A word of explanation: Recently I spotted this meme on Facebook: And for reasons I can’t fully explain, it got under my skin. So I decided to write the rest of this warrior’s story for today’s post. She stood tall before the Evil One, her fierce determination giving steel to…
Up until now, we’ve talked about how neo pseudo gnosticism pertains to the life after death. But what about the life here-and-now? Has this pale echo of an ancient heresy effected the way we look at the world around us? I think it has, more specifically, what it means to…
My goodness, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? It’s been close to two months since my last post about neo pseudo gnosticism. That’s mostly due to my recent change of life circumstances. Moving halfway across the country and starting with a new church hasn’t exactly left a lot of time…
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…
So last week, I started a new series about something I’m calling neo pseudo gnosticism, a heretical belief that I fear has crept into modern Christianity and has warped the way we view the world around us and even the way we look at ourselves. But before we get into…
Normally, on Mondays, I offer up a few pithy devotional thoughts to help start your week. I won’t say that these are deep thoughts; they’re not, and that’s by design. But for the past week or so, I’ve had a theological splinter stuck in my metaphorical skin, so to speak,…
There’s a funny pattern that emerges in the book of Mark. On three different occasions, Jesus takes a break from His busy miracle-making, teaching-the-crowds schedule to clue the disciples in to what’s going to happen to Him. For example, in Mark 9, it goes like this: They left that place…
If you’re part of a traditional church, you’re probably very familiar with the Lord’s Prayer. My guess is that you pray it every week or maybe even more often than that, probably to the point that you can recite it without much conscious thought. It’s a great outline of things…
One of the hardest Bible passages for a Lutheran like me to hear comes from the book of James: What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without…
Okay, time for a little peek under the hood here at my blog. When I do these Monday-morning devotionals, nine times out of ten I use the pericopes that my denomination, The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, uses for worship. Every week, there’s an Old Testament reading, an Epistle reading, a Gospel…