June is the most romantic month, the month rhyming with moon and the bride’s choice for many weddings. And as it happens our church just finished a four-week sermon series “From This Day Forward,” focusing on marriage. The Scriptural bases were primarily Genesis 1-3 and Ephesians 2, 4, and especially 5. Here are a few … [Read more…]
Jesus thinks and studies for many years before He begins His ministry. There is a lesson there, isn’t there, about knowing your song well before singing? He had to get things right, and took care even though He was divine. And regarding the Old Testament, it would be odd to have an extended and detailed … [Read more…]
In his Easter sermon, our pastor made two especially powerful points. First, he asked for a show of hands of those who could remember 9/11. He continued: Suppose you wrote down your recollection of the basic events of that day, and those accounts were all collected and put in a time capsule. Two thousand years … [Read more…]
He is risen! And, by the way, in the sermon series on Leviticus that our church just finished (see preceding post), it was noted that chapter 11 in this book, on atonement, is at the book’s center. And, for that matter, this chapter is also in the Torah’s/Pentateuch’s center, Leviticus being the middle book. Also … [Read more…]
Our church just finished a sermon series on Leviticus, and in that regard I wanted to share a thought. In the text there are repeated reminders along the lines of “I am the Lord” or “I am the Lord your God” (for example, fifteen times just in chapter 19, according to a study guide). So … [Read more…]
Practicing what I preach, I read Mark daily in January, and on the last day ran across two Greek-English oddities in Mark 16. First, Mark 16:2 begins, “Very early on the first day of the week, [the women] came to the tomb, the sun having risen.” Of course, the “Son” as well as the “sun” … [Read more…]
My sense is that some people like to think that, if they can convince themselves of one inconsistency or inaccuracy in the Bible, then they can reject the Bible (and Christianity) in toto. Maybe this tendency is encouraged by the belief of many Christians in Biblical inerrancy; I don’t know. But the point is this: … [Read more…]
In the last sermon of 2024 at our church, the pastor made what I thought was a good point about the Great Commission, Matthew 28:18-20: 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them … [Read more…]
Playwright David Mamet (here) recently had an interesting observation on the Book of Jonah. His synagogue’s congregation was meditating on the book during the recent Yom Kippur; his insight was triggered by remembering Rush Limbaugh’s observation once that, when you’re arguing with someone intransigent, it isn’t necessarily futile, because some third party might be listening: … [Read more…]
I was googling “best gospel books” or something like that and, lo and behold, I found the subject of this blog post, namely Leo Tolstoy’s The Gospel in Brief. My thought then was, well, Tolstoy was one of the great writers of all time, and a committed Christian, and so it would make a lot … [Read more…]