One more Bible blog, hoping to get one more person into Heaven.
Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, the day commemorating Jesus’s arrival in Jerusalem before the start of Passover. He would spend the next four days teaching in the temple and being quizzed by the Scribes and Pharisees. Sidebar:Exodus 12 describes the process that sacrificial lambs must go through before they can be slaughtered at Passover. For four … Continue reading The Hidden Significance of Jesus’s Clothes
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Matthew 3:2 “They went out and preached that people should repent.” Mark 6:12 “I … Continue reading Why is “repentance” so hard?
“I will make mere youths their officials; children will rule over them.” (Isaiah 3:4) God spoke this prophecy about the Israelites, warning them of the correction that would come if they continued living as they had been, with hearts turned away from Him. When I read that verse now, I can't help but think it … Continue reading Presidents Day – Making Sense of the 2020 Election
A few days ago, I was on a conference call for work. The topic was employee wellness, and we were talking specifically about holiday parties. The host asked if anyone had friends who were planning to host parties this year, and I joked that, “After this election, I’m not sure I’ll have any friends left.” Affectionately, my … Continue reading On the Election
This is one of those Bible verses that, for the longest time, didn't make sense to me. I heard about it when I was around 14. And I read it in the strangest of all places, the “Letters” section of Guns and Ammo magazine. (I don’t remember the context, but given the magazine, I don’t … Continue reading Why did Jesus tell his disciples to buy swords?
This one was really tough to write. It seemed that every time I had my story together, some conflicting information would emerge and disrupt my narrative entirely. (I changed the title three times.) Maybe that’s a sign that I wasn’t (or I’m not) qualified to write it. Either way... Let’s start with a personal … Continue reading Black Lives Matter or All Lives Matter?
With this past Sunday marking the Feast of the Ascension (recognizing the bodily ascension of Jesus into Heaven), it seemed appropriate to write about a necessary prerequisite to the event: rising from the dead. Thankfully, a good friend turned me on to a pretty good analysis, written by a better researcher than myself. In the … Continue reading The Case for Christ’s Resurrection
In my last post, I brought up the question of whether rape was forgivable. I chose that example because it was (personally) the biggest forgiveness mountain I’ve ever had to climb. I know others have had bigger and tougher mountains, for sure. But my point in that example was really to provide some context for … Continue reading What’s the Limit of God’s Forgiveness?
Lent begins tomorrow with Ash Wednesday, and that, of course, means that today is Mardi Gras. For the New Orleans crowd, it's a pretty lively celebration - a chance to let out all your human-ness before entering the solemn, spiritual season of Lent. For me, Mardi Gras has a another significance. And given Harvey Weinstein's … Continue reading Is Rape Forgivable?
This seems to be one of the most popular questions around Christianity. A quick search through religious pamphlets shows there’s no shortage of explanations: natural result of bad decisions, rotten luck (aka random chance), sometimes at the hand of bad people, the list goes on. In the Bible, especially the Old Testament (as God was … Continue reading Why do good people suffer?
