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 Dec 11, 2014 | 0 comments
When there’s a fuss over what to name a baby, something is going on. In Matthew 1, while Zechariah was serving his priestly rotation at the Temple, the angel Gabriel appears and announces that, in spite of their advanced years, they will have a baby boy, and Gabriel is very clear about his name. “You will name him John.” Zechariah questions how this can happen since many years of childlessness have made...
The Grace of Remembering N...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Dec 8, 2014 | 1 comment
Why does Matthew write that the prophets say the Messiah will come from Nazareth when there is no such reference anywhere in the Old Testament? In Matthew’s birth narrative, Joseph is warned to flee to Egypt to escape the murderous plans of King Herod. After Herod dies, Joseph is told to return with his family to Israel, but he is afraid to return to Bethlehem because Herod’s son, Archelaus, had been...
The Messiah: A Nobody from...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Dec 4, 2014 | 2 comments
The season of Advent brings to mind not just the birth of Jesus but also his triumphant return—the first and second Advents. These twin poles remind us that the story of Creation is not static but was designed with an end in mind and that God is active in our world, moving that story forward. Creation doesn’t just have a beginning but also a culmination. Walter Brueggemann, in his book Texts Under...
Advent: Creation and Consu...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Dec 3, 2014 | 0 comments
The people who need the most to hear the news of Immanuel—that God is with them, are the people who have the least reason to believe that he is. When you live in relative comfort, it’s easy to believe in Immanuel. God is with us? Well, of course he is. The evidence is all around! We have life, liberty, and most of us are pursuing happiness as opposed to mere survival. We have a great educational...
When It’s Hard to Be...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Dec 1, 2014 | 0 comments
Though the cross is the main symbol of Christianity, I have talked with some people who seem to think that the crucifixion of Jesus was the saving event of the incarnation, and everything that came before was simply prerequisite to that saving event. Indeed, a lot of the language of the church would lead to this conclusion. I have written before that the early creeds of the church, those statements that...
The Incarnation: More than...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Nov 26, 2014 | 2 comments
I have a a friend who is also in ministry and among the things that we share is a love for the Christmas season. Whether it’s because I’m a pastor or because I’m an adult—probably both—the Christmas season passes far too quickly. I like to savor it, so I like to stretch it out as long as possible. My friend takes that concept to the extreme. He and his wife put up a Christmas tree as soon as the World...
Thanksgiving During the Ch...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Nov 20, 2014 | 0 comments
Do you know who invented the light bulb? If you said Thomas Edison, then you are…kind of right. The real story is more complicated than that. Other inventors had been making various forms of incandescent light bulbs for more than 80 years before Edison started working on it. Edison filed a patent for an “electric lamp” in 1879, but the very first patent for a light bulb was issued in 1841 to...
The Myth of the Lone Geniu...
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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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