Let me live that I may praise you, and may your laws sustain me. I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commands. Those closing words of Psalm 119 speak to me. I too want my life to praise my Maker and Sustainer. I too have at [...]
Archive for the ‘Bible’ Category
Day 189: Psalm 119:89-176
Posted in Bible, Bible in a Year 2011-2012, Psalms, Spiritual Disciplines, tagged faith, life, religion, spirituality on March 7, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Day 188: Psalm 119:1-88
Posted in Bible, Bible in a Year 2011-2012, Psalms, Spiritual Disciplines, tagged faith, religion on March 6, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The blameless are blessed, so says Psalm 119. But I’m not blameless; I make mistakes. I am not alone in this. None of us qualifies for membership in that elite group of people who “do no wrong.” Even the writer of this psalm doesn’t qualify: “Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees!” [...]
Day 179: Psalms 78-79
Posted in Bible, Bible in a Year 2011-2012, Psalms, Spiritual Disciplines, Teaching, tagged Education, faith, generations, life, religion, scripture, spirituality on February 26, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
People in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) experienced a cycle common to countless generations from ancient times to today. It’s a cycle of faithful and unfaithful living. Psalm 78 reveals a key to faithful living. To challenge the cycle we need more than human effort, more than intellectual determination, more than uplifting worship. We need [...]
Pointing to Jesus
Posted in Bible, tagged ending of Mark, Jesus on August 19, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I’m reading The Feast: How to Serve Jesus in a Famished World by Joshua Graves (Leafwood, 2009). It shares an observation that I first discovered through Dr. Ken Cukrowski, a Bible professor at Abilene Christian University. Graves writes, “The Gospel of Mark has a controversial ending. The most reliable early manuscripts and other ancient witnesses [...]
Stories and Faith: Part 2
Posted in Bible, tagged Christianity, gospel, Incarnation, Jesus, Revelation, spirituality, story on August 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Jesus preached the arrival of God’s kingdom, and that kingdom is where God is king, where people act in cooperation with God’s holy mission of reconciliation. The kingdom is God’s work of fixing broken relationships—broken relationships between God and people, between individual people, and between groups. Christ came to conquer cruelty. As Ephesians 2 says, [...]
Stories and Faith: Part 1
Posted in Bible, tagged Abraham, Bible, God, Hebrews 11, Jesus, Moses, Sarah on August 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Stories shape our lives. Whether fiction or nonfiction, stories define us. They also reflect us. Think of movies. They tell stories, and a media theorist can make a career out of discussing how movies reflect and shape social reality. One of my favorite movies is Wag the Dog. I don’t endorse the movie’s obscene language [...]
Camping Mistake
Posted in Bible, tagged Bible, Christianity, Church, culture, current events, events, faith, Family Radio, Harold Camping, Judgment Day, May 21, News, People, religion, spirituality on May 23, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Harold Camping predicted that May 21, 2011, would be Judgment Day, when a faithful few would float to heaven, leaving unbelievers to suffer on a quaking planet. His claim, based on a piecemeal interpretation of various Bible verses, obviously was wrong, resulted in countless confused people, and spent a fortune on mistaken advertising. Sunday morning, [...]
King James
Posted in Bible, tagged Bible, King James Version, KJV on April 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
May 2nd is the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible. The KJV has served the church for four centuries and played an influential role in my childhood spiritual formation. My family often sat in our living room and read that translation together, even before I could understand it. Its beauty is [...]
Don’t Put a Question Mark?
Posted in Bible, tagged Bible on July 9, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Church marquee: “Don’t put a question mark where God put a period.”
History of Churches of Christ, Part 4
Posted in Baptism, Bible, History of Christianity, History of Churches of Christ, Unity, tagged Baptism, Bible, Christianity, Churches of Christ, History, religion, Restoration Movement, Unity on April 26, 2010 | 1 Comment »
The early Restoration Movement taught about the Bible, unity, and baptism.
