I have been reading the Proverbs lately. The older I get the more I realize my lack of wisdom. James promises us that if we ask God will give wisdom to us. One continual prayer for my children is that God would give them wisdom - the skill to navigate the world in which they live. Tim Keller says wisdom isn't so much knowing the right answer, knowing what to do and not to do, but the gospel recreating us to be people who will not only know the right thing to do but do it. The Proverbs say much...

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I have been reading Matthew lately and it's no stretch to say that Jesus has alot to say to Conservatives. As many have said he reserves his strictest words for them. He not only spars with them but he initiates contact. He picks fights, speaks brutally honest and seems to invite his own demise at their hands. At one point he pronounces woes on them. He calls them out for specific sins and gives them the business knowing it will cost him his life. The strangest part is that at the end of the chapter he cries out to them...

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I've been reading the Gospel of Matthew and am amazed at how often Jesus says, "Yes." He heals with a word, instantly, immediately. He "drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick." When we deal with issues, struggles, sins, sickness, temptations I don't understand why Jesus doesn't "say a word" and the problem is gone. There are prayers my wife and I have prayed for over a decade and only once can I remember something happening that seemed a direct answer and that was about 3 weeks after the fact. And, over time, the problem got...

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Baptism. What's the deal? I have more students without Christian backgrounds asking me about baptism. In some ways this is a great thing. They don't have some of the Christian baggage and they have lots of questions. And, they instinctively know that if they are going to become a Christian then something must signify it, set it apart, a bar-mitzvah of sorts. With this in mind I'm going to try and hit what I think the bible is getting at with baptism.It's a coming out of the closet statement. It's a person's declaration that "I'm throwing in my lot with...

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I remember during studying for my ordination (the body of Christ confirming God's call on me through character and bible testing - a good thing) one of my peers who was on the examination committee asked what the sin of Sodom was. I thought to myself, "Is this a trick question?" I responded, "Homosexuality?" "No, it was actually being greedy, overfed and not concerned for the poor," he stated. I went home that night and googled (did we call it that 10 years ago?) the words: Sodom, greed, poor, and guess what? He was right! Ezekiel the prophet had much...

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