Traitors for Christ
The English language owes much to the Bible, especially the King James translation. Even the most non-religious often use expressions directly from its phrasings or stories—for instance, "the patience of Job." And Job did seem a pretty patient man. Even though he "was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil"1…
It's Jesus I'm going to turn this sermon, "The Reason," upside down and tell you the punch line right from the start. The reason is Jesus. There you go…now we can quickly finish the rest of the service and go grab some coffee and cookies in fellowship hall about 30 minutes early. 🙂 One could…
Although I can appreciate almost any style of music that includes a melody, I am especially drawn to tunes with heavy guitars. Over the years, Ozzy Osborne has had a knack for not only putting out songs with great guitars—he also attracts especially talented guitarists. (For those not familiar with Ozzy, he first became famous…
Questions After last week's sermon I got two bits of implicit advice, one right after service, one late in the work week. First, get into the meat of the talk more quickly. Second, keep it shorter. So, let's jump right in with some questions: Did God create the heavens and the earth and everything that…
Canadian Bands Those of you who made it to church last Sunday know that for my sermons this month I am using secular (that is, non-Christian) songs as fodder for sermons. This week we look to our neighbors up north, Canada, for inspiration. How many here can name a Canadian band our musical artist? Other…
Although there is still a part of me that enjoys a good verbal sparring, I greatly prefer discussion over debate. However, for a conversation to be truly objective and not subjective (e.g. "Will the sun rise tomorrow?" versus "What is the best ice cream flavor?"), there are some fundamental rules about truth I think people…
I continue to slowly read through the Bible in one year. Although there are some days it does seem like a burden (due to my humanity, not Scripture itself), being “forced” to spend time in God’s Word daily has been a great blessing. I’ve never really been big on poetry (I abhorred it in high…
My good friend Winslow reminded me that I had left another article hanging. At the end of "What If'ing the Lord Almighty," which included rather disturbing incidents in the Bible where God's judgment didn't work out so well for children, I wrote: So, how do I explain how a righteous God has children abandoned, swallowed…
AKA "Slash's Advice for Christian Living" Messages from Secular Songs If any of you have spent time on-line looking at (or listening to) my sermons before arriving here in Pleasanton, you'll notice a good number that are based on songs by secular groups. For instance "What You Need" was based on Aloe Blacc's "Little Miss…
Many of the folks I follow on Twitter are Calvinists. I personally believe in free will, but do grant that they have ample evidence for their predestination views. I just weigh the evidence in toto differently. As someone who is thus the recipient of it, I have noticed a certain smugness in what quite a…
Space.com had to know they were going to grab some attention a tile like this for an article: “The Big Bang Didn’t Need God to Start Universe, Researchers Say” And the beginning of the piece doesn’t disappoint: SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Our universe could have popped into existence 13.7 billion years ago without any divine…
Captain Francesco Schettino Has anyone here heard of Captain Franscesco Schettino? Why he is famous…or rather…why he is infamous? It is because he was captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship that sank of the Tuscan coast this past January…a captain who decided to save his own scalp and hop into a lifeboat instead of…
As Jeremy passed the deteriorating wood-tiled church on North Main Street, he tried to remember just how long ago its large doors had been locked for the last time. Was it ten years? Longer? Shorter? However far back it was, the doors were no longer white, having lost the battle with weather that any abandoned…
Quick Review For those who weren't here last week…or who have an MTV generation attention span :-)…let's start this week off by doing a quick review of "Facing God and the Face of God (Part 1)." I started off by sharing some pretty disconcerting scriptures, the first of which was Hebrews 9:27: And just as…
Seeing What We Haven't Seen Before I just wrapped up a four-part series at the Pleasant View Church of Christ…and after it I find myself returning over-and-over-and-over again to one Scripture in the Bible. It's a verse that I've read multiple times previously without it fully registering in my psyche. I'm assuming that experience is…