Purple Church is just about the church. The question of the week, however, “How do we allow the love of Jesus to bring peace to America?” is talking about the wider society. Not just the church. And yet, the inclusion of “the love of Jesus” in the question narrows the answer primarily to Christians. Furthermore, myContinue reading “You likely can’t change America, but you can change how you live in your own community – Jesus’ love and peace, Part 3”
Tag Archives: culture war
What can we do to allow Jesus’ love to bring peace to America? Post the Ten Commandments in all school classrooms? – Preview
Next week is another Q & A week. Once per quarter I ask people in my congregation for questions or current events suggestions that they would like me to preach about. My goal is to bring biblical theology to bear on that subject to help us think Christianly about the headlines of the day. IContinue reading “What can we do to allow Jesus’ love to bring peace to America? Post the Ten Commandments in all school classrooms? – Preview”
Christians, stop trying to control other people’s bodies – 1 Thessalonians 4:1–8, Part 3
This week on the blog, we’re studying 1 Thessalonians 4:1–8, and in that passage, Paul’s main theme is that Christians are people who are living more and more to please God. The theological word he uses is that we are to be sanctified. In the previous post, I talk about what “sanctified” means. In today’sContinue reading “Christians, stop trying to control other people’s bodies – 1 Thessalonians 4:1–8, Part 3”
How Christians can avoid getting sucked into outrage culture – 1st Samuel 26 & 27, Part 5
We Christians are known for practicing the ethics of the Kingdom of Jesus: truth-telling, humility, selfless sacrifice, generosity, hope, peacemaking, and the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). Or are we? Sadly, across our country some Christians have chosen anger, meanness, spite, bitterness, and attack. We American Christians far too often in recent years, haveContinue reading “How Christians can avoid getting sucked into outrage culture – 1st Samuel 26 & 27, Part 5”
We do not shape the viewpoints of the news outlets we watch. They shape us. – A Uniquely Christian Approach to Culture Change, Preview
How do you normally get your news? Major network TV stations? Cable news networks? The newspaper? Social media? YouTube? Email updates? Thinking about your preferred news outlet, is it biased? Of course not, right? In a world of fake news, every news outlet now says that they are the one and only who is tellingContinue reading “We do not shape the viewpoints of the news outlets we watch. They shape us. – A Uniquely Christian Approach to Culture Change, Preview”
How work and wisdom fail to bring ultimate meaning to life – Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26, Part 3
This week we’ve been following the Teacher in the biblical book of Ecclesiastes try out seven roles or personalities, all in an attempt to find the meaning of life. It’s a kind of ancient personality test. So far the Teacher has introduced us to the Philosopher, the Student, the Party Animal and the Addict, butContinue reading “How work and wisdom fail to bring ultimate meaning to life – Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26, Part 3”
Engaging Scripture 