522 results for tag: blog
A Cross Examination: No Christianity Without The Cross – by Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter from March 2022
As they attempt to fill the emptiness in their souls, many citizens of planet earth frantically run after drugs, food, sex, achievements, possessions and entertainment. It’s been said the most frenzied attempts in human history in a quest to find and secure happiness have occurred in 20th and now 21st century North America.
Ironically, the more intense efforts to secure happiness become, it seems animosity, division, hatred, racism and violence increase at the same time. From the beginning of history, humans have measured and weighed success and happiness through things that can be seen, felt and ...
The Easy Way Out – Greg Albrecht
Before we are allowed to enter the way of Life, we must leave behind all of the religious baggage and traditions that are so precious to us.Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)Many read these words and assume they know exactly who is on the road to destruction Jesus was talking about. Surely he was talking about the “eat, drink and be merry” crowd—those who are lazy, immoral and permissive. The broad road must be the irreligious “anything goes” ...
Grace Creed & the so-called “Old Testament God” – Brad Jersak
“THE OLD TESTAMENT GOD”
A great part of my spiritual journey has been learning how to read Scripture in light of Jesus’s revelation of ‘a more Christlike God.’ More Christlike than what? More Christlike than I had reckoned, given the hellfire preaching of the revivalists I endured in my childhood. More Christlike than the literalist hermeneutics of my training as a Biblical Studies major. And more Christlike than my impressions of the so-called “God of the Old Testament.” Note that I’ve italicized the word ‘my.’ Out of my personal experiences, training, and impressions, I ...
Empathy – Stuart Segall
When you have developed your heart and mind to sense other people's emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling, you are defining, and more importantly, understanding empathy.
When you empathize, in my visual, you become a tailor who weaves a magical thread connecting you to others. When you use it, a bi-product is you feel more connected to others. Primarily, when we empathize, we serve people by being compassionate people.
Empathy is a special trait and frankly, few have it. Few can take the time from what they want in life to find the time to do this. In my work, I read the ...
Eden as a Metaphor – Ruth Tucker
Ruth Tucker
I was recently interacting with an attractive, engaging woman—mid-forties, school teacher, twice divorced—who told me she had finished reading my book, Black and White Bible: Black and Blue Wife. She found the book thought-provoking, particularly my perception of the Garden of Eden as a metaphor for falling in love. She had recently begun dating again, and she felt she needed that warning. I write the following in my book about this garden paradise:
My attraction to the story of Adam and Eve has found its habitation in the heart of imagination. . . . When I contemplate this Garden of Eden, this Paradise, I wonder if it is ...
Love – By Law or Grace? by Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter from February 2016
While she was in college in the 60s, Lisa wore flowers in her hair, burned her bra, smoked a lot of pot and had sex so indiscriminately her grandfather told her it seemed to him that she was having sex “with anyone and everyone, at the drop of a hat.” Lisa attended college in Berkeley, California – ground zero of permissive and promiscuous “free” love during a time of great moral upheaval in the United States.
And Lisa often did have sex with partners at the “drop of a hat” – sometimes she discovered their names later, if at all. Her anything-goes-lifestyle did not end when she ...
Q&R: Baldies, Bears & Cursing in God’s name – Brad Jersak
The Punishment of the Children who Mocked Elisha in Bethel; The Widow before Elisha; Unknown; Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany; about 1400 - 1410; Tempera colors, gold, silver paint, and ink on parchment; Leaf: 33.5 x 23.5 cm (13 3/16 x 9 1/4 in.); Ms. 33, fol. 229v
Question
Greetings! How are we to understand the young boys in the book of kings who mocked Elisha's bald head and were mauled to death by bears. Certainly this could not have come from the Lord. Elisha had cursed them in the name of the Lord when the bears came and mauled them.
Response
You are correct. I think what you are saying is obviously true: CERTAINLY, this could not ...
What Does Real Estate Have to Do With the Gospel? – Greg Albrecht
From the Winter 2010 Plain Truth - Greg Albrecht
For decades she put world leaders on the spot, skewering them with blunt, penetrating questions. But it was an outspoken answer she gave which forced 89-year-old Helen Thomas to retire as dean of the White House press corps.
This past May, Thomas, a Lebanese-American who grew up in Detroit was interviewed by Rabbi David F. Nesenoff, a Long Island-based filmmaker. Thomas already had a history, describing Israel as a nation that “oppresses a helpless people with its military power and daily humiliation.”
Responding to questions posed by Nesenoff, Thomas said that Israel should “get ...
“Lower the Heat” (assuming faithfulness in disagreement) – Brad Jersak w/ Floris Kersloot
The following are my takeaways from advice I received from Dutch psychologist Floris Kersloot. The topic was on how to understand and respond as peace-builders when faced with angry reactions over theological (or political) convictions.
He who is slow to anger has great understanding but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.Proverbs 14:29
Even when (and especially when) sharing something so basic and central to Christianity as "God is love" or "Jesus calls us away from hatred into love," we often see people of good faith triggered into inexplicable anger and defensiveness. When our perspectives and opinions about God ...
Doing the Work by Ed Dunn
I’ll never forget her words: Good job, Ed, good week - you are really Doing the Work! My counselor’s words would ring in my ears from the time I left her office until I would return again the following Friday afternoon. My counselor’s office had become a safe space, one I’d grown more comfortable within with each new visit. Week-in and week-out at a set time and within that comfortable space, her reinforcing message was clear: Keep Doing the work!
“A counselor?!” you may ask. “Why did you need a counselor, Ed?” That’s a fair question. As a follow-up to my last column entitled, Let the Past Be the Past, please allow me an ...
Rachel and Leah: Rival Sisters – Ruth Tucker
What if there had been no story?
No Abraham and Sarah, no Isaac and Rebekah,
and no Esau and Jacob, and no Rachel and Leah.
What if no one had remembered?
What if no one had cared enough to write it down?
What if there had been no God of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel,
and the ten generations from Noah to Abraham had never existed?
What if there had been no creation and there was only chaos and the void?
What if God himself was only a hole in the darkness?
Anne Roiphe, Water from the Well
Ruth Tucker
The Bible is filled with good stories. Here we focus on the rival sisters, Rachel and ...
Religious Control Opposes God’s Grace by Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter from February 2022
I think good preachers should be like bad kids. They ought to be naughty enough to tiptoe up on their dozing congregations, steal their bottle of religious pills…and flush them all down the drain. The church, by and large, has drugged itself into thinking that proper human behavior is the key to its relationship with God. What preachers need to do is force it to go cold turkey with nothing but the word of the cross—and then be brave enough to stick around while [the congregation] goes through the inevitable withdrawal symptoms.—“The Foolishness of Preaching,” Robert Farrar Capon
During ...
Rebound! – Jim Fowler
Jim Fowler
The basketball game was proceeding at a frenzied pace. Receiving a pass from his teammate, the hometown guarddribbled toward center court. The defending team was employing a full-court press, so our player faked to the left and drove hard to the right, dribbling to within fifteen feet of the basket. There he attempted a one-handed jump shot which ricocheted off the glass and caromed straight up off the front of the rim.
Amazed that he has missed the mark, our player stops in his tracks, his upper torso hanging limp in dejection. Looking toward the coach, he sobs his apologies and laments his failure.
“I’m sorry, Coach,” he ...
End Racism – Greg Albrecht
The imperative plea appealing for an end of racism appeared in block letters on the back of a football player’s helmet. Watching on television, I wondered about the effectiveness of this message. I shouldn’t be too harsh in my judgment, any more than I should be with the empty slogans on bumper stickers plastered on cars. But still, given a few words at best, how much critical thinking can take place in the abbreviated space on the back of a football helmet or the back bumper of a car?
How much interest is arrested by the soaring and lofty goal of ending racism in people watching a live football game? 1) Most can’t see the ...
God’s Glass Ceiling? Ruth Tucker
Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the cradle and last at the cross. They had never known a man like this man—there never has been such another. A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered them, never treated them as either The women, God help us! or The ladies, God bless them!; who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension; who took their questions and arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; never had an axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as he found them and was ...
Lottery – A Ticket to Hell? – Greg Albrecht
Gambling is a controversial topic in Christendom. I personally see nothing biblically wrong with buying a lottery ticket, but I know that my saying so will rouse the ire of some. They will see such a statement as permissive and back-sliding, among other things.
In my opinion, based on my understanding of the Bible and of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is not wrong to play a game of chance, as long as it does not become an addiction—at that point, as with so many other behaviors, gambling is not only a sin, it becomes a curse.
Here's how I see the issue of gambling, from a biblical, Christ-centered perspective.
Gambling can be addicti...
A Journey – Not a Guided Tour by Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter from January 2018
On or just before January 1, fresh calendars are opened with almost as much anticipation as unwrapping a Christmas present. We page through a new calendar, admiring its twelve uncluttered months and 365 unplanned days. And we experience the liberation of setting aside the year that has just ended, with all of the days and events we are all too happy to put behind us. The New Year is a time of a new beginning and a fresh start. The fresh start of a New Year reminds me of the wisdom Paul shares with us about our ongoing life in Christ, on the Jesus Way: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward ...
Let the Past Be the Past by Ed Dunn
Past and future veil God from our sight; let them both be burned up with fire. – Rumi, 13th Century Persian Poet
Life can give us such precious moments - a wedding day, closing on a first-home purchase, the birth of a child, a high school or college graduation – all of these events can remain with us as some of the best memories we can experience in life.
Life can also present us with such difficulty and heartache at times - a bitter and contentious divorce, a financial mishap, parenting miss-steps which may have led to strained relationships with our children, health challenges and accidents – these types of events can reside with ...
The Idolatry of Methodology – Jim Fowler
Jim Fowler
It is a natural tendency of mankind to develop methods that will lead to the desired human performance and production results. Our entire educational system seems to be the instruction of the latest methods in every discipline. There inevitably develops a competition of methods in every field of study concerning which method works better – “This is how to do it right or most effectively.” The social sciences and humanities studies, in general, seem to engender a broader spectrum of methodological variation, having less definitive operational criteria. Methods, procedures and techniques are necessary, but they must not be allowed ...
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