Do you remember that wonderful verse in the Gospel of 2nd Hesitations? You know the one in chapter 9 verse 23 — “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their SWORD daily and follow me.”[1] Here is a way to literally apply that verse… U.S. Army Chaplains serve both God and country by bringing their unique gifts with which they are endowed by God, to the Soldiers of our nation in the broad, challenging,... Read more
Dear reader… If you are reading this, you are part of a wonderful group of folks who are journeying with me towards “new heavens and new earth” in the blogsophere for some time now. We have been together on the “Groans” site for quite some time, but today marks a new phase in my blogging journey. The new page is called “Pangea Blog.” There is a reason for this name and I invite you to read the About section. In... Read more
About a month ago, I had the opportunity to read Rachel Held Evans’ first book – Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions. It was truly a delightful and refreshingly honest book that had many resonances with my own spiritual journey. Some of the main questions that we share are those that involve culture wars and also the nature and scope of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Not... Read more
As many of you know, I am of the conviction that evolution and a high view of Scripture are compatible. There are actually many credible voices in the evangelical community that agree with this. Tim Keller, CS Lewis, Billy Graham, John Stott, NT Wright, Greg Boyd, Allister McGrath, John Polkinghorne, Scot Mcknight, and many more. Today, I want to point you toward a wonderful intoduction to this topic, written by Tim Keller. It is called: CREATION, EVOLUTION, AND CHRISTIAN LAYPEOPLE. ... Read more
This is a video that I came across on my friend Nate McCorkindale’s blog. It is about God being in essence: Love. Now, it does not do justice to this topic theologically, but it sure is a fun expression of the transforming power of the love of Christ. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it and ultimately, hope the theme chorus gets stuck in your head like it is in mine!!!!!!!! Click the following link to watch the video:... Read more
“What do I have to believe to be a Christian?” If you have been part of a church for any amount of time or spent even a few minutes surfing Christian blogs or church websites, this is a question you will encounter ad nauseam. The question itself is loaded, since it assumes one has to believe something. The only question to be wrestled with is what that something is. Our answers will usually illumine the things we value most... Read more
This is a statement that my lead pastor began a series through Galatians with. It hits to the deepest part of my relationship with Jesus and my understanding of the Gospel. Many of us try to make faith in Christ a Jesus ‘plus’ Gospel and create boundaries for entrance into the covenant community of faith. You need to clean up your act if you want to be a Christian, people will say either explicitly or implicitly. For instance, when we... Read more
I want to invite you to read a quick pdf file that is titled: Why Penal Substitution Doesn’t Work with Asian-Americans, by Mako Nagasawa. This will take you maybe five minutes but is completely worth it. If you don’t, the rest of this post may not make complete sense. A disclaimer I should start with is that this article is critiquing the popular form of “penal substitution” NOT “substitutionary atonement.” He and I both affirm that Christ died as our... Read more
I remember the first time I saw a Jesus fish. It really didn’t make sense to me. Why is Jesus represented by a fish? The only fish I know about was from the flannel-graph story of Jonah and the whale. But then someone told me the story about how in the early church the fish was a secret code for revealing that you were a Christian without the threat of being persecuted. I’m not sure why this has become a... Read more
Here is a guest contribution from a good friend in the blogosphere, Robert Anthony Martin. He is from the Mennonite tradition and brings some much needed perspective in this article. We do not always disagree about American politics (and in fact there are some big gaps between us in this regard), but we are both generous to each other as I think is evidenced by this post. And where we agree is much more important: the politics of the Kingdom... Read more
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