The Real Agenda – What Is The Good God Actually Up To?
If you, like me, are involved in either paid or volunteer Christian ministry, or both, it can be...
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Category – Bible Studies
Issues Include:
- practical guidance on church priorities 6 Lessons from New Testament Church Life: Diversity! & Jesus – Justice, Mercy, etc. – ACTS
- the Unpardonable Sin It Seems “The Unpardonable Sin” Is Stalking the Christian Right
- dangerous handling of the Bible People Who Take the Bible Seriously are America’s Problem & Blessing (with 2 Rules of Interpretation)
- Bible advice for choosing government leaders Looking for Integrity, Humility, Decency – Psalm 101
- the Old Testament Old Testament Philosophy – From Erich Fromm on “1984”
- rightly handling the Bible How I Approach and Handle the Bible – Seriously, & Through Christ
- how the Bible treats Israel Stand With Israel? Not When Israel Stands Against God.
Category: Bible Studies
Believe in Jesus Means Respect His Teaching, Moral and Mystical
20 minutes on Respect for Jesus. BELIEVING in JESUS INCLUDES RESPECT for JESUS. ...
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New Year! Suggested Priorities, Maybe a Resolution or Two.
Here are links and short quotes from 3 articles mostly written for former New Year’s Days –...
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On Christmas – 1. The Work of Christmas 2. Cowboy Prayer 3. War on Christmas BY Christians
Three quotes here from 3 articles on this site. Click through. 1. The Work of Christmas Begins:...
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Inside Out – God’s Love Can Come Out of Our Lives
LOVE I.We learn love by being loved.That is, it comes from the Outside In.That’s a very big deal....
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Our Grave National Danger – Links & Quotes
When the President of the United States literally praises mayhem and violence, and major...
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God’s New Economy – Crucial Fact 4 of 4
Three of the four Gospels (biographies of Jesus in the Bible) put considerable emphasis on the...
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Christians Should Respect the US Constitution (2) – Short Reasons from Ethics, History, Bible
The intended purpose of the Constitution is clear – set forth in the “Preamble”...
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God Comes To Us in Costly Grace – Crucial Fact 3 of 4
The basic meaning of a Christ-following faith turns on this fact – God is among us by the...
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4 Basic Facts for Understanding Life – Beauty, Damage, Costly Grace, Kingdom of God
The world is dangerous, and wonderful. Human life is rich, deep, terribly vulnerable, and...
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Do Not Be Afraid! 3 Bible Aids – Jesus’ Peace; Lifestyle Change; Faith in Love.
It’s Confusing, even Downright Scary. There are good reasons to be afraid. So what...
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You MUST Obey? No. You Are Not a Dog. Romans 13.
Top US Government Officials Say the Bible Requires Us to Obey Them. NOT. Here is the audio of my...
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Palm Sunday: The King We Need
8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the...
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“Woe to those who make unjust laws.” – Isaiah
Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of...
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Are You One of Those Whom Jesus Favors? Who IS He Willing to Teach and Help? (Matthew 11)
Jesus is Different. The Christ is NOT an arbitrary, or unaccountable, or irrational chooser...
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It’s Not Foreigners, Atheists and Gays Who Must Turn! 2 Chronicles 7:14
In this Scripture it’s NOT the foreigners and unbelievers who have to “turn”! WHO ARE WE TALKING...
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NO RELIGIOUS BULLIES. We Must “Lift Our VOICES” – While We Lay Down Our SWORDS.
“Declare to my people … their sins.” Jesus, Isaiah, the prophets, the apostles...
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7 Signs of a Healthy, Christ-Following Christian Faith
Unhealthy, dangerous forms of “Christianity” seem epidemic today. Are there healthy forms?...
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6 Lessons from New Testament Church Life: Diversity! & Jesus – Justice, Mercy, etc. – ACTS
This short list is a result of a number of hours I spent in the New Testament’s “Acts of...
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Advent: Christ Has Come. So, What Do We Have TO DO?
CHRIST HAS COME. SO WHAT DO WE HAVE TO DO? 1. STAND ALONE “Peter … asked, ‘Lord, what about...
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We Must Speak Up. “Lift your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their sins.”
God requires it of the prophet. He MUST speak out about what he sees going on. Shout it aloud, do...
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Stand With Israel? Not When Israel Stands Against God.
We are often told we must love Israel – which is true – we are to love all...
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Jesus Pushes Us to Judge Our OWN Lives – Not Other People’s
Jesus was a highly respected teacher of morality and of the spiritual life. So, logically...
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Let’s Build The Kingdom. Jesus said, “Seek Ye First The Kingdom of God.”
“Over and against these senseless modern myths … there is the “myth” of...
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Spiritual Tune-up: Don’t Ignore JESUS
There is absolutely nothing in what Jesus himself...
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The Moral Priorities of Jesus – What Did Jesus Teach?
He said, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ but do not do what I say?” Maybe...
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New American Bad Bible – Not What Jesus Wants (Pt-2)
These sayings may have a Biblical sound to them. But they are not Biblical. The Judge of the World...
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New American Bad Bible – Not What Jesus Wants (Pt-1)
These sayings may have a Biblical sound to them. But they are not Biblical. Setting aside...
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Kingdom Manifesto – Sermon on the Mount Summarized
It might be a good project for each of us – to try to summarize the Sermon on the Mount...
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Is Trump a Christian? What Does It MEAN to Believe in Christ?
There was some excitement among certain Republican Christians when Dobson said Trump had become a...
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Jesus and Racism – Samaritan Lives Matter – Black Lives Matter
Samaritans in Jesus’ day were both religiously and racially despised. The phrase...
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Turn the Other Cheek MEANS Resist Them Non-Violently
I. THE PROBLEM: Jesus says to turn the other cheek. [See a summary of this post.] Is it ever...
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Are Economic Matters a Moral Issue? Isaiah Thinks So.
In spite of Isaiah, and other Bible sources, we’ve all heard this – something like:...
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NE Gov Candidate – "Do Justice, Love Mercy"
Chuck Hassebrook (D-NE Governor candidate) closed out his campaign last night by quoting Micah...
Read MoreChrist Asks Us to Choose His Way, Not Caesar’s.
. . . switch sides from Caesar’s way to Jesus’ way – before it is too late.* – Brian McLaren “Caesar’s way” stands for secular, temporal government or authority. The usage derives from Jesus’ saying, when asked about...
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What If Christians Are Persecuted Here? Advice from the Bible.
Some American Christians worry that we are being persecuted and that our freedom of religion is...
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People Who Take the Bible Seriously are America’s Problem & Blessing (with 2 Rules of Interpretation)
Frankie Schaeffer grew up in modern, politically radical, Americanized “Christianity”....
Read More“Emergent Evangelical” – Can I Be Both?
A friend recently asked what it means that I use “emergent evangelical” as my religious affiliation on FaceBook. So here’s a look at what the phrase means to me. I. “Evangelicals” Today...
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Why I Pay Priority Attention to Jesus Christ
WHY? Why should we focus any more on Jesus Christ than on Abraham or Moses or Isaiah? Or on the...
Read MoreLooking for Integrity, Humility, Decency – Psalm 101
4 Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil. 5 Whoever slanders his neighbor… , him will I put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not...
Read MoreWorship of Idols (like Greed) is Deadly
From an AP article at the Atlanta Journal Constitution site, on Friday October 24, 2008: Wall Street joined stock markets around the world in a huge selloff Friday, sending major market indexes to their lowest levels in more...
Read MoreAnd Now? Hard Times and Good News.
Bad News Warren Buffett, the widely respected Omaha multi-billionaire, used the phrase “Pearl Harbor” to describe the significance of our nation’s current economic crisis, a phrase he has never before used about the...
Read More“The Path of Christ …” to the Power of God
The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power. The path of Christ, the political commitment to – truth, – servanthood, – proclamation, and – suffering love, is despite appearances, the channel of the...
Read More6 of My Favorite Scriptures, with Questions: A Guided Reading (Meditation)
Daily Bible Readings, with Questions (These are handed out in the bulletin on Sunday mornings; I select the readings to follow up on the sermon. The questions are just to help us get into each selection. This is the list from...
Read MoreJesus and Evil People – Strong Resistance while being Non-Violent
Jesus did NOT tell his oppressed hearers not to resist evil. That would have been absurd. His entire ministry is utterly at odds with such a preposterous idea. – Walter Wink I. THE PROBLEM: Jesus said to “turn the...
Read MoreWhat JESUS Says About the People We Tend to Turn Away From
Words of Jesus, who is called “Christ.” It is from his title that we derive the word “Christian” (from Matthew 25:34-46) “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are...
Read MoreEconomic Judgment Coming, or Repentance – or Both?
The prior post (“Twillight of the Gods – Greed and Money”) mentioned increasing economic distress throughout our nation. This is for real. I expect it will continue, though the extent to which it spreads and...
Read MoreWhat Jesus Emphasized Is Not What Churches Like to Emphasize
John Howard Yoder vigorously believes that Jesus’ teaching was very practical and very this-worldly. The spiritual, metaphysical, theological, religious meaning of his life and teaching – in Jesus’ mind and in...
Read MoreJesus as V.P? Is this funny, sad, wise … ?
Jordan Zakarin wrote a good spoof news article entitled Jesus Demures on Obama VP Talk. Obama is pretty attractive to a lot of Americans as a possible national leader, so… “[Jesus is] concerned with a number of...
Read MorePrayer: Paying Personal Attention to God
At a pastors’ seminar recently I bought two books on prayer. Another pastor asked me to give him my reaction to one of them when I’d read it, so here goes. (I’ll review the other one in a few days.) First I got...
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