From Mike Bird: Second, we need to acknowledge that there is, quite sadly, a discernible bias against the word “tradition” in our English Bibles. The Greek word paradosis and verbal cognates are often translated as “teaching” or “instruction” when describing what the apostles taught, but the same Greek word gets translated as “tradition” when referring to something attributed to the Pharisees, Jewish teachers, or pagan philosophy. Think about that, it means that our translations are prejudiced because they associate “tradition” with legalism,... Read more

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen. BCP Read more

Now Jordan Bohannon shows what college basketball can be: Iowa’s Jordan Bohannon had a chance to break Iowa’s all-time record for consecutive free throws made in the Hawkeyes’ Sunday night game against Northwestern. Bohannon had made 34 straight free throws, tying the record held by the late Chris Street. Street was an Iowa legend, but he was killed in a car accident in 1993, three days after he had hit his 34th consecutive free throw. Bohannon has grown close with... Read more

A Gold Star Opportunity for anyone who can tell us what the title of this new edition of one of my books is! Read more

By Mike Glenn Several years ago, marriage therapist John Gray wrote a book titled, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. He tried to explain the difficulties and challenges of marriage by pointing out that men and women come from different planets. Women are from the planet Venus which is named after the goddess of love, and men are from Mars which is named after the god of war. According to Gray, if you understand this basic difference, you... Read more

By Michelle Van Loon www.michellevanloon.com www.ThePerennialGen.com At the recent National Religious Broadcasters convention, Lifeway Research released a survey exploring the current state of Evangelical attitudes regarding Jewish evangelism. This is a topic that has been a lightning rod in the Church for a wide variety of reasons including but not limited to: the belief that God has an entirely different salvation scheme in mind for the Chosen People than he does for the rest of the world deeply-embedded anti-Semitic attitudes... Read more

The Beauty, Goodness, and Truth of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection, by Chad Thornhill One of the most powerful chapters in James Bryan Smith’s The Magnificent Story is also one of the most personal. Smith opens the seventh chapter by recounting the difficult experience of learning that their unborn child had a chromosomal disorder which likely meant their daughter would die soon after birth. As Smith recounts, the experience raised emotionally-charged questions about God. Why would God allow something like this... Read more

Yes, it landed on my doorstep. My new commentary on Colossians. Read more

Tom McLeish in his book Faith & Wisdom in Science explores the New Testament approach to creation – especially in Paul’s letters, the Gospel of John and Revelation.  McLeish notes that recent scholarship has emphasized Paul as “in continuity with the hope of Old Testament Judaism, perceiving the Christian church as the way to fulfil, rather than to negate, the law and prophets.” (p. 152) The Jewish story of creation is a story with a beginning, middle, and end. The... Read more

By Jonathan Storment “Instead of having friends, we watch Friends on television.” –Robert Putnam A couple of weeks ago, I was hanging out with one of my friends who is a pastor in Chicago. He moved there a few years ago, and was telling me about the joys and challenges of his work. At one point, he said that one of the greatest challenges he faces in Chicago is that he can’t seem to build community. He said because of... Read more