasing the flags will aid families getting treatment at a local facility. The woman at the right is walking through the Healing Field in memory of a relative who died in Iraq. Today, Veteran’s Day, is a good day to pray for peace for the world. Today is a day many experience in grief. Today is a day to pray for healing. The Healing... Read more
Acts 15 is in Jerusalem, the center of the church at that time. From Peter we move to Paul and Barnabas who also tell the same story that Peter had: God is saving Gentiles by faith, not by following the Torah. This leads James, the brother of Jesus and the leader of the church in Jerusalem, to declare his mind: 15:13 After they stopped speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. 15:14 Simeon has explained how God first concerned himself to select from... Read more
Folks Michael Kruse finishes off this wonderful series today, and I hope you express your appreciation to him. We need education like this, and to that end David Opderbeck will begin a series next week on “Law” — David’s a Law professor. So, here’s Michael’s last post… Today we come to the final post is this series on basic economics. Over the last nine weeks we’ve reviewed several economic issues: scarcity vs. abundance, supply and demand, positive vs. normative economics,... Read more
In their new book, Hidden Worldviews: Eight Cultural Stories That Shape Our Lives , Steve Wilkens and Mark Sanford examine little cultural scripts that write themselves all over our life — and they want us to see them for what they are. Today we look at Consumerism: “I am what I own” is the motto. The authors, both at Azusa Pacific, say God made us to be consumers — and this might need to be emphasized because for some “consumer”... Read more
Bettendorf, and Bettendorf Christian Church, were special to us. Kris and I got to take a long walk along the mighty Mississippi Saturday late morning and it seemed everyone walking or riding by said “Have a great day!” We felt we were amongst friends. I don’t know where to begin… so… I have to tell you I was motivated by the number of the young adults and high school students in the very front row — and they were paying... Read more
Bettendorf, and Bettendorf Christian Church, were special to us. Kris and I got to take a long walk along the mighty Mississippi Saturday late morning and it seemed everyone walking or riding by said “Have a great day!” We felt we were amongst friends. I don’t know where to begin… so… I have to tell you I was motivated by the number of the young adults and high school students in the very front row — and they were paying... Read more
Paul is at odds with Pharisaic believers over Gentiles: how are they saved? Do they need to embrace the whole Torah and get circumcised? 15:6 Both the apostles and the elders met together to deliberate about this matter. 15:7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that some time ago God chose me to preach to the Gentiles so they would hear the message of the gospel and believe. 15:8 And God, who knows the heart,... Read more
The central portion of Harvey Cox’s new book The Future of Faith lays out the New Perspective on The Church – which is no longer new. It is broad brush summarized as follows: Jesus taught and enacted a kingdom vision. His immediate followers were committed to this vision Paul’s disavowal of the necessity to submit to Jerusalem demonstrates that it was Spirit driven At its core the movement was a rebellion against human, particularly Roman, empire in favor of what... Read more
Everybody’s got a hungry heart — so says Bruce Springsteen and Greg Boyd, in his newest book, The Myth of a Christian Religion: Losing Your Religion for the Beauty of a Revolution quotes the Boss to make an important part. We all have a hunger to feel alive, to find security, to sense significance, and to feel a fullness of worth. It’s what Boyd means by “Life.” John 10:10 stuff. How do you define idolatry? What do you think of... Read more
LaVonne Neff, over at Lively Dust, has said it so well so I’ll just quote her. She estimates that it would cost each pro-abortion advocate 6 dollars a year to fund the abortion industry. So go ahead she says: Personally, I’m glad the House voted in favor of health care and against public funding of abortion–I’m one of those politically liberal, pro-life Catholics. But pro-choicers, if you really want to make abortion easily available and totally free, stop whining and just... Read more
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