In an attempt to persuade the diehard You-Must-Believe-the-Earth-Is-4,000 Years-Old crowd, Dr. John Walton asks this question: what sort of origin story is the book of Genesis trying to tell?  Is it telling the story of a house or a home? If it’s the story of a house, then factual data regarding materials used, the date it was built, who did the work, and the actual blueprints would be all you need. But if it’s telling a story of how a home came to be, none of that matters to any great extent. Instead, you’d expect to hear about the various…

 I am beginning to see how the theme of humanity being created in God’s image – which is introduced in Genesis 1 – carries through the entire Bible and finds expression in various key passages. When we understand that we were created to represent God and His priorities here on this earth, then we get a deeper and more accurate understanding of what Jesus meant in John 14: 12 Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I am doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to…

Tonight my mission agency hosted its annual spring fundraising banquet and 99% of what could go wrong DID go wrong. Both the catered dinner and the program fell apart.  From my perspective, it was an absolute train wreck of an evening.  Still, the Spirit managed to keep me fairly unruffled. I was smiling through it all. I give Him all the credit.  I figure that God still gets His work done, even when it’s obvious to the whole world how rough His clay vessels are. I guess there were a few things that went right. The florist did a great…

One of the biggest misunderstandings in modern Christianity is that believers can look forward to an eternity in heaven.  Eternal life is promised, yes, but not in heaven. It will be right here on earth. (Granted, the earth is due for a major makeover before eternity starts, but still – we aren’t going anywhere.) The book of Revelation makes it clear that after the rule of Satan and death are ultimately defeated, we won’t be joining God in heaven. Instead, God will be coming to join us on the earth: 21:2 I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming…

I only ever suffered one true bully during my years at Pearson Elementary School. But he was consistent.  I was terrified of him and his big square head. I don’t remember him doing anything to me in the presence of a teacher, but he made every recess and the minutes immediately before and after school miserable for me.  If he had any friends, I was unaware of them. I’m not sure he wanted any friends – I don’t know if he actually liked anyone.  I recall that he hated our third grade teacher, Mrs. Kemper. (But we all did.) One…

Here’s a line from Old Testament scholar Michael Heiser which I plan to hold onto: “Read your Bible like it’s fiction.” It’s clever, meant to provoke a strong reaction – especially from those who claim to be the most serious about the Bible. And those are the ones Heiser wants to challenge most. Far too many evangelicals seem to believe that a “high view of Scripture” is one which requires reading the Bible as woodenly as possible, as if it were a divine textbook and their goal is to discern a handful of doctrines which will appear on the final…

One of the biggest objections to the idea of the existence of God is the whole problem of evil.  As I have been thinking about the creation account in Genesis recently, I can’t help but wonder: Would it even be possible for God to create any other sentient beings with free wills – either spiritual beings or humankind – without the real risk of those beings introducing disobedience into the equation? Why? Because God is perfect. And yet by definition, He cannot create another perfect being. Any being He creates is necessarily going to be lesser than He is and,…

I can get stirred up sometimes on Saturday nights, in anticipation of preaching on Sunday mornings.  A couple of things in particular get me excited: #1 – Passing along whatever I have been learning recently about the Bible – which is an endlessly fascinating book. I know some pastors like to recycle old sermons whenever they are in a new context, but I would much rather be working with fresh insights. There’s always more to discover. #2 – The possibility that I could play a role in someone else’s “lightbulb moment”. You know those moments – while reading a book,…

According to Google Memories, we have been back in our house in Columbus for four years now.  What a mix of emotions.  On the one hand, what a blessing it was to have a familiar place to “come home to” after leaving Haiti so unexpectedly, especially as Covid was turning everything upside down. (We had been renting the house out the entire time we were in Haiti. Our last tenant moved out for his own reasons just three days before we arrived back in town.) But on the other hand, I never anticipated living here again. I don’t want to…

Genesis 1:26 – Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” As I am focused on Genesis 1:26-31 this week in preparation for Sunday morning, I am reminded of my freshman year at Wabash College and getting shot down by a professor in front of my classmates. The class was called “Cultures and Traditions” and we were looking at the…