Dallas Willard always expresses discipleship to Jesus as “Living your life as he would live it if he were you.” So, maybe I was meditating on this too much the night before. Whatever it was, here’s what happened in my dream. After getting dressed in my clothes, Jesus adjusted my best tie in the bathroom mirror and picked up my briefcase. “I’ll be home in time for dinner,” he said. “Enjoy your day off.” “Sure,” I said. Jesus jingled my... Read more
As part of my new job, we’re encouraged to read through the book, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and reflect on each of the habits together in scheduled weekly meetings. Honestly, it’s not something I would ever want to do on my own as I am allergic to all the usual leadership and success-minded literature that permeates our culture. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how many of the principles are derived from the teachings of Jesus. For example,... Read more
Many Christians profess to hold a “Biblical view” of gender, marriage, and sexuality, but they are wildly selective when it comes to how they choose verses in scripture to support their views. Essentially, what most of those people are doing is deciding ahead of time what they believe about gender, sexuality, and marriage in advance and then carefully selecting only those verses that support their narrow views. This is called “Eisegesis” and it’s the other side of the coin... Read more
Have you ever wondered why Jesus didn’t write the New Testament or the Gospels personally? Wouldn’t that have once and for all eliminated any arguments about scripture being inerrant and perfect? Perhaps that is exactly why Jesus didn’t write it personally. Maybe He depended upon human beings who would share their understandings with us so that we would have no other choice but to discern their meaning for ourselves, question their motives, weigh their judgment, and test everything they... Read more
The other day I was reflecting on how the Psalmists complain to God about the prosperity of the wicked. I understood how it must have felt for the Israelites to see their enemies – who were pagans – flourishing and growing strong and wealthy, while they – the “People of God” – were suffering, poor, weak and downcast. Anyone would question this outcome under the same circumstances. Anyone would wonder what good it was to follow their faith if those... Read more
A few thousand years ago, it wasn’t uncommon for a gathering of Christians to be interrupted by men with weapons. In those days, the government actively persecuted Christians; arresting church leaders, jailing members, torturing those who refused to pledge allegiance to the Empire and publically executing those who were especially dangerous to the State. Of course, this sort of thing has been going on ever since. Today, somewhere in the world, Christians are still in danger of being arrested, beaten,... Read more
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