Unforgiven? Matthew 6:14-15

“If you don’t forgive people, your Father will not forgive your wrongdoing.” (Matt. 6:25, HCSB). This is another passage that people wrestle with. However this is a good example of how individual passages need to be understood and interpreted in light of the whole bible. Is Jesus saying that our sins won’t be forgiven and we won’t go to heaven if we happen to die in the time between being offended and forgiving that person? Does our salvation hinge on this? Does the state of our salvation and eternal destination oscillate back and forth depending on the condition of our heart at any given moment toward those who have offended us? I believe that answering yes to any of these questions would be inconsistent with what we learn in the rest of Continue reading →

Matthew 5:48 Be Perfect?

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (NIV). This is another challenging statement which Jesus makes in the “sermon on the mount”. However I think there are a few things which shed light on this statement. Often, words in other languages have different shades of meaning which can’t be exactly translated. As I understand, the Greek word used here carries the idea of maturity, being complete, finished, and fully grown more so than flawlessness. I believe we could also think of it as being fully, correctly human.

Once again, I believe the context also sheds light on this passage. At first glance verse 48 can appear to be an isolated axiom, unrelated to the surrounding content. But I don’t believe this is actually the Continue reading →

Shane Claiborne on Singleness, Marriage, and Community

…our deepest longing is not for sex but for love and that what we really long for is community. You can live without sex, but you can’t live without love…

I still believe there is tons of work to do in the Church—and the world in general—to support celibate singles. So many champions of our faith have been able to live extraordinary lives, in part because of the freedom that singleness afforded them. No one says: Wow, wouldn’t Mother Teresa’s life have been more complete if she’d found a husband?! So I still believe passionately that we need to celebrate singleness, as well as marriage, and I suppose that, especially now, I don’t see those things as being at all mutually exclusive. In our community, we’re trying to Continue reading →

Understanding Matthew 5:31-32: Divorce

One passage of scripture that people struggle to understand is Matthew 5:31-32 where Jesus states: “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” (NIV). (Note: Women at this time did not have the ability to divorce their husbands, which is why Jesus uses gender as he does; any other use would have only confused his audience.)

Taken on it’s own, Jesus seems to be stating a rule that it is wrong to get a divorce in any case except when a spouse has cheated. However most scholars agree that Jesus isn’t creating a new law Continue reading →

Expressing Love Outside of Romance

Those of you who have followed me for a while will remember that I did some writing about friendship between men and women. I reviewing those posts, I realized that I had not as of yet done a good job of explaining the subject clearly and concisely. Many of these previous articles were written as I attempted to work out my understanding of the subject. Today I want to write what I feel is an excellent example of how my views on this subject play out in real life. Hopefully this will help you to understand my views on the subject more clearly.

For years my impression—conscious and unconscious—has been that in order to express love and receive expressions Continue reading →

Music Review: The Choir – De-plumed

For those unfamiliar with The Choir, they are a rock band which has been together for approximately 30 years. Over the last several years they have been actively recording and performing their music. In between two album releases of new material, they put out a CD called De-plumed in 2011 (Yes, I’m a bit behind). It is a collection of nearly a dozen of their previously released songs “unplugged”. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting anything too exciting. Typically when bands put out these type of albums, they seem to be novelties that they know their die-hard fans will purchase regardless of the quality. However this is anything but the case with De-plumed. The album demonstrates the quality of both the songs and the musicianship of The Choir. Continue reading →

Faith is a Journey

(I was asked to write out my reasons for believing in God. I imagine that the person asking the question was thinking more in terms of a rational, intellectual argument. But the following is what came out. I think I agree with a friend of mine who holds that belief in God is more contingent on the experiential than the rational. In other words, it is based more on our experience rather than detached thoughts in our mind. Really, I hope and think that my answer reflects a more holistic view. It was apparently from the Greeks that our western culture got the belief that thoughts and ideas are superior to and can be detached from the rest of us, our emotions, bodies and spirits. Dallas Willard said that what we feel to be true is what we Continue reading →

Book Review: Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus

“Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus” is the best book I’ve read this year. Author Lois Tverberg does an excellent job of taking her years of study of Judaism and applying it to Jesus. In this book she unveils layers of meaning behind many of Jesus’ words. Passages that were once opaque in meaning I can now understand. The brilliance of Jesus is astounding to see. Over fourteen chapters, Tverberg examines one topic at a time. Some of these are specific passages or sayings of Jesus. Other times she looks into a whole subject on a broader level. In either case, the material is excellent. Examples include looking at “the greatest commandment”, wisdom on what to say and not say, and wrestling with apparently contradictory truths.

I’ve never Continue reading →

I’m Not Sure Evangelism Is The Point

An recent event reminded me of an outreach ministry I was involved in a number of years ago. This ministry was an attempt to reach out to the people who go out to one of our city’s main bar districts, Broad Ripple. (I definitely see this as a forerunner to Pub Theology, for those who know what that is.) Unfortunately, this ministry was largely unsuccessful in reaching its intended audience. However, we did unintentionally end up connecting with a completely different group in the process. One of the things we did in attempt to attract people was to offer free pizza and drinks.

There is another group in Broad Ripple known as the bridge kids. These are kids who come from bad family situations, who spend as little time at home as Continue reading →

Needs vs. Idolatry vs. God’s General Provision

An interesting thought:

It may be true that “man cannot live on bread alone”, however it is also certainly true that he cannot live very long without it. People like to say that Jesus provides for all our needs, but surely they can’t mean that this always happens directly. For example, it doesn’t seem reasonable to think that we could just forgo eating for the rest of our lives and that Jesus would some how directly, nutritionally sustain us. I imagine he could if he desired, but I don’t expect he would do so except in extraordinary circumstances.

On a normal basis, he has provided us collectively with a world of food. If someone does not have food, it is because they either haven’t put in the effort to acquire it, or someone or some Continue reading →