A friend of mine was at Park City, the big mall here in Lancaster, at a department store jewelry counter. Just down the counter stood a couple girls looking at crosses. One of them wanted to get a cross necklace. My friend overheard one girl say to the other, “Oh look, this one has aContinue reading “How to talk about God (and how not to)”
Monthly Archives: October 2017
Surprising ways people come to know God (and never hear about Jesus!)
Is God fair? Will he send people to hell who never had a chance to know about salvation in Jesus? Yesterday we looked at some options for how Christians try to answer this difficult question. Today we seek for any other biblical passages that might give us some help. Thankfully there are some. Last weekContinue reading “Surprising ways people come to know God (and never hear about Jesus!)”
What happens after death? (Will God be fair?)
Is God unfair? That’s the question I asked yesterday. I bring it up because Solus Christus, the fourth of the Five Solas that we are studying this week, very much has a bearing on how we might view this difficult theological situation. If salvation is in Christ alone, by grace through faith, then doesn’t thatContinue reading “What happens after death? (Will God be fair?)”
Will God send people to hell who never had a chance to hear about Jesus?
I want to tell you about a tragedy in the Amazon jungle earlier this year. Multiple news agencies circulated reports about a massacre in an uncontacted tribe in Brazil. Illegal gold miners were overheard bragging at a bar about how they had killed ten of the tribesmen, and they were waving around tribal artifacts toContinue reading “Will God send people to hell who never had a chance to hear about Jesus?”
How to hear God speak through the Bible
Many people say they do not hear God. Many others say they do hear God speak. I believe them. God speaks through dreams, visions, audible voices, etc. I’m sometimes jealous of that because I do not believe I have ever heard God speak to me in an audible voice, or in a whisper inContinue reading “How to hear God speak through the Bible”
Are you using the Bible in ways God never intended it to be used?
Have you ever tried building a complicated Lego set without using the instruction guide? Just using the guide can be complex enough. All it takes is to put one brick one spot off, and within a few steps you realize that your model doesn’t look like the one in the picture. So you turn theContinue reading “Are you using the Bible in ways God never intended it to be used?”
The time our church was accused with the words: “That’s not worship!”
“That’s not worship.” The person speaking the words was really frustrated at our church. They were talking about a change we made to our worship service. In that person’s view, the change had turned our worship service into something that was not worship. What change could we make that would take a worship service andContinue reading “The time our church was accused with the words: “That’s not worship!””
Is Sola Scriptura broken? (or Can we really read the Bible and hear from God?)
When you read the Bible, do you think that God will speak to you through it? How do you know that you will understand it properly? What if God wants to tell you X and you believe he said Y? Does Sola Scriptura mean that any Christian can just open up the Scriptures and understandContinue reading “Is Sola Scriptura broken? (or Can we really read the Bible and hear from God?)”
American Jezebel
Have you heard the story of the American Jezebel? The original Jezebel was an evil queen in the Old Testament. The American Jezebel was Anne Hutchinson who lived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636? Her actions threw the Colony into turmoil, and in fact led to a significant exodus of people from the Colony. Continue reading “American Jezebel”
How to grow your faith
In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus tells what I think is one of the scariest stories in the Bible. It is a story of people who thought they had faith. But their faith was primarily intellectual, belief. Jesus says to them that something important is missing. They did not have the kind of faith that heContinue reading “How to grow your faith”
Engaging Scripture 