The Irrelevant Category

Excuse a sports metaphor here- but someone would look pretty stupid talking about the designated hitter in football.

The Cup of Wrath

I recently preached a sermon about the trial of Jesus in Gethsemane.  What was it about the cup of wrath that so terrified Him?  I don’t ask lightly, nor do I ask cavalierly.  My question comes from wanting to know and appreciate more what it was that He accomplished for me.  I’ll take a look at one of the passages I used to reference the OT use of ‘the cup of wrath.’  Let’s look at Isa 51:17-18-

The Idol of Love in ‘The Shack’

Humanity is constantly creating and bowing down to replacement gods.  It is part of our sin nature.  While moderns don’t make rain gods or fertility gods (or do they?), there is still quite a bit of idolatry passing around.  It all boils down to need.  Where the ancients needed rain for food, our current conundrums are psychological.

The Shack Shows It’s Spots

If you have been alive and in church for the last couple of years, you no doubt have heard of The Shack, the run-away bestseller about a man’s (fictional) encounter with God.  Critics (including me) have been warning reader that there is more than a couple of bad things hidden in The Shack, and a recent interview with the author confirmed every single fear.

Then You Aren’t a Christian

Faith.  Grace.  Confession.  Sinner’s prayer.  Baptism.  There are so many things that we say one has to do in order to be a Christian.  I am not knocking any of them (except maybe the Sinner’s prayer!) but they aren’t really the issue.  Again, don’t get me wrong here, faith and grace are center pieces in God’s dealings with humanity.  But there is one thing that Jesus mentions and Paul goes to great length to describe as the litmus for Christianity . . .

HELLO 1517!!

Just a quick note to say that if you haven’t been paying close attention, we have slipped back into the 1500’s.  What do I mean?

Luther and the Emergents

How can the Protestant Reformer and the group of pastors/theologians/coffee aficionados have anything in common?  Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same.