As you know, it is written “In the beginning… God created them male and female… and it was very good.” God created us good. We have become broken and warped, and that is a tragedy. But we are fundamentally still valuable, there is still something good about our fundamental nature. And God loves us—God desires
Offensiveness of the Gospel
At times I’ll hear someone talk about how the gospel is offensive. In virtually every case, what the person has in mind is something along the lines of “non-Christians don’t like the ‘gospel’ because it confronts them with their sin.” Yet I want to suggest that this doesn’t match with what we find in the
Hell?
Another topic of discussion lately has been hell. For conservative evangelicals at least if not for most Protestants, the only view even ever presented is that there is a “heaven” and a “hell” and that after death every person ends up in one of those for all eternity. It doesn’t take even a very careful
It’s not Modesty nor Clothing but Sexuality and Sexism
Modesty has been a recent subject of discussion in the blogosphere and elsewhere. In the past I have noticed when it seemed like girls were or were not being modest, but I had never given the topic much thought until it was brought up at the Sacred Friendship Gathering a couple of months ago. I’ve
Creepy Guys
As a guy, I feel that one of the worse things I could be called is creepy. I interpret it to mean, “stay as far away from this guy as possible”. Being that I like women (as people—I’m not just talking about sexual attraction here), I don’t want them to be intentionally distancing themselves from
Leading On
Ladies I get it. You don’t want to lead guys on. That’s good. I understand what you are really trying to get away from is those guys who just don’t seem to “get it” and won’t go away or leave you alone. I also understand you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. That’s good too.
Sexuality
It seems like there’s been a lot of talk about sexuality lately, or perhaps I’ve just happened to run across it more because of the people I follow. But in any case, this is one of several different things which has gotten me thinking about the subject lately. And I’m not talking about sexual orientation,
Sabbathing
Recently I’ve been thinking more about the idea of the Sabbath—taking a break from work one day a week. This is not a new concept; I’ve read or heard a number of people talk about the value of the Sabbath and the idea of resting from work. But for most of my life, I haven’t
Understanding the Challenge of Non-Jews Becoming Christian
As I recently wrote about, it the earliest major controversy in Christianity was whether or not one had to become culturally Jewish in order to becoming a part of the community of Christ followers. I tried to come up with a metaphor which might better explain the situation they were in. The best I could
Openness, Vulnerability, Etc.
At Bold Boundaries, I was a part of a brief conversation about openness in writing. It seems that the most open writing (typically spoken of as the most honest) is the best writing, or that which readers connect with and appreciate most. This also seems true in relationships; the best and closest relationships are those