An important aspect of thoughtful faith and faithful thinking in our world is knowing and understanding the way others think. The men of Issachar were said to have had “understanding of the times” (see I Chron. 12:32) and we should follow suit. If we’re going to communicate our faith to others we should interpret cultural trends and artifacts to see what people believe, where their affections lie, and in what “gods” they trust.
During a recent study of the book of Acts, I was struck with the recurring emphasis on the irrepressibility of the gospel. Several commentators pointed out that Luke weaves in several “summary statements” that help the reader step back from the drama and see an overarching theme.
This whole world of blogging and writing poses numerous challenges for the development of humility. “Read my blog” and “Buy my book” don’t naturally lend themselves towards the obedience of “Humble yourself before the mighty hand of God.”
Osama bin Laden’s death, I’m sure you’ve noticed, has sparked a firestorm in the world of social networking. Facebook statuses and Tweets have gone mad – literally. People have posted how happy they are that our enemy has been defeated. Others insist we should mourn. Unfortunately, for most people, it seems we must choose between two mutually exclusive options.
I recently heard a speaker compare discipleship to riding a bicycle. He was urging his adult audience to get involved in the process of helping younger people walk with the Lord. I believe his motivation was, in part, to encourage people to take on the challenge even if they had no formal theological training or had not studied the scriptures all that thoroughly yet.
The Wall Street Journal ran an op-ed piece last week raising the question, “Is Passover the New Christmas?” The article’s author, Diane Cole, the book columnist for the Psychotherapy Networker, pointed out that more and more non-Jewish people are celebrating Passover. Partly due to the rise of interfaith marriages or the universality of the theme of liberation (which she interpreted only as the political variety), these celebratory meals, called Seders, centered around unleavened bread and four glasses of wine, are becoming more and more popular.
The cover story of this week’s Time magazine is about Hell. Specifically, it poses the question of “What if there’s no hell?” It’s all a response to a brewhaha about Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins. I won’t attempt to review the book or the controversy since others have done that already and have done so far better than I can do here.
One of the purposes of this blog is to help Christians proclaim the gospel well. From time to time I hope to post a question someone has posed and my response. Here’s my first attempt at this.
Question: How do you go about resolving the tension between, on the one hand, having a “dialogue” approach to evangelism and viewing it as a process, and, on the other hand, wanting to get the whole gospel into the conversation? I find that if I don’t get the whole gospel outline into the conversation, I feel guilty and anxious afterwards, because what if a) I don’t get another chance to talk to this person, or b) they don’t get another chance to hear the gospel? E.g. they get hit by a car next week (I realize that’s a bit of a cliche but you get the picture).
April is National Poetry Month. I hope you have a few favorite poems that you’ll dust off and enjoy. And I hope you will explore poetry a bit more, regardless of how much or little it has shaped you thus far.
Poems touch places where prose can’t go. They scratch where other genres don’t reach. They ignite or fan into flame emotions that otherwise remain cold.