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 Feb 5, 2015 | 0 comments
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. In Numbers 21 God has just helped the Israelites defeat a Canaanite king. They are heading to the Promised Land, and they start complaining about the food. “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” (Numbers 21:5 NRSV) Actually it only sounds like they are...
Jesus Ain’t No Snake...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Feb 2, 2015 | 0 comments
William Cumpiano is a Massachusetts luthier, which is a general term for a maker of stringed instruments; someone who makes violins or dulcimers is a luthier. Cumpiano builds guitars. He is co-author of Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology, considered to be the Bible of guitarmaking. His guitars, if bought through a dealer, will cost between $5,000 and $7,500. If you want a custom guitar he’ll build one...
The Importance of Failure ...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Jan 29, 2015 | 0 comments
A few years ago my parents became friends with a young man from their church who was studying to be a doctor in the Navy. He had finished medical school and was entering residency. He told them once that one of the things he did to prepare himself for residency was to intubate himself. I don’t know if it was through his nose or mouth, but he pushed a breathing tube down his throat and into his lung. My...
“Love Your Enemies&#...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Jan 26, 2015 | 0 comments
This is an article I wrote for the blog Missio Alliance which appeared on their site last week. I repost it here for those of my readers who might have missed it. I encourage you all to check out Missio Alliance. They are a very cool organization and the writers on their blog our outstanding. God is spirit and has no physical form except in the incarnation of Jesus. This truth has led us to understand the...
The Image of God as Male a...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Jan 22, 2015 | 0 comments
“Purity of heart,” Søren Kiekegaard once said, “is to will one thing.” That’s an interesting idea, isn’t it, since purity of heart is generally thought of as something approaching sinlessness, and to will one thing—and only one thing—seems, well, a bit obsessive. I mean, aren’t we all striving for balance in our lives? Isn’t that the goal that is put before us as we strive for a lifestyle that approaches...
Do We Really Want to See G...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Jan 13, 2015 | 0 comments
When we think and talk about God, we do so in human terms. We envision God as human-like. We really have no other categories in which to talk about God or gods. Even the ancient religions who envisioned their gods as animals saw them as human-like animals. It’s called anthropomorphism, which is one of those cool words that give polysyllabic a good name. (That sentence is for all my fellow English major...
A Relationship With God is...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Jan 7, 2015 | 0 comments
“Why is Esther in the Bible?” I teach a Bible study for young adults in my church. Someone had asked me what it means to say that the Bible is inspired, and before I could reply another student chimed in with that question. It kind of saved me, because how do you even begin to answer a question on inspiration in a couple of minutes? It is one of the most controversial and complicated issues in evangelical...
“Why Is Esther in th...
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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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