Living Under the Blue Sky with Kids in Junior High

Friends,
Next week I will be literally living under the blue sky as I play dean for a group of local junior high students at our local church camp, Blue Rock Christian Camp. That said, I will be on break from LUBS until at least the following Monday. I hope you will keep reading and replying, [...]

In Case You Ever Wondered…

Friends,
In case you ever wondered what I look like…

Thanks Odgie!
jerry
HT: The Simpson’s Movie

Fundamentalism

Friends,
We recently (my family and I) took a trip to Presque Isle in Erie, Pennsylvania. After an enjoyable afternoon of hiking, eating, swimming, and more we stopped at a small parking lot to watch a bunch of turtles sunning on a log in the middle of a pond. This is one of those rooftop carriers [...]

A New Kind of Lawsuit

Friends,
A while back, I was assured by several readers that a certain House Bill H.R. 1592 and its Senate companion S.B. 1105 would in no way infringe upon the free speech rights of Christians who believe homosexuality is a sin and preach in accordance with the Scriptural (Old & New Testament) teaching prohibiting such activity.
One such [...]

David Garland on Desperation & Faith

Friends,
Yesterday I came across that stunning quote by the late Mike Yaconelli. Today, during some more preparation, I came across this quote by David Garland in the NIV Application Commentary on Mark’s Gospel (5:21-43):
“Faith is impelled by desperation that Jesus is sufficient to meet whatever need one has. The ruler and the woman did not [...]

Highlighting Blogs for Fun: Eternity Matters

Friends,
I realize the blog world is huge and so, at the risk of diminishing your constant support of my own blog, I have decided to step out a little bit and begin to highlight some other blogs that I happen to come across here at wordpress. I don’t know if I’ll get to it every [...]

Mike Yaconelli on Spirituality and Desperation

Friends,
I read this book a couple of years ago. I saw it on the shelf today while preparing lessons for my week of deaning junior high church camp next week. I saw one of those small green post-it flags attached to a page so I turned to it to see what had caught my eye [...]

Jesus Explains Why All Things Must be Made New, Matthew 9:14-17

Friends,
Here is text from a sermon I preached in July 2005. I see a lot of themes in this sermon that I am only just beginning to understand. In particular, this series of sermons was titled “ALL THINGS NEW.” I had no idea at the time where this would eventually lead, but now I am [...]

A Reformed Revival: Critiquing a Short Paragraph Uttered by Uber-Evangelical Paul Washer

Friends,
Paul Washer is a preacher. I hear about him seemingly everywhere. Many hail him as the latest in a long line prophetic preachers who are going to change the world with their powerful voice by calling the church to reform. He is hailed as being extremely orthodox, although others have pointed out some inconsistencies  (see, [...]

Revelation 4-5, Worship as Response: Remembering the Cross

Friends, This is actually the second sermon I preached in a series of four in January 2008 that dealt with worship. The other three are here:
Worship as Proclamation 1 Corinthians 10-11 (Preaching the Cross)
Worship as Possibility: Hebrews 9-10 (Facing the Cross)
Worship as Sacrifice: Romans 12:1-2 (Displaying the Cross)
As you can see, the cross is at the center of [...]

Thoughts on Kindness: (W)Right Again!

Friends,
These are simply brilliant thoughts from NT Wright on Kindness:
“The key word, of course, is ‘love,’ and much has been written about that in itself. But I want to draw attention to something else–something often ignored in the clamor for better and clearer rules of Christian behavior: that we should be positively kind to one [...]

Eugene Peterson: Tell it Slant, pt 4 in the Conversations in Spiritual Theology

Friends,
I have made it no secret here that my favorite author, far and away, is Eugene Peterson. I have been devouring his books since a professor in College introduced me to his writings in a small book on the Revelation called Reversed Thunder.
Well, Peterson’s work has come a long way and I have come a [...]

Tom Wright on Scripture

Friends,
This week I am reading another book by NT Wright. This week it is Simply Christian. I am enjoying reading about faith from his perspective and I am finding myself nodding in agreement with much of what he has written. On the other hand, I am also finding him agreeing with much of what I [...]

90 Days with Jesus, Day 9: Colossians 1:10: A Life that Pleases God!

Day 9, Colossians 1:10: A Life that Pleases God!

“And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.”
“Christian living is that which, through the knowledge of God, is constantly bearing [...]

Funny Japanese Gameshow Stuff!

Friends,
This needs zero commentary.

HT: The Ferry Blog 
jerry