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A BIBLE STUDY PRACTICE TO RECOMMEND
In October 2021 I started a Bible reading habit that has benefited me more than anything else I have done in my life to strengthen my spirit. Including going to seminary. I am not exaggerating. The best part is the simplicity: As I read Scripture, I write it. And as I write it, I look for key words and how the sentences are structured. I try to represent relationships between words and ideas in the way I write the verse out on the page. Sometimes I write out my own thoughts and questions on the opposite page or in brackets. …
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DOCTRINE
In his book God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World, author Stephen Prothero begins his chapter on Judaism with these two sentences: “Judaism begins and ends with a story. If Christianity is to a great extent about doctrine and Islam about ritual, Judaism is about narrative.” Those words gave me pause … IS Christianity “to a great extent about doctrine”? IS a striving for right belief (orthodoxy) what defines us? (That would explain the thousands of distinct denominations within what is supposed to be a united Church body.) Maybe Prothero is correct and doctrine does…
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PROPHECY
Tomorrow morning I am preaching on Isaiah 11:1-10 – one of the Old Testament prophecies closely associated with the Christmas story. It’s the one that starts like this: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” Years ago I heard someone explain something about Biblical prophecy I had never heard before – but it made so much sense: Prophecy is not so much about prediction before the fact as it is about confirmation after the fact. We tend to assume prophecy is all about predicting coming events. Thus, if we…
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BRANCH NIGHT
Our whole family gathered this evening in West Lafayette, Indiana. Melissa, Sarah, and I came from Columbus. Hannah drove over from Olivet. Samuel from Ball State. And Caleb came up from Wabash. The occasion was Caleb’s ROTC “Branch Night” – the night when all the cadets are informed which branch of the Army they will be serving upon graduation. The battalion put together a nice catered meal followed by the evening’s program: Each cadet was called up on stage to receive a lapel pin which would reveal his or her area of service for at least the next 4 or…
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FAITH
As I have gotten more serious about my personal study of Scripture, I realize even though I am quite familiar with a number of key words which crop up again and again – love, peace, justice, glory, etc. – if I were pressed, articulating a coherent and complete definition would cause me great trouble. One of those words is “faith”. So I have been developing my own definition: Faith is the process of aligning my concept of reality with Reality as revealed by God. This is belief in God’s Truth followed closely by whatever action that Truth demands. The starting…
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DAILY WRITING
Somehow, I forgot to hit publish on what I wrote last night. I haven’t made that mistake since early in this experiment of daily writing. The experiment is now one month shy of two full years. During that span of days there were fewer than 7 when I did not publish something. And most were during my trip to Ghana, on nights when I was sleeping at some sketchy guesthouses with no Wi-Fi. I have been thinking recently about what I want to do with this experiment once January 1st arrives. I don’t have a great desire to go for…
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TWO VOICES
Last night’s post came across pretty confident, but truth be told, lately I find myself getting whiplash from turning my attention between two competing voices. One voice says, “You’re thinking too big.” The other says, “You’re thinking too small.” How do you decide which voice to keep and which to kick? Along with “Too big!”, that first voice cries out, “You’re going to fail. You don’t have what it takes. You’re fooling yourself.” While the second offers advice like, “Trust God” and “Keep pushing ahead”. Hmmm. Now that I write it out, it seems pretty obvious: The first voice is…
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PREPARED IN ADVANCE
Francis Azaglo is a teacher in a small town in Ghana, but it doesn’t pay much. To stay afloat, Francis started to look for some way to increase his family’s income. About a year ago – with the help of a $1,000 loan from Mission Resource – he and his wife stocked a small shop on the main street where they could sell food (like fresh eggs) and household items (like superglue). Business has been good! As he finishes paying back his first loan, Francis has started thinking about the next step in the growth of his business: He would…
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JUSTICE?
What follows is a series of incomplete thoughts. I am using this space to try to work out something in the recesses of my mind, brought about by the recent news of a local married teacher being arrested for allegedly attempting online to lure what he thought was a 14 year old boy into a sexual relationship. My wife and I spoke of this news the other night as we walked our neighborhood. We found ourselves contemplating why it was weighing so heavy on our hearts and minds. In apologetics, there is much talk of “the problem of evil” –…
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EFFICIENCY
This is Keteve. I met him in Ghana towards the end of September. He owns some farm land and a herd of sheep. Keteve has been a Mission Resource client for the past two years. He has used his loans to vaccinate his sheep – a smart move. Otherwise, a disease could get a foothold within his herd and wipe out every last animal. Keteve would be ruined. On the day I visited his farm, Keteve was clearing out great mounds of weeds from among his pepper and tomato plants. The weeds were gathered and thrown into the sheep pen…
