Resurrection Inconsistencies
17 - 04/19 /13:03
Critics of Jesus’ resurrection make much of inconsistencies in the New Testament accounts. While the four Gospels agree that women discovered the empty tomb, they record very different accounts of what women experienced at the tomb. However, most perceived inconsistencies fade when readers remember three facts. Precise time-keeping did not exist. Telecommunication did not exist. And we cannot know how many women went to the tomb.
What follows is my suggested sequence of events of Resurrection Sunday. Read More…
What follows is my suggested sequence of events of Resurrection Sunday. Read More…
declaration of faithful disobedience
27 - 03/19 /12:41
2004 the Chinese periodical Southern People Weekly (南方人物周刊) compiled their “50 Most Influential Public Intellectuals of China.” Included was Wang Yi, a pioneering human-rights attorney. 2005 Wang Yi converted to Christianity and began serving in a house church. 2008 at the Conference for Global Christians in Law he was awarded the “Prize for the Contribution to Promoting Religious Freedom.” That same year in Chengdu he founded a house church, Early Rain Covenant Church.
12/9/2018 Wang Yi and 100 members of his church were arrested by Chinese authorities. The government simultaneously banned all reporting about these arrests. 3/25/2019 The NY Times reported Wang Yi and his wife remain in custody.
After he’d been detained for 48 hours, Early Rain Covenant Church released Wang Yi’s “Declaration of Faithful Disobedience.” The following is adapted from his declaration: Read More…
12/9/2018 Wang Yi and 100 members of his church were arrested by Chinese authorities. The government simultaneously banned all reporting about these arrests. 3/25/2019 The NY Times reported Wang Yi and his wife remain in custody.
After he’d been detained for 48 hours, Early Rain Covenant Church released Wang Yi’s “Declaration of Faithful Disobedience.” The following is adapted from his declaration: Read More…
just do something
04 - 03/19 /09:39
Jesus was once the guest at a dinner party hosted by Simon, a religious leader. Several of Simon’s friends were present, there to take the measure of this miracle-working rabbi. As was common in the 1stCentury diners did not sit on chairs but reclined on couches.
While Jesus dined, and was plied with questions, an uninvited woman snuck into the house. Under normal conditions such a woman would have been kept out. But so many people clamored for a look at the miracle worker—so many wanted to catch a few of His words—that this dinner resembled a public square more than a home. Read More…
While Jesus dined, and was plied with questions, an uninvited woman snuck into the house. Under normal conditions such a woman would have been kept out. But so many people clamored for a look at the miracle worker—so many wanted to catch a few of His words—that this dinner resembled a public square more than a home. Read More…
lies & fantasies
18 - 02/19 /12:41
~ Adapted from a written opinion by Lance Morrow, senior fellow Ethics and Public Policy Center ~
As a teenager in the 1930s, my mother was an idealistic, card-carrying member of the Communist Party. When she quit the party, her Philadelphia cell declared her “an enemy of the people.” My father was an editor at the Saturday Evening Post in the days after World War II, when America imagined itself as a Norman Rockwell painting.
Absorbing the points of view of both my parents, I became a journalist. When I started it wasn’t considered unprincipled for a journalist to be able to see both sides of an issue. My double-mindedness persists in the Age of Trump. And what I see are the passions of the 1930s replaying themselves in 21st-century variations. Read More…
As a teenager in the 1930s, my mother was an idealistic, card-carrying member of the Communist Party. When she quit the party, her Philadelphia cell declared her “an enemy of the people.” My father was an editor at the Saturday Evening Post in the days after World War II, when America imagined itself as a Norman Rockwell painting.
Absorbing the points of view of both my parents, I became a journalist. When I started it wasn’t considered unprincipled for a journalist to be able to see both sides of an issue. My double-mindedness persists in the Age of Trump. And what I see are the passions of the 1930s replaying themselves in 21st-century variations. Read More…
greatest sermon challenge
11 - 02/19 /13:44
Early in his New Testament gospel, Matthew recounts Jesus’ invitation (actually it’s an expectation—even demand) for two fishermen to follow Him with the promise, “I will make you fish for people.” The question arises if all followers of Christ are to “fish for people.” Or is evangelism for only select Christians? After all, Jesus doesn’t promise to make the next two people He called, “fish for people.”
Matthew follows Jesus’ challenging four fishermen to follow Him with a brief transition paragraph that leads into His sermon on the mount. Might fishing for people and the sermon on the mount be connected? Read More…
Matthew follows Jesus’ challenging four fishermen to follow Him with a brief transition paragraph that leads into His sermon on the mount. Might fishing for people and the sermon on the mount be connected? Read More…
Iranians converting to Christianity
05 - 02/19 /12:49
According to NPR, in Turkey and across the Middle East and Europe, Muslim refugees eager to emigrate to the West are converting to Christianity.
Sebnem Koser Akcapar, a sociology professor at Istanbul’s Koç University, reports, “The numbers of Iranian refugees converting have grown tremendously.” But the professor believes many are professing religious persecution as an angle to emigrate to the West. Read More…
Sebnem Koser Akcapar, a sociology professor at Istanbul’s Koç University, reports, “The numbers of Iranian refugees converting have grown tremendously.” But the professor believes many are professing religious persecution as an angle to emigrate to the West. Read More…
slow mornings
14 - 01/19 /16:47
According to CNN, Forbes, the New Yorker and other observers, the next new-big-thing comes to us from Norway: Slow Mornings. It’s a counter movement to our high-tech, hectic, 24/7 over-scheduled lives. Practitioners dedicate a chunk of time every morning for … nothing.
Rising early they begin their day with quiet solitude, free from interruptions and deadlines. Practitioners claim Slow Mornings provide a foundation for productivity—a calm and focus that sticks with them throughout the day. The Institute of Slowness claims the fastest way to a good life is to slow down. “Don’t live as if you’re afraid to be late to your own funeral,” says founder Geir Berthelsen. Read More…
Rising early they begin their day with quiet solitude, free from interruptions and deadlines. Practitioners claim Slow Mornings provide a foundation for productivity—a calm and focus that sticks with them throughout the day. The Institute of Slowness claims the fastest way to a good life is to slow down. “Don’t live as if you’re afraid to be late to your own funeral,” says founder Geir Berthelsen. Read More…
religious bigotry in the u.s. senate
07 - 01/19 /12:37
Adapted from a 1/4/2019 Opinion published in The Wall Street Journal by Eugene F. Rivers III, a Pentecostal minister, director of the Seymour Institute for Black Church and Policy Studies.
People assume prejudice against Catholic politicians ended with the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy. Yet anti-Catholic bigotry lives. When US Senators sent written questions to Brian Buescher, a lawyer nominated for the Federal Court, two Senators demanded answers about his membership in the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic service organization. Read More…
People assume prejudice against Catholic politicians ended with the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy. Yet anti-Catholic bigotry lives. When US Senators sent written questions to Brian Buescher, a lawyer nominated for the Federal Court, two Senators demanded answers about his membership in the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic service organization. Read More…
re-inventing christmas
12 - 12/18 /10:37
Perhaps Hollywood’s first “Christmas movie” was Meet Me in St. Louis released November 1944, a story developed from eight semi-autobiographical vignettes by Sally Venson, published 1941-1942 by The New Yorker magazine. It’s a Wonderful Life could be our most popular Christmas movie.
While the Christmas season has become a cash-cow for Hollywood, the movies have not been good to Christmas. Read More…
While the Christmas season has become a cash-cow for Hollywood, the movies have not been good to Christmas. Read More…
gratitude
26 - 11/18 /18:07
The Bible recounts King David’s own son led a rebellion against him. Prince Absalom tried to steal the throne of Israel. He is commonly characterized as a rebel. Perhaps from Absalom’s perspective his father the king failed to act with justice and had become weak.
In time the rebellion was put down by the professional soldiers who rallied to the king. But against David’s announced wish his son, the leader of the rebellion, was killed.
Read More…
In time the rebellion was put down by the professional soldiers who rallied to the king. But against David’s announced wish his son, the leader of the rebellion, was killed.
Read More…
persecuted christians
05 - 11/18 /12:32
Sunday 11/4 was the international day of prayer for the persecuted church. Sunday at Hope Community was a prayer service. No sermon. Lots of prayers—spoken and whispered. Concluding with Communion.
Video clips focused our prayers on a few of the many countries in which Christians face persecution. Pakistan—Christians are second-class citizens relegated to demeaning work. Nigeria—Boko Haram attacks Christians (remember #BringBackOurGirls). China—President Xi deems Christianity to be un-patriotic. North Korea—possessing a Bible gets you 15years in a labor camp. Read More…
Video clips focused our prayers on a few of the many countries in which Christians face persecution. Pakistan—Christians are second-class citizens relegated to demeaning work. Nigeria—Boko Haram attacks Christians (remember #BringBackOurGirls). China—President Xi deems Christianity to be un-patriotic. North Korea—possessing a Bible gets you 15years in a labor camp. Read More…
murder at the tree of life
30 - 10/18 /21:25
The attack Saturday upon worshipers at Tree of Life Synagogue was another broadside from evil. Mass shootings and the murder accompanying them have become horribly common. Many immunize ourselves against the deadly toll. In small yet dangerous ways we begin to resemble people living in a war zone—seeing the suffering but blind to the evil.
Jesus challenges us to not be blind. Read More…
Jesus challenges us to not be blind. Read More…