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 Aug 23, 2017 | 1 comment
When I interpret Scripture I go through a process, almost second-nature by now, that includes, suspending my assumptions about the nature of the Bible; not letting my previous instruction about a passage inhibit something new and different coming out; letting the original writers have their voice and their say; looking past what a writer means to what he is trying to accomplish; and then interpreting...
The Only Real Reason to Re...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Aug 22, 2017 | 0 comments
In the last post in this series on interpreting the Bible, I noted that the New Testament writers are all in agreement that Jesus is the fullest revelation of the nature and character of God. This naturally raises questions regarding the nature of Scripture, inspiration, and Jesus’ relationship to the Old Testament. Here’s the conclusion to that post: Some might say—indeed some have said—that the only way...
Jesus, Inspiration, and Re...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Aug 22, 2017 | 0 comments
Racism was the central problem in the New Testament, and the church was supposed to be the solution being lived out in the world. The hostility between many Jews and their attitudes toward Gentiles that we see in the gospels was racial hostility. It was deep, and it was dark. These Jews had categories of things that were clean and unclean. For instance, it was unclean to wear cloth of mixed fabric—flax...
Ending Racism is Central t...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Aug 14, 2017 | 0 comments
Do you want the leaders of our country to follow the Sermon on the Mount? I’m not asking if you think they should be compelled to, or if the Sermon on the Mount should be made the law of the land along with the Ten Commandments and other parts of the Bible. This isn’t about religious liberty or whether the United States was or is or should be a Christian nation. I’m just asking if you think that it would...
Should the President Heed ...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Aug 10, 2017 | 0 comments
When you do something all the time your approach becomes second nature and largely unconscious, so a few weeks ago I decided to examine what I do when I interpret the Bible and share those steps with you. I’ve written about how I: try to suspend my assumptions about the Bible and it’s inspiration; try to move beyond what I’ve been taught which might preclude me from seeing something new; try to let each...
Jesus is the Standard: Par...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Aug 8, 2017 | 2 comments
In the last post I talked about how important it is to recognize that the biblical writers have their own voice. The Bible, especially the Old Testament, doesn’t speak with one voice or one viewpoint. It actually contains multiple voices and multiple viewpoints, and, as I pointed out last week, they don’t all agree with each other. It’s not merely that they see things partially or from different aspects...
How I Read the Bible, And ...
Posted by Larry Eubanks on Jun 27, 2017 | 0 comments
When reading the Bible there are six things I do as part of my interpretive process which I have found helpful. If you will do these six things you will find the meaning of Scripture opening up for you. The first two things I do are 1) Throw out all my assumptions; and 2) Question everything I was taught. The next thing that I do is I give the biblical authors their voices back. This follows hard on the...
Let the Biblical Writers S...
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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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