I once read a story about a new pastor who was asked to preach at a funeral. He had never done that before, so he was a little worried about what he should say, how he should say it, that sort of thing. He was really uncertain what to do,…
So last week, I finally let the rubber hit the road about why I’m so up-in-arms about neo pseudo gnosticism. One of the chief problems I have with it is how it can derail and mess up the hope that we as Christians have for eternal life. There are other…
For the past several weeks, I’ve been writing short-ish articles about a problematic belief that seems to have infected modern Christianity. These beliefs seem like pale echoes of an ancient heresy that was roundly condemned by the Church nineteen hundred years ago. In my not-so-humble opinion, it should always worry…
Last week, we talked about how a watered-down version of gnosticism, a heresy that was rejected and condemned by the early church, has reasserted itself in the Church. In broad strokes, this pale echo can be summed up with these two beliefs: The physical world, rather than being inherently evil…
In Romans, Paul encourages us to confess and believe so that we might be saved. Over the last two weeks, we looked a little at what it means to confess. But Paul says that when we’re Christian, we believe as well as confess. Sounds simple enough, right? But what, exactly,…
Last week, we took a look at one way that we confess, namely when we confess our sins. But confessing has another meaning, one that I believe is just as important. “Confessing” is also a way that we take our stand about what we believe as Christians. Jesus puts it…
Okay, it’s been a while since I did a book review. I don’t know why that is. I’ve read some great books lately, but for whatever reason, I’ve been too lazy to write much about them. But recently I finished reading a fantastic book that really made me sit up…
So for the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at a pattern of mountaintop experiences that God’s people experienced in the past. The pattern, which we saw with Moses, Elijah, and Peter, goes something like this: The primary experience – Whoever it is goes up on a mountain and has…