Spiritual Health | Jeff Mikels

On the Textual Reliability of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35

Before I talk about the issues with 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, I want to give a brief bit of information on the overall reliability of the text of the Bible. One of the fundamental truths about the text of the Bible is that we don’t have a 100% complete copy of the original text. However, a […]

My Statement to the Lafayette City Council on Gender Identity

Last night, the Lafayette City Council met to consider putting an amendment into the Lafayette Human Relations Ordinance. Some time ago, the city codified a “Human Relations Ordinance” to fight against discrimination in our town. It created a Human Relations Commission tasked with the job of investigating cases of discrimination in our city and offering […]

PG-13: Benefits of Eliminating Pornography

The views expressed in this video are not my own, but the scientific research is fascinating nonetheless. The video is not explicit, but it is not appropriate for children unless you use it as a teaching tool. As a pastor, I hear the stories all the time. One more guy is hooked on Internet […]

The Ethics of Superintelligence

Today, during my lunch, I watched a very interesting TED presentation from Nick Bostrom regarding machine intelligence and the difficult questions surrounding it. What I didn’t realize at the time was that Bostrom is a Philosopher more than an engineer. As a result, his talk ended up being about the ethical questions brought on by the […]

A Different Question about Gender Differences

This past week, I tried an experiment. I posted a couple images to my Facebook timeline that I thought had the potential to become somewhat viral. That is, I thought these images would be shared around Facebook, and I wanted to see how widely they would go. Well, my little experiment took me in a […]

There’s an app for that…

Today, I learned that there is an app for breaking up. That’s right. There is an app to help you end a relationship. Click this link if you want to see it in action. Some of you need to download the app today, and I’m not joking.

Tithing is not Giving to God

This past Sunday, I closed out my message with a statement that I honestly felt was controversial but something that should be said nevertheless. I said that tithing is not giving to God.

Why does God listen to my prayer?

I got a very interesting question on a Connect Card this past Sunday, and I’d like to interact with it here on my site. Here’s what it said: With all of the prayers God hears every day – how does he hear yours? What makes me as important as everyone else in the world that […]

To Tithe or Not to Tithe

In a recent conversation I had with a church planting friend of mine, the topic of the tithe came up, and I thought it might be interesting for me to put down in this forum what I am teaching my church regarding giving. Having been heavily influenced by the likes of Andy Stanley, Randy Alcorn, […]

How should Christians live out God’s ideal of justice?

Occasionally, I get really deep questions turned in on our Sunday Connect Cards, and this past Sunday, I received this one: I noticed that two of the songs played in service this morning mentioned justice as something God has and uses to demonstrate his goodness. If one of the classic arguments against belief in a […]

Why do we say “Amen” at the end of prayers?

Recently, a note came to me from someone in our church with an interesting question. It said this: Why is it that sometimes your prayers do not end with “Amen”? Is there a biblical reason why we do or do not say amen after prayers? I responded personally, but I also felt my answer might […]

What if God chooses not to “elect” my children?

During the Summer, I worked through the book of Romans in my Sunday messages at Lafayette Community Church. To hear the messages, visit the Great News II page. One of the topics that Romans raises is the notion of election vs. free will. I took a rather strong position from Romans 9-11 that God chooses […]

Is Modern Worship too Simplistic?

Earlier this week, a discussion among the worship band members at my church pointed to this article where Bill Blankschaen describes his frustration with worship songs sung in churches on Sunday mornings and tells us “Why I’ve stopped singing in your church.” As of this writing right now, he has 241 comments, and he only […]

Reflections on Sin

Some Context This past week, a number of stories came out in my local newspaper reporting on and analyzing the arrest of a local pastor. He has been accused of placing and monitoring video equipment in the female bathrooms at the church. If you haven’t read the articles, don’t worry about not knowing the details. […]

Harmony Not Unison

I have just finished my sermon series on gender issues in the Bible and how to understand the biblical teaching on the topic. If you want to hear the entire series, you can click here: http://lafayettecc.org/news/gatherings/080-born-this-way/ Now, I promised you that I would write some articles here regarding some of the most controversial passages in […]