Sahil Bloom is a writer I am just starting to get to know. Along with 800,000 other people, I subscribe to his email newsletter The Curiosity Chronicle. I find his perspectives on life useful. As a believer, here’s one idea which stood out to me in particular: thinking of life more in terms of Missions than Goals. Bloom contrasts the two like this: “Missions are life journeys with no specific end. Missions are not goals. Goals are finite—focused around discrete achievements, with specific ends that create their own problems. Missions are infinite games. “You do not reach a Mission, you…

This week I am looking into the first notes of the priesthood theme in Genesis and still have much research and thinking to do. Some scholars say that although they are never called priests, some of the language used to describe Adam and Eve’s role in the Garden is connected to priestly duties elsewhere in Scripture. And then in Genesis 14 along comes Melchizedek out of the blue, blessing Abram and receiving a tithe from him. He seems to be an independent priest of “Yahweh Most High”. And he comes bearing bread and wine! This is the second mention for…

I listened to a podcast today about how useless the word “literal” is when it comes to discussions about how to read the Bible. Although I largely agreed with his stance, his explanation ended up being unnecessarily confusing. I guess I would explain it this way: People don’t generally speak or write in a strictly literal way, so we should beware of hyper-literal readings of any text – especially something written thousands of years ago in a distant land. Here’s an illustration any parent or teacher will immediately recognize: Your kid comes home from school and tells you, “My math…

When you were a kid, did you ever sing the following ditty during Sunday school or at church camp: Father Abraham had many sons, Many sons had Father Abraham.I am one of themAnd so are you,So let’s just praise the Lord. That was all there was to the song, but after the first run, the leader would shout out, “Right arm!” and we would all sing it again while waving our right arms around. (The boys would take the opportunity to smack each other “accidentally”.)  After the second round, the leader would shout, “Right arm! Left arm!” and now both arms…

“God is a mean-spirited, pugnacious bully bent on revenge against His children for failing to live up to his impossible standards.” ― Walt Whitman, American poet As far as I can tell, Whitman was a Deist and did not shy away from proclaiming a belief in a “universal Spirit” type of God. Apparently, “pugnacious bully” was his term for the God of “conventional religion”, which he openly disdained.   I have to admit that his characterization of God is not too far off from what many modern Christians seem to believe. (Of course they wouldn’t put it so bluntly or negatively.)…

A quote worth considering from poet Walt Whitman: “I like the scientific spirit—the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them: this is ultimately fine—it always keeps the way beyond open—always gives life, thought, affection, the whole man, a chance to try over again after a mistake—after a wrong guess.” This “scientific spirit” Whitman admired so much is how believers should approach matters of interpretation of Scripture and of doctrine.  Instead, we all too commonly latch onto – unquestioningly – whatever we grew up with or whatever we…

I’d love to tell you about all the sweating I did today as Hannah and I unloaded all her earthly possessions from the 15 foot U-Haul and lugged them up to her second floor apartment, but I am much too tired. And probably dehydrated.  After moving everything, it was time to assemble or reassemble some things – her new couch, a new bed, and some other odds and ends. And at least this part was inside and air-conditioned. Later we had a wonderful dinner at a top-notch sushi restaurant just around the corner from her new place. Living here, I…

I don’t have much to say tonight after driving a U-Haul truck several hundred miles and now anticipating less than a restful sleep at a cheap hotel in Columbia, South Carolina. I only have two and a half hours to finish in the morning so I will be anxious to get moving in the morning. I was re-listening to a long lecture by John Lennox on Abraham over the last few hours. (You can find the video on YouTube.) It’s excellent.  Lennox talks on Abraham for 2.5 hours and hits lots of mini-lessons along the way.  About an hour in,…