503 results for tag: blog

The Girl with the Goat – by Ruth A. Tucker

“Countless verses have been written on the puppy and the kitten.” These are the first lines of a poem written by my eighth-grade Latin teacher who was hands-down the most popular poet at the middle school located high on a hill in the small town of Spooner, Wisconsin. He would often read one of his poems before he put on his stern face and ordered oral exercises in declining nouns and conjugating verbs. Students repeatedly asked him to write a poem for them. He knew better. Do it for one, you’ve got to do it for all. I was very specific in my request, however, begging him to write a poem about Buzzy. Finally, after months of refusal, he ...

The Death of Jesus on the Cross – Jim Fowler

The death of Jesus on the cross of Calvary for the sins of mankind is so easily and quickly warped by the human mind into concepts of legal pardon based on the penal substitution of punishment inflicted on Jesus, or it is turned into an economic transaction of pay-off wherein Jesus paid the ransom-debt to an unidentified extortive debt-holder. The conceptual theories of atonement that men have applied to the death of Jesus through the centuries need to be rethought and reframed. Christian thinkers have identified some of these logical conjectures for almost two millennia: If Jesus paid a ransom price or debt payment in His death, who did He pay ...

Does God Forgive and Forget? Q&R with Greg Albrecht

  Q: While attending a Bible study one night in a church I used to attend the pastor stated, "when we ask forgiveness of God, he does forgive us but he never really does forget." He was "clarifying" Hebrews 10:17. The pastor said, "After all, he is God, he knows everything, it would be impossible for him to forget." I find myself angry at this minister even today and I haven't seen him in years. I believe God does forget—however in the back of my mind this minister's comments still haunt me. Please, tell me, does God forget or not?   A: I think I know what the minister may have meant. Part of what he may have been trying to say might be true, ...

Awaiting the Arrival: Love, Power or Nothing – Kenneth Tanner

You either believe that the end is the arrival of power, or you believe that the end is the arrival of nothing, or you believe that the end is the arrival of love. A lot of people believe we are waiting for the arrival of nothing. At the end of their physical life, the person they were is gone forever, disappearing as quickly as the brain cells die, never to return. This is also how they see the end of everything and everyone else. Sooner or later it's all going dark. No ultimate justice. No ultimate mercy. No ultimate meaning. Nothing. Many more people believe we are waiting for the arrival of power, a power that imposes its will on everything and ...

Living Grace or a Culture of Ugliness – Greg Albrecht

At the Golden Globe awards in Los Angeles on January 5, 2020, Charlize Theron introduced Tom Hanks, who was being honored as the annual recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award. Her introduction called attention to the kind and gracious mannerisms of Tom Hanks, a person who has existed for many years within the rarified air of A list Hollywood celebrities. Theron recalled a time when she, a young actress, was auditioning for Hanks and others for the 1996 movie, “That Thing You Do.”  She remembered how nervous she was and how Hanks responded. He interrupted her and apologized because, he said, he needed a five-minute break. I...

Nothing Happens Until Everything Happens – by Ed Dunn

Friend and Partner Letter from September 2023 “…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6, NIV). To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often – Winston Churchill Does it ever feel to you like life just seems to stay the same, day-after-day, with little-to-no change in the events and circumstances we face? We can tend to settle into the natural rhythms of our daily lives, prayerfully, and live to the best of our ability one day at a time. Often, however, that one day at a time can come and go with such predictable ...

Walking the Jericho Road – by Brad Jersak

  Epistle Reading: Ephesians 4  - Walk as Children of Light:   8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things that are done by them in secret. 13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. 14 Therefore, He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And ...

Have You Forgiven God? – by Greg Albrecht

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither areyour ways my ways, declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than theearth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than yourthoughts."—Isaiah 55:8-9 A few years ago I officiated at a funeral service for someone I hadnever known. I interviewed people who had known the deceased, and in theprocess I found out some dark and disturbing things. What do you say at a funeral when you can't find anyone who ever knewthe person who has anything good to say about them? What can you say ata memorial service when surviving friends and relatives are having adifficult time forgiving ...

Religion – Where Is the Love? by Greg Albrecht

Why do we speak about “Christianity WITHOUT the religion?” The answer was well-summarized by a slogan on a T-shirt I recently saw someone wearing: “Religion—Giving Hope to a World Torn Apart by...Religion.” Religion, as it is known, believed and practiced throughout this world is a contradiction. • It promises hope, but delivers fear. • It promises peace, but delivers violence and bloodshed. • It promises freedom and faith, but delivers authoritarian legalism. Why do we proclaim Christianity WITHOUT the religion? Because we are serious about Jesus, the founder of Christianity, who said in John 13:35, “By this ...

A Marathon, Not a Sprint – by Ed Dunn

Isaiah 40:31 (NIV) – “…but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint…” Chariots of Fire I remember this verse well from my youth.  The year was 1981 and the hit movie, Chariots of Fire, had just been released to widespread appeal and critical acclaim.  In one of the most memorable scenes within the movie for me, the Scottish sprinter, Olympian and missionary, Eric Liddell, stood in the midst of a cold rain surrounded by soaked yet eager on-listeners.  As the wind blew, he recounted these poetic words ...

Two Brothers – by Greg Albrecht

Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them.   "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. &nbs...

Working Hard to Be In Control – by Greg Albrecht

I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. – Isaiah 46:4 A rich young ruler came to Jesus asking him, “…what good thing MUST I DO TO GET eternal life?” – Matthew 19:16 It’s Christ-less religion in a nutshell: What do I have to do to make God happy so he will give me what I want? This rich young man was used to getting what he wanted. He was used to being a success and making a profit. He was a winner. Author Robert Farrar Capon says the rich young ruler was a successful liver of a lawful life.  The rich young ruler was addicted to his own abilities to control life – he assumed that ...

The Hope of New Life – by Laura Urista

“Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18). My husband and I (also known as “Pops” and “Gaga”) are celebrating the recent birth of our daughter Tawny’s (and son-in-law James’) first child – our third grand-daughter! We’ve previously been blessed with two grand-daughters (ages seven and two-and-a-half) from our son and daughter-in-law. Pardon my personal reflection, but of course the addition of a new baby to a family brings so much joy and hopeful anticipation!  I am sure many of you have experienced your own times of joy, hope and new birth! New life is ...

Why Did Jesus Call a Woman a Dog? – by Greg Albrecht

The Canaanites became mortal enemies of the Jews some 1,500 or so years before the time of Jesus when they resisted the new nation of Israel as it attempted to inhabit the Promised Land. Matthew 15:21-28 relates the story of a Canaanite woman who was so desperate to seek healing for her daughter that she defied social and religious conventions as she publicly spoke to Jesus (a man she didn't know) —beyond that, a Jewish man. We know, from everything else we read in the Gospels, that Jesus, God in the flesh, loved this woman, but it didn't seem that way to her when she first started talking to Jesus. She cries out, "Son of David, have ...

Forbearing, Bearing and Pouring Oneself Out – by Greg Albrecht

Friend and Partner Letter from August 2023 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love (Ephesians 4:2, KJV) Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love (Ephesians 4:2, NIV) … pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing difference and quick at mending fences (Ephesians 4:2, The Message, by Eugene Peterson) When we “forbear” or “bear with” or pour ourselves out” for others, among other things it means we do not act or react against someone, or say something negative about them, when we have the right (or think we have the ...

Browbeaten and Bullied at Church – by Greg Albrecht

One of the most gratifying experiences we have at PTM is when we hear from someone for whom God has "turned on the light." By God's grace they realize their primary allegiance is not to a human religious authority. They realize that churches and church leadership are fellow-servants and laborers for the gospel—and that such organizations and authorities lose their credibility the moment they allow the gospel to be subverted by religion and its legalisms. The following letter is a wonderful example: I recently wrote an article about tithing for our church newspaper. My conclusion is the same as that of PTM—"­­tithing" is an old ...

The Walking Dead and the Unclean – Greg Albrecht

While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy.  When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”  Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.  “I am willing,” he said.  “Be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him (Luke 5:12-13, my emphasis).  During the first century A.D. leprosy was a generic term for a variety of disfiguring and fatal skin diseases.  Lepers were forbidden to be around others.  They were forbidden to enter cities.  They could not earn a living and had to ...

The Color of Truth – Brad Jersak (with Eric Allaby)

On my first visit to Grand Manan Island, I met a new friend. Eric Allaby is a kind and fascinating soul who was born on this lobster paradise off the coast of New Brunswick. In the early 1960s, he was among the first to introduce scuba diving to the herring fishery (cf. weir fishing) and to personally survey the dozens of shipwrecks around the island. Eric went on to survey, map and salvage materials from Bay of Fundy shipwrecks. Mr. Allaby, while continuing diving, would go on to become a map-maker, museum curator, herring fisherman and MLA in the New Brunswick provincial legislature, where he served for 19 productive years. As I said, ...

Love or Justice? – by Greg Albrecht

  Love or Justice? The discussion of eternal torment and the fate of the "unsaved" is often framed, by the law and order crowd, as a matter of God's love or his justice. Those who are intent on relegating those who, to their knowledge and satisfaction, have never heard or accepted their version of Christianity to eternal torture, often characterize those, like myself, who primarily look for answers based on God's love and grace, as soft-headed, soft-hearted and weak.   So which is it—love or justice? Is God primarily a God of love or a God of justice? Here's what I see as the fundamental flaw in real, he-man, tough-as-...

Q&R with Greg Albrecht – “Should we boycott the wedding?”

Recently I was asked to give my opinion about a married man, in the process of divorcing his wife, while dating a younger, unmarried woman. My immediate thought was the response of Jesus when he was asked by someone to get involved in a family about an inheritance. "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" (Luke 12:14). However, remembering that Jesus used the question as a way to discuss some of the more important spiritual issues surrounding it (see "The Parable of the Rich Fool"—Luke 12:15-21), I tried to respond in a similar way. The person who asked me the question said that the still-married man was "put under church ...