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I recently took a trip through Oregon and Washington, both states where recreational marijuana was "legal". (That's in quotes because it's still illegal by federal law, but I guess no one is looking.) In the lobby of the hotel we stayed in where they have all those brochures on things to do in the area, there was a brochure on where to find weed as well as enlightening information about cannabis in its various forms and effects. Coming from a state where it is NOT legal, of course, this was shocking. For my entire life where I grew up in the era of the drug culture I've…  ( Click for more )

I use a Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible (NASB) for my normal reading. It's nice to have some commentary from someone who knows the languages of the original text. The other day I was in 1 Corinthians 7 where Paul talks about divorce. In the notes, the commentary author recommended I read his book on "Can I get divorced and remarried?" If you are married, you may have asked the question yourself. If not, you've surely heard it. If you haven't heard it, you've the evidence of the question is everywhere. They tell me (whether or not they're correct) that divorce is…  ( Click for more )

Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He *said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest." (Matthew 9:35-38))

"Distressed and dispirited," those are the words used in this translation…  ( Click for more )

So, here I am, minding my own business, reading along in Romans, and I come across this. We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. (Romans 15:1-2)

If you're paying attention, it's very reminiscent of something Paul wrote in his letter to the Christians in Philippi. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests…  ( Click for more )

I recently finished Rosaria Butterfield's The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert. This is not a review of the book. If you don't know who she is, she was a leftist, lesbian professor that despised Christians ... and then became one. Good story. She was redeemed and actually turned her life over to Christ. She has drawn a lot of fire from the LGBT community because she stopped being a lesbian and married a pastor. There was one part in her story, after she was a pastor's wife, that shocked me. It shouldn't have, but it did. She wrote about talking to a woman at a church that…  ( Click for more )

I did a brief search on the phrase "the culture war is lost" and found a host of hits. As far back as 2013 they were writing about how the culture wars are lost. While Jerry Falwell was talking about the "Moral Majority" in the late 70's, we've seen it dwindle to a minority. Today Disney is considering a lesbian relationship for one of their popular animated characters and Pixar is said to be pursuing the same for their sequel to Finding Nemo. The state of Washington is planning to teach kindergartners about transgenderism. Even a young person's video game, The…  ( Click for more )

Our understanding of God is too often predicated on our own redefinitions rather than on what He says about Himself. "A loving God would never send people to Hell" (or whatever else we claim a loving God would never do) is premised on what we think "love" is, not on what God says He will do. "God is gracious; He's not an angry God" presumes that "grace" and "wrath" cannot both be present because we've decided that is the case, not because He said it. We have no problem accepting from God the good things He tells us about Himself.…  ( Click for more )

We have all heard about the terrible shooting in Orlando. Awful. Called the worst mass shooting in American history, too many people lost their lives at the hands of a single deranged gunman pledging allegiance to ISIS. It seems odd, then, although not unexpected, that the first corrective we hear from most corners is gun control. The second appears to be to eliminate Christians. According to Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla, the weapon that was used could fire 700 shots per minute. Now, I don't know about you, but I had no idea that that kind of firepower was available on the streets…  ( Click for more )

In Acts 12 there is a kind of fun story about Peter in jail. Herod had James, John's brother, beheaded and found out the Jews liked it. So he had Peter arrested and planned to further the fun by killing him after Passover. Well, God had other plans. In the night an angel came in, kicked Peter and told him to get up and go, and they walked out. Peter didn't even know it was real until the angel left him outside the prison. Imagine that! So he went to where he knew Christians would be gathered and knocked on the door. Sure enough, there was a group inside praying for Peter, but when…  ( Click for more )

We are Christians. We are to be disciples of Christ -- learners of Christ, students of Christ. We are to be constantly "transformed by the renewal of your mind" (Romans 12:2). We are to be drawing reality from the source of reality -- God Himself -- which He offers in His Word. It is God-breathed, so by the help of the Holy Spirit, we should be able to see truth there that a world blinded by the god of this world will certainly miss. With that truth we ought to be correcting our own fallen views by replacing them with God's position on things. The process itself is fairly…  ( Click for more )

Clearly our culture has lost its way when it comes to marriage. We started our most serious departure from the truth in the '50's when we decided that "marriage" and "offspring" were distinct. We continued that departure with "no fault divorce". With these twin assaults on marriage came a parallel attack, euphemistically called "free love" -- have sex with whomever you want. The cancer has eaten away at the body of marriage for decades and now we have the contradictory concept of "gay marriage" as not merely acceptable, but as law…  ( Click for more )

The cry of the Reformation was "Sola Scriptura!" Okay, maybe not, but it was certainly the undergirding concept. Among all the other "solas", the other "only" references (sola scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia, solus Christus, and soli Deo gloria) were based on this one. That is, the claims that we are saved by faith apart from works, saved by grace apart from works, saved by Christ alone, and that God alone deserves glory are all predicated on the notion that Scripture alone is the authority on matters of faith and practice. It was held over against…  ( Click for more )

I find myself these days more and more defending the argument that the Scriptures in their original documents were without error. We can further conclude, based on the high level of confidence that we have (better than 99.5% confidence), that the texts we have are true to the original documents, that our Bibles are without error. Oh, there may be a minor translation mistake here or there. There may be a transcription error in a number or something. But the doctrine of biblical inerrancy holds that the Bible is 100% infallible and inerrant in what it teaches. I defend that. Lots…  ( Click for more )

You've seen the signs, I'm sure. You know the situations, I'm sure. "We're outraged because bad things have happened and we don't think we've received justice!" Well, I'm not going to talk about those situations. I'm going to talk about a different one. It isn't really hard to go through Scripture and find a host of reasons to complain about justice. I mean, just start with the concept of Hell. Hey, what's up with that? We're looking at some not-too-bad people who just don't "accept Christ as their personal savior" and, boom, they're going to eternal damnation?…  ( Click for more )

Around the start of the 21century we saw the rise of the "New Atheists". They're "brighter" and louder and more "anti" than merely "not" theists. Now, they can discuss among themselves whether this is really new or whether the term is even applicable, but in the same sense I think we can see a rise of the "New Agnostics". First, as a matter of basis, we need to define "agnostic". While "atheist" refers to those who are making a positive claim -- "There is no God" -- the "agnostic" term refers…  ( Click for more )

It seems to be a common idea these days. We ought to avoid conflict. The mentality of earlier America, for instance, when "Live free or die" was an actual motto and people thought that fighting for freedom was noble is no longer "in". We prefer now a "kinder, gentler" perspective. Do not take up arms. Do not go to war. There isn't anything worth fighting about, at least not seriously. Well, at least not Christians. Christians are not supposed to fight. You know, like the Bible says: "Wrestle not." Except that's not what it says. Here's what…  ( Click for more )

Little children, keep yourselves from idols (1 John 5:21).

A "word of the day" entry: "anthropocentric". We can find a dictionary definition, but let's see if we can figure it out from its roots. "Anthropos" is the Greek word for "man" -- primarily "man" as a group, not a gender. You know ... humans. Then there is the "centric" part. I think most of us can figure that out. So, simply put, "anthropocentric" means "centered on humans". On one hand, it is fundamental to humans to be anthropocentric.…  ( Click for more )

I'm going to use a phrase which, I'm pretty sure, will conjure up an image to most of you with reasonable similarity. "I went to church last Sunday." Okay, now, I'm pretty sure that most of you now have some sort of an image that involves a building, a sign on the front, maybe a cross or something, a place in which people gather. And if I were to tell you that phrase, that image would be fairly accurate. Here's the thing. Nowhere in Scripture can you find anything remotely like that image associated with the word, "church". Jesus said, "Upon this rock I…  ( Click for more )

You know as well as I do that many (most?) people pit faith against reason. That is, they assume something like, "Faith is something you believe for no reason." Some go further and claim that faith is when you believe in something that the evidence says isn't true. Not the absence of reason, but in the face of it. So imagine my surprise when I came across this interesting statement from the pen of Luke, the physician. In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up, after he had given commands through…  ( Click for more )

So, the pastor was preaching from Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth when we came across this item. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:3-5)

He said before that, "I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." (1 Corinthians 2:2) He said "I was weak" and "in…  ( Click for more )

It is argued that the entire "inerrancy of Scripture" thing is a fabrication, a new thing. (Oddly enough, most of those who make this argument are fully invested in new things and happy to embrace them if they coincide with what they want to believe. Apparently, it is only when a belief opposes their preferences can a perceived "new thing" be considered bad.) But is it true? Is this a new thing? Iranaeus (130-202 A.D.) believed in divine inspiration and argued that not a single detail, word, or letter could be considered insignificant. Clement of Rome (150-250…  ( Click for more )

"You know, the inerrancy of Scripture is not in the Bible," they'll tell you. Really? Oddly enough, many of those at war with biblical inerrancy consider themselves not only followers of Christ, but Christ-focused. So it's odd that they appear to have missed biblical inerrancy from the lips of Christ. It was Jesus who said, "Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35), which, read in context, does not mean "inviolable", but "inerrant". And it follows logically. (Scripture claims not to be merely inspired, but "God-breathed" (2 Timothy…  ( Click for more )

When His disciples confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God (Matthew 16:13-16), Jesus started telling them that the plan was for Him to suffer and die and be raised again (Matthew 16:21). Peter objected. Jesus responded in what might appear a schizophrenic way. "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a hindrance to Me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." (Matthew 16:23)

It might seem to be confused because He told Peter "Get behind Me, Satan." Now, we know Peter was not Satan, so what was He saying? The term…  ( Click for more )

Christians read in their Bibles -- you know, the Word of God -- that it is a sin (for instance) to engage in homosexual practices, so they say it is a sin. They read that humans are made in the image of God and murder is a sin, so they say that killing humans in the womb is a sin. They see that sexual relations outside of marriage is sin, so they consider sexual relations outside of marriage to be sin. It's not rocket science. What is, apparently, difficult to figure out is just why we say these kinds of things. The world would like to argue that we say it because we're haters.…  ( Click for more )