Open Door Policy

Summer is the season of mission trips, Vacation Bible School and Backyard Bible Clubs.  I would like to share a personal experience that I find especially encouraging. 
Our church is hosting a large number of volunteers this week from Lynchburg, VA.  Their mission team is doing a few construction projects and running several Backyard Bible Clubs in [...]

Having An Excuse vs. Making An Excuse

Years ago my family went to church with a guy named Ted.  He was a lifelong smoker, and had developed a pretty bad case of emphysema by the time we met him.  They finally starting bringing him to church in a wheelchair, and he stayed on oxygen all the time.  There was a large machine in [...]

In Order to Understand Scripture

There is a lot of criticism of the Bible in our culture today, and of those who believe in it.  Some of those criticisms may be valid, although many are certainly not.  There are Christians who have trouble responding to these critics, partly because even those believers do not understand what they are dealing with.  [...]

Bible Survey: Tower of Babel

I haven’t posted to Bible Survey in over a month.  I thought it would take a while to get through the Bible, at this rate it will take forever and ever.  I hope there’s Internet access in Heaven. 
The Tower of Babel story creates more questions for some than it answers.  Is the story literal, or [...]

Discussions That Are Academic

There are some discussions/debates that are purely academic in nature, meaning that they have no real bearing on anything practical.  Is Superman strong enough to beat up the Incredible Hulk?  It doesn’t matter who wins the debate, there is no practical application for the results. 

Cleaning the Blogroll

When I first started blogging, I worked to build up a blogroll.  These are the ones I read, and wanted to share with my readers.  Recently I’ve had to make a couple of subtractions. 
Tim Wilson lives in the United Kingdom, and was the author of Christ Centred.  His last post, the one linked, asks the [...]

Re-Introducing Jesus

This is everything some have us have been saying about “other” Jesus for years (Hippie Jesus, Cool Jesus, BFF Jesus, Discount Jesus) we just haven’t been throwing down lyrics.
Thanks to The Joy of Grace  for posting this (so I could post it also).  I figure the more people see it the better.
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Jesus’ Example: Knowing When to Shut Up

Jesus certainly developed the reputation of knowing how to say exactly the right thing at the right time.  On many occasions the Pharisees tried to trap him with rhetoric, only to have Jesus make them look foolish instead.  His words could condemn with their harshness or heal with their gentleness, depending on what the situation [...]

Jesus’ Involvement in Starting the Christian Church

If we began a study of the first century church, 9 times out of 10 we would begin with Acts chapter 2.  The Holy Spirit comes as promised, and Peter preaches a fiery message proclaiming Jesus is the Christ.  Certainly by the end of Acts 2, we see the first Christian believers come together in [...]