Like the God who made us, we humans are incessant communicators. We will use anything to talk to each other: scratches on a cave wall, reeds dipped in plant dye, Dixie cups and a long string, mechanical arms stamping letters on paper, or digital pixels bouncing off satellites into mobile devices for social media. God communicates so naturally his image-bearers would do so. Social media is not inherently evil any more than the […]
“The point is ladies and gentlemen that greed, for lack of a better word, is good” (Gordon Gekko). Capitalism, liberalism and socialism are competing economic/political/social philosophies but they share the same inherent bane. Wherever one lands on the spectrum neither philosophy can assuage the very thing that cripples economies: greed. Adam Smith (capitalism), John Maynard Keynes (liberalism) and Karl Marx (socialism) might be mortal political enemies but they all attempted to […]
“If anyone thinks he is religious, but instead of bridling his tongue deceives his heart, this one’s religion is worthless” (Jas 1.26). You know that guy who always has an answer for every question, explanation for every situation, provocation for every dispute, and/or recollection for every story? Whatever the setting, this guy always has something to say and assumes it’s everyone’s privilege to hear it. His answer always better. His […]
“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect (Gk. teleios) result, so that you may be perfect (Gk. teleios) and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1.2-4). “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work […]
“If anyone thinks he is religious, but instead of bridling his tongue deceives his heart, this one’s religion is worthless” (Jas 1.26). You know that guy who always has an answer for every question, explanation for every situation, provocation for every dispute, and/or recollection for every story? Whatever the setting, this guy always has something to say and assumes it’s everyone’s privilege to hear it. His answer always better. […]
A blessed man is one enduring trial, because after being approved he will receive the crown of life promised to those who love him [God]. . . . We consider blessed those who endured.” (James 1.12 5.11a) The church’s happy heroes are those who endure trial many times over and for a lifetime. “Trial” (peirasmos) could just as easily be translated “testing” or “temptation.” Be it God’s faith-refining tests hijacked […]
Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God and Father is this: to visit . . . widows in their distress (Jas 1.27). It happens every time. Dad asks me to eat breakfast with some widowers from his church and I hem haw around. I eventually and reluctantly agree and belly up to a Buttermilk Five. And every time I leave wondering why I would ever waffle on one […]