A Prayer to Prepare for Easter
This is a guest post from my good friend and colleague Dr. Randy Millwood, Church Services Consultant for the Maryland/Delaware Baptist Convention, FBC Frederick member, and best Real-Beard Santa Claus in the world. He wrote it as an email to the ministers of BCMD for Maundy Thursday, but it speaks to our situation on this Holy Weekend and so I offer it to you, with the necessary alterations, to help you in your preparation for Resurrection Day. In the Christian calendar, the Thursday of Holy Week is...
A Maundy Thursday Prayer (Psalm 88)
Despair is difficult when the Resurrection hovers nearby. For two millennia the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection have been told and retold, celebrated and feted. Everyone knows how the story ends. It doesn’t end with “It is finished.” Rather, with “”Why do you look for the living among the dead? He isn’t here, but has been raised.” It’s difficult, therefore, to read the Passion–the betrayal, the arrest, the beating, the mocking, the...
The Relevant Temptation
The other day our son Austin asked Pam and me if we had ever gone through anything like the COVID-19 pandemic before. The answer, of course, was no. These are unprecedented times. People are fearful, anxious. Angry. Some are complacent. Some are in denial. We are isolating ourselves from each other. If ever we needed a word from God, it is now. As one who weekly speaks to people about God, on behalf of God, and maybe, every once in awhile, delivers a word from God, I feel the weight of that need to hear...
You Don’t Learn Wisdom From a Book Like Proverbs
Let’s talk about the Book of Proverbs. Hey, wait, where are you going? Get back here! Sheesh, hear me out for a second. I know it doesn’t sound very exciting, but hang on, I’m gonna bring on the excitement in a minute. Well, no, probably not, but hang with me for a second anyway. The Book of Proverbs has been called “God’s Instruction Book for Life,” which sounds awesome. Not content with that pithy title, another person said, “Proverbs is actually a book of instructions on how to live a life pleasing...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Jun 17, 2019 | 0 comments
EthicsDaily.com posted my article on clergy sexual abuse today. To read it, go...
Guest post on EthicsDaily....
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Jun 12, 2019 | 0 comments
Here we go again. The Southern Baptist Convention is after women again. Not all women, just women who think they are called to preach. Specifically, they are after Beth Moore (again), who is not only their most successful woman preacher, but based on her popularity she is their most successful preacher period, male or female. She doesn’t call herself a preacher; that’s long been taboo in the SBC. She’s a...
SBC Men Trying to Keep Bet...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Jun 6, 2019 | 0 comments
In an over-polarized era, labels abound. Liberal, RINO, socialist, neo-con, Nazi, Marxist, racist—all these and more aren’t meant to be descriptive but dismissive. Especially when we assign the additional labels of good or evil to people. Labels shut down discussion. We use them to put people—who at that moment we are treating like opponents—on the defensive. Labels keep us from having to listen to what...
Why We Shouldn’t Lab...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Mar 5, 2019 | 0 comments
There are a few—and just a few—New Testament passages that people like to use to buttress their argument that Jesus was not really non-violent but in fact at the very least accepted violence in certain circumstances. I don’t know why people feel the need to do so, but they do, so let’s have a look at one of them. All four of the gospel accounts of Jesus’ arrest have one of the disciples drawing a sword...
If Jesus was Non-Violent, ...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Feb 26, 2019 | 0 comments
“Whoever is not with me is against me.” “Whoever is not against us is for us.” Jesus made both of these statements, and they aren’t different ways of saying the same thing. The first, from Matthew 12:20, restricts the number of people who are for Jesus to those who are with him. If you aren’t specifically for Jesus, you’re against him—even if you are unaware of it. The second, from Mark 9:24, enlarges up...
If An Evil Person Does a G...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Feb 21, 2019 | 0 comments
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 to happen.” At the beginning of Isaiah the prophet gives a beautiful image of a hopeful future, not...
Plowshares Into Swords, Or...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Feb 18, 2019 | 0 comments
Mixed messages can be frustrating, especially when they come from the Bible. Take, for instance, when Jesus tells his disciples in Mark 10:15 that they must receive the kingdom of God as a little child. With childlike faith, we say: open, trusting, even innocent. Then Hebrews turns around and upbraids its listeners for not having a mature faith. He calls them babies, and not in a good way. (Hebrews...
A Mature Faith is Childlik...
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I am a lifelong student of the Bible, and have been a pastor for over twenty-five years. My desire through this blog is to help people see things in the intersection of Scripture and real life that they might have missed. The careless handling of the Bible is causing a lot of problems in our churches and our culture--and is literally turning people away from the church, and, sometimes, God. I hope to treat Scripture with the respect it deserves, and, even if you don't agree with what I say, give you some insight.
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