Paul begins his letter to the Galatians shocked that they have quickly turned from the Gospel he delivered to them in favor of “another gospel” – “which is really no gospel at all”.  Somehow a group of dissenters got to the Galatian Christians and convinced them all new Gentile believers needed to be circumcised in order to be accepted by God. A Gentile believer’s faith – without circumcision – was simply not enough. Biblical scholar N.T. Wright cautions readers of Galatians not to fall into “the temptation to project [their] own theological disputes into the letter”, “with themselves heroically cast…

A week ago I bought a book on Kindle called 5,000 Words Per Hour, by Chris Fox.  Fox lays out a plan to increase writing speed by tracking 5 minute writing “sprints” each day.  And he gives a tool to track progress, because he knows that when it comes to improving a skill, seeing progress is key. I was interested in this exercise because I have hopes of helping a friend write a book.  As my school work has increased in recent months, I have found daily excuses as to why I have made ZERO progress on the project. But…

There was a time I would have counted down days to seeing an Indiana Jones sequel. But that time was decades ago. The first was released in 1981. I was 13 and I had never seen any movie quite like it. I could have watched it over and over and not grown tired of it. The 5th Indiana Jones movie was released last weekend … and I refuse to see it. I rarely spend money on a movie without reading the reviews – or nowadays watching reviews on YouTube – but even without seeing what others thought, it didn’t take…

“If you’re thinking without writing, you only think you’re thinking.”  — Leslie Lamport I am finding this to be true.  I have another big paper due this week. This one will be over a passage from Galatians.  Although I am already dreading the amount of time and energy it will siphon from my week, I know I will learn some things about Scripture that would otherwise remain elusive.  And that’s going to make my preaching that much more effective.  

I’ve been working with the “Faith and Deeds” passage in James chapter 2 for this week’s sermon and a question just now hit me: How do Calvinists interpret this passage? (I don’t remember ever hearing this addressed by any Calvinist teacher.) James writes, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such a faith save him?”  If faith is an irresistible, out-of-the-blue gift from God, why have a discussion about proper faith needing to include action? And why would James urge his audience to complete their faith with actions?  James…

“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?” – James 2:14 I was a youth pastor in LeMars, Iowa at the time, planning my very first youth mission trip.  If my memory serves, we were going to do some work in some of the rougher parts of Kansas City for several days. We would do some group fundraising, but each participant would still be required to come up with 2 to 3 hundred dollars themselves to help cover transportation, food, and housing.  Our work schedule would…

Mark Twain once said, “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” “Eat the frog” has become a catchphrase in business and productivity circles. I came across it in a book by Chris Fox entitled 5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter. Fox explains that it is meant to illustrate a habit for success: Start your day with whatever task you most dread and the rest of the day will be more…

My family gave me a drone for Father’s Day and I haven’t even opened the box yet. My hesitation has been the steep learning curve which I know it will bring.  Today, though, I thought of a use for it that might finally get me motivated to take it for a flight: I would like to get video of Sardinia Baptist Church from the air. Sardinia is a unique community. It’s the proverbial “wide spot in the road”. The road in this case is Highway 3.  Traffic along 3 isn’t required to make a full stop, but it is slowed…

After noticing yesterday that Simon the Pharisee seemed a textbook example of the human tendency to always be on the lookout for new evidence to confirm our prior beliefs (while disregarding all evidence against), tonight I googled “examples of confirmation bias in the Bible”. It was one of those rare searches that turns up absolutely nothing along the lines of what I was looking for.  Seems like this could be an area worthy of some thought and study. What Google did turn up was lots of Christian websites warning that humans sometimes experience confirmation bias and, if we’re not careful,…