One of the most misunderstood parts of the crucifixion story shows up at the very end of Matthew's account: From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my …
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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 I am heard? Here is …
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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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 …
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 …
Boys and Girls Part 1
This past Sunday, I started a series of messages at Lafayette Community Church entitled "Born this Way" in which I intend to investigate the number of different Bible passages on gender issues. The biggest problem for me was that for most of the week, I was wrestling with how to tackle the message. …
The Church: Can you be a Christian without going to church?
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. This past Sunday, I ended our service by taking some live questions from the congregation, but I wasn't able to address all the questions live. …
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The Church: Why Sundays?
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. This past Sunday, I ended our service by taking some live questions from the congregation, but I wasn't able to address all the questions live. …
Would Paul be a liberal or conservative?
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?): …
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Live Question and Answer
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. …