What are the advantages of preaching consecutively, chapter after chapter, all the way through a book of the Bible? There are five reasons…
The essence of Christmas is the mysterious, glorious and profound claim that God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. To this astounding truth one might be compelled to ask: did it have to be this way? Was there any other way for God to redeem us? The second chapter of Hebrews gives us three reasons why God had to become a man:
Next Saturday (April 19, not tomorrow) is Record Store Day. This annual celebration of independent record stores has been taking place since 2007, and gives special attention to the vinyl record, which happens to be the main reason independent records stores are still in business. As music consumption moves away from CDs and increasingly toward MP3 downloads or direct streaming, there has been a movement back toward buying records the old fashioned way. Vinyl sales have been on the increase for the last few years, and show no signs of slowing down.
A church in Alexandria, just about 20 minutes west of Yorktown, has recently been thrown into the national spotlight because of a situation regarding its former choir director. According to an article in the Ball State Daily News, the director, Adam Fraley, was forced out of his position at First United Methodist Church. The reason? Fraley is gay.
Ross Douthat has written an article in the New York Times in which he says same-sex marriage will inevitably be legalized in all 50 states, and that all that is left for proponents of traditional marriage now is to “find out what settlement the victors will impose.”
A startling statistic came to my attention recently while reading a history of American Presbyterianism called Seeking a Better Country. In 1776, Presbyterians accounted for 25 percent of the American population. By 2001, that number had plunged to just 2.7 percent (p. 259-260).
In the ongoing discussion between the “traditional” church and the “emerging” church, Donald Miller is a guy who falls somewhere in between. I read his book “Blue Like Jazz” many years ago and found it engaging and endearing in a lot of ways. The book was popular enough to be turned into a movie in 2012.
In Proverbs 23:23, we have a Biblical mandate for buying good books: “Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction and understanding.” Accordingly, here are five books I read in 2013 (though they were not necessarily released in 2013), and I heartily recommend them for your reading pleasure in 2014:
There has been lots of talk this week about Richard Sherman’s wild rant on national television Sunday night. Sherman, a defensive player for the Seattle Seahawks, had just caused a game-saving interception in the NFC championship game with San Francisco when a Fox Sports reporter put a microphone in his face. Sherman proceeded to call 49ers player Michael Crabtree a “sorry receiver.” He boasted that he (Sherman) was the “best corner in the game.” He yelled to the camera that no one should ever talk about him. He was defiant. He glared. And then he stormed off.
Let me admit right off the bat: I am somewhat reluctant to start writing a blog. For one reason, I tend to be the kind of person who resists trends and is slow to jump on bandwagons. Secondly, I’m not sure I have the time to write regular blog articles. And thirdly, it seems a bit presumptuous to assume that there are people out there in cyberspace who would be interested in what I think about anything.
