The Bible is filled with figurative language. If God wants to be understood, why are there so many stories, verses, and images that can be left to the reader to interpret? What can we learn about what is important to God in all this?
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The Bible is filled with figurative language. If God wants to be understood, why are there so many stories, verses, and images that can be left to the reader to interpret? What can we learn about what is important to God in all this?
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Life is parabolic, so to speak. Parables create an undeniable messaging. However, the message is not entertainment. That messaging is perpetually and primarily a God-message.
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Recently, I published my book on Bible application and illustration. It has been an exciting journey, working over this material for the last 25 years. It’s the same approach I teach in my classes at Summit International School of Ministry.
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There is a strange rest that comes from capturing the fire of the past. Before there was health care, birth control, food surplus, and Walmart, people struggled and tested things. The quality of life was measured differently when there was not abundance.
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The early Methodists were not well liked in early America. The very reasons for this are why we need to take a closer look at them.
Methodism is a label that is dusty, kind of like what we feel when someone says “K-Mart” or “Woolworth.” This is so much the case that some of you about had a cow when you read the title of this article.
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Recently, I was at a Christmas service where the preacher exclaimed something like this: “During this season, we celebrate Jesus coming to earth–where the Infinite became finite, where the Omnipresent became present, and the All-Powerful became weak. I had all I could do to contain my theological sensibilities.
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Most of my adult life, I have employed a phrase, ‘finishing well.’ Just from an observational perspective of observing the big crowd out there, however, it would be good for people at the beginning of their Christian walk to count the cost of just finishing, even if they do not finish as well as they had hoped.
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Impersonal ‘Science’ with a capital ‘S’ has no compass but itself, or some collective rationale, swinging with the pendulum of capriciousness of the person winding the clock or holding the political power, or worse, the purse strings of endowment money. However, if we are created by God with reason and for a reason, we must think about how we live. We must aspire to moral greatness as well as scientific greatness. We should carefully consider our way.
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This year will be a good year, regardless of what lies ahead. We must maintain clear optimism as Paul did in one of the most difficult periods of his life. He records his journey in 2 Corinthians. We need to embrace the positivity of God. It is an awesome thing that in Christ, all the promises of God are ‘yes’ and ‘amen.’ For the residents of Messiah Lifeways care community, who live a highly restricted life in the fear of catching COVID and who see their elderly friends come down with symptoms, what does the New Year mean for them? Here are a few words I shared with them. The vaccine is right around the corner, but only part of our faith should be in science. We have to have a positive outlook, not because of what science can do, but what God can do through us as we start this new year. 2 Cor. 1:20 says, “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.” Wow, “through us,” that’s amazing. God gets glory by working through us. There is good reason to be optimistic.
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