…biblical Christianity without conservative idolatry…
This post is part of a series investigating the most important items of Christian doctrine. View all posts by clicking here or the DOGMA tag above. Is one translation of the Bible more accurate? Why the need for so many English translations? I addressed this one on Sunday, and the basic answer is …
Continue Reading about The Bible: Is one translation of the Bible more accurate?
This post is part of a series investigating the most important items of Christian doctrine. View all posts by clicking here or the DOGMA tag above. Can we generalize New Testament verses on the authority of Scripture (eg. 2 Tim 3:15-17) to the NT since in the original context they were referring …
Continue Reading about The Bible: Do NT verses on Scripture apply to both Testaments?
At Lafayette Community Church, I have just begun a teaching series called DOGMA to discuss the core beliefs of our church and why we should be dogmatic about them. Even though our world is filled with arguments about tolerance, the Bible is completely intolerant about a few key doctrines. We would …
The preposition at the end of a sentence is one of those grammar "rules" that is often disregarded, but the three main reasons it is there as a rule as I understand it are the following: To reduce redundancy. To increase clarity. To strengthen speech. To illustrate #1, for example, the most …
During my message yesterday at Lafayette Community Church, I made reference to a couple psychological researchers who made presentations at the TED conference regarding happiness and freedom and choice. The two researchers are Dan Gilbert and Barry Schwartz. Linked here are the videos where they …
Last week, I was studying Isaiah 58 for my sermon, and I was simply enthralled and convicted by it. It's now posted online at our church website if you want to hear/watch it. …
Some people have "it." Some people don't. Some people get "it." Some people won't. Recently, I have been teaching a series of messages on what it means to have "it" as a believer. I mean, when you consider that Christians have a direct line of access to the God of the Universe, doesn't it make …
This question was posed to me on facebook recently, so I thought I'd share my answer here as well: Thanks Jeff. Where would you place, say the apostle Paul on the political spectrum (or could you?): …
Continue Reading about Would Paul be a liberal or conservative?
Last Sunday, I did a live Question and Answer session for the second half of my message. Here are the questions I was asked along with my answers. …
For a few weeks now, I have been teaching in my church on the topic of belief and doubt, so I have been on a personal journey to understand the mind of the atheist so I can better understand the mind of the serious person who cannot cross the line of faith and possibly understand the mind of the …
Continue Reading about Thoughts on Evolution, Creation, and Adam and Eve
Over the past two days, I have been watching an online video of a debate regarding the constitutionality of same-sex marriages and whether or not they should be legalized. Gay Marriage Debate at Fora.tv Parts of the discussion were fascinating, parts were offensive, and parts were really …
Okay, it's finally time for me to begin tackling this question. The problem is that I don't really know the answers so this is going to be a general musing with some of my own hunches. Therefore, I'm really interested to know your opinions on it too. Perhaps together, we can figure some of this …
Continue Reading about Why do non-Christians go to church? (postponed)
In our day today, many Christians oppose the increasing tolerance toward extra-marital sex. Of course, some are militant, but others are honestly opposed to the proliferation of loose sexual morality while remaining non-judgmental. On the other hand, many Christians are being ostracized by the …
Continue Reading about Random thought on the morals of sexuality
Yesterday, at the National Day of Prayer noon service, I had the chance to lead with some people from our church, a new musician friend in Adam Jansen and some local pastor friends. At the end of the service, I said to the crowd: If you don't have a church home, I want to shamelessly ask you to …
Continue Reading about At the National Day of Prayer Service
This last Fall, we took a survey in our church asking people to rank our church from "ick" to "wow" on various categories. This is a non-scientific study, of course, but the vast majority of our church attendees gave our church a "wow" on our preaching and mid to high marks on everything else. Also, …
Yesterday, I started a series of posts on why people go to church. Studies show us that large portions of the population claim to have a strong relationship with Jesus yet studies also show that large portions of the population rarely or never go to church. Today, I continue that discussion. …
