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 Oct 29, 2015 | 0 comments
Something interesting happens whenever I talk about grace, forgiveness, and acceptance. People push back. As much as we like those things, as much as we need those things, as much as we realize that they are central to our faith as Christians, we seem to want to qualify them. To put an asterisk by them. Part of it is that we feel that in giving people grace, forgiveness, and acceptance we are somehow...
Grace Unbalanced
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Oct 23, 2015 | 2 comments
The typical reading of Jesus’ encounter with the Woman at the Well (John 4:5-30) presents her as a “loose” woman, a serial divorcee (five times!) who is currently shacking up with a man in an illicit unmarried relationship. Because of her well-deserved reputation for immorality she is shunned by all the other women in her village. Jesus’ conversation with her demonstrates his willingness to keep company...
Blaming the Victim: Rethin...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Oct 19, 2015 | 0 comments
There are things that make us human, and there are things that make God God. If God wants to become human, you end up with Jesus. And that’s a good thing. When humans want to become gods, we become less than human. The evil that is done in this world is not caused by some dark, shadowy figure; it’s caused by our inhumanity. In our desire to be gods, we become less than human. Of course, I’m overstating it...
Let God Be Judge
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Oct 14, 2015 | 0 comments
Note: This is a repost (with slight revisions) of a blog from January 2014 that has proven to be one of my most popular articles. It is the second in a series of blogs on discipleship in the church. Click here for part 1. So many of the discipleship programs I have been through have focused on teaching me to do religious things like prayer, Bible study, and tithing. These are all good things to do. But...
Discipleship and Religious...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Oct 11, 2015 | 0 comments
In the stories of Jacob and Esau there is a long history of interpretation that presents Jacob in a more positive light than his older twin. That’s understandable in that the Jews trace their lineage through Jacob and not Esau, and it’s rather unthinkable that a non-Jew would be a better example of the character of God than one of the Israelite forefathers. But things in the Bible are rarely as simple as...
Jacob and the Face of God
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Oct 5, 2015 | 1 comment
What distinction was Paul trying to make between the Law and faith in Romans? For years it was assumed that the Law was about earning your salvation while faith was about receiving it by grace. But Israelite religion was never about earning God’s favor—that favor was given to them through God’s choosing of Israel. What then is the distinction Paul is making? What’s changed because of Jesus? The Law was...
Why Different Doesn’...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Aug 3, 2015 | 0 comments
“Safe and sound.” We use the phrase often enough that it’s easy to think that the two words are almost synonymous and that the distinction is a matter of nuance. But it’s not. Someone once illustrated the difference: “The steamship whose machinery is broken may be brought into port and made fast to the dock. She is safe, but not sound. Repairs may last a long time.” Too many Christians are content to be...
Safe and Sound
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Welcome!
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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