Plowshares Into Swords, Or Swords Into Plowshares?

What do you do when two verses are in obvious conflict with each other? I’m not talking about apparent conflict or even factual inconsistencies but when one verse uses the exact same words to as another to say the completely opposite thing? As if one is saying, “No, that’s wrong, here’s what is really going...

What Makes Something Sacred?

1st in the series, “Religion, Rites & Rituals” First Baptist Church, Frederick, Maryland, July 17, 2016 “I’m interested in God, but not religion.” It’s a phrase we hear over and over again, but what does it even mean? Is religion simply something we created? A tool for controlling and dividing? Some...

The Cross as the Response to Evil

“They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” “Learn war.”  That’s an interesting phrase.  Seems we have, all of us. When I was little I just assumed that we would always be at war. ...

Redwood Time and the Kingdom of God

The Coast Redwood is the world’s tallest living organism, with the tallest towering 35 to 38 stories high. From a distance a tree that tall looks long and slender like a basketball player, but in fact the Coast Redwood is massive. At eye-level the trunk can be 27 feet in diameter, the length of two VW...

Christmas Faith

It is back around 732 B.C.E. and Ahaz is king of Judah. He’s just a young man in his early twenties, but he was surrounded by some older advisors, among them the prophet Isaiah. Assyria is a rising power and is threatening the nations of the eastern Mediterranean coast. The kings of Syria and Israel, who...

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