Because the modern American church is not well grounded in the Old Testament, it is easy to underestimate the importance of Abraham and his story.  His name appears 233 times in the Old Testament and 72 times in the New. All four Gospels contain the name of Abraham and in each, at least one of the mentions is from the mouth of Jesus Himself. Outside of the Gospels, Abraham is referenced in Acts, Romans, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Hebrews, James, and 1 Peter. One of the Apostle Paul’s big points about Abraham in the letter to the Romans is an obvious…

“The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why.” – NOT Mark Twain  This is one of my favorite things that Mark Twain never said.  (Nobody seems to know the originator, but it certainly was not Twain. It’s first appearance in print was in 1970 with a simple “It has been said …”!) To me the quote encapsulates something that is sorely missing from our present culture – and something I believe people are beginning to wake up to: a sense of purpose. To me, the purposelessness of…

The greatest thing about reading is coming across an Ah-ha! moment. A single epiphany can prove to be well worth hours of otherwise unproductive reading.  The second best thing about reading is comfort. You don’t have to know someone personally to find reassurance in knowing another has been before where you are currently – and survived. Reading about it might even make it less awkward.  I found comfort of another type this evening in reading about lethologica – also known as the “tip of the tongue” phenomenon. You’ve undoubtedly experienced it yourself – needing to halt a sentence because some…

An understanding of biblical cosmology, popularized by Dr. Michael Heiser but not invented by him, commonly called the “Divine Council” view makes a lot of sense to me. Plus, it answers a lot of unspoken questions, especially with its connection to the Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11. In brief, Heiser makes the case that God shares His authority in the heavenly realm with other, created spiritual beings just as he intended to share His authority on earth with humans.  And, just like humans, His spiritual creatures vary greatly in their trustworthiness and how they choose to exercise the…

I like to listen to theological debates on YouTube. Most of the time the topics are various aspects of Calvinism – how sinful is humanity? do humans have free will? would God send a baby to hell? The one topic I have absolutely no interest in is “once saved, always saved”.  For one thing, it doesn’t take long to find strong proof texts on both sides of that debate. So if you’re just looking at individual verses (ripped out of context), it is going to be tough to get any traction for your side in the debate. But what really…

I would never begrudge God His anger for one second. He is righteous and He is the Creator.  But as for my own anger, I have come to the point where I find it utterly useless – except as a warning light on my own spiritual dashboard. I have learned there’s too much danger in getting angry. Even so-called “righteous anger”.   Andrew Klavan calls anger “the devil’s cocaine”. It’s addictive and takes control over your mind and actions. Yes, Paul writes, “Be angry and do not sin.” But he goes on to say, “Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.”  (Ephesians 4:26-27) Seems clear enough that anger is…

Yesterday I posted my agreement with the following Bertrand Russell quote: “If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do. If some one maintains that two and two are five, or that Iceland is on the equator, you feel pity rather than anger, unless you know so little of arithmetic or geography that his opinion shakes your own contrary conviction.” In response, someone posted the following question: “How does that fit with Mark 3:4-5? The Pharisees had no good reason…

I know very little of Bertrand Russell beyond his reputation as a great thinker and no friend of religion.  But recently I came across a quote from Russell which struck me as not only insightful, but incredibly practical.  “If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do. If some one maintains that two and two are five, or that Iceland is on the equator, you feel pity rather than anger, unless you know so little of arithmetic or geography that…

Tomorrow I start a new part-time job as an adult English teacher to recent immigrants. I’m a little nervous about the time commitment. (I will be in class twice a week, 3 hours at a time.) But I am also getting a little excited about this opportunity and the chance to get to know these individuals. Last week I shadowed a couple of different teachers so I could get an idea of how things run and the people I met were so sweet and earnest and grateful.  Whatever else you might say about immigrants, their life in the U.S. is…