Tantalizing if True

If you’d like to enter a drawing for a $25 gift card at Lifeway Christian Store, tell us how to contact you if you win. That’s the only reason we’re asking – we won’t use your information for anything else. This is our own idea, not Lifeway Christian Store’s. It’s just to thank you for answering our poll – this part is completely optional. So to enter the drawing, send your name, phone, or email address to Nekoda and Bethany (nekodacook on gmail) or call 979-589-1720.

Join others from the Brazos Valley in Texas as we read through the Bible this summer, 2014! This challenge has two basic parts: reading on your own straight through the Bible, and meeting with others every two weeks to share the experience!

Download the official Bible in 90 Days Cover to Cover Reading Schedule (PDF bookmark)

This Bible reading challenge will run from June 1st to August 31st, and we will use the Bible reading plan from www.Biblein90days.org. It will give us a total of 4 “grace” days throughout the summer. Using this plan, we will read straight through the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation! It will require a personal commitment to reading on your own throughout the summer. Since reading speeds vary, estimating the time required per day would be hard, but an hour may be reasonably expected.

For accountability and encouragement through this special challenge we will meet and share a meal together every two weeks throughout the summer! This is intended to just be a relaxed, fun time to celebrate our progress and share the experience with others committed to reading through the Bible! We plan to view a teaching video together (35-45 minutes) giving an overview of the portion of Scripture read during the previous two weeks. This will help us to better remember what we read, and help us to see the “big picture,” perhaps making connections throughout the Bible that we have never seen before. We will host these meetings at our home between Bryan and Caldwell, TX on Saturday evenings at 5:00 P.M. on June 7th & 21st, July 5th & 19th, and August 2nd, 16th, & 30th.

Whether this is your first time to read through the whole Bible, or you have done it many times before, we would love for you to join in the challenge with us! We are excited about this special opportunity! To let us know that you’ve joined, email Nekoda or call 979-589-1720. Sign up now, and join us as we read through the Bible this summer, 2014!

-Nekoda and Bethany Cook

Posted in Uncategorized | May 14th, 2014 | 1 Comment »

It’s good to claim the Bible’s promises, but most of them are conditional: either explicitly conditional, (“If we confess our sins” I John 1:9) or implicitly conditional (“and the peace of God… will guard your hearts” Phil. 4:7)

A Bible promise for which we have not met the conditions is not a Bible promise that applies to us. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Desperate Suggestions | July 24th, 2005 | 4 Comments »

So many Christians think they’re supposed to inject religious words into their conversation (“After all, he says his word will not return void!”) – the Chinese water torture method of evangelism. But I don’t think that bears any fruit. We’re supposed to not cast pearls before swine, to refrain from saying things that people wouldn’t understand or appreciate anyway. I like the times when an honest answer to their question unavoidably gives glory to God. When I really did trust God, not just was supposed to have trusted to God. “Well, you know, I just need to depend on God’s strength day by day” but I have to be careful to say that only when I do.

Posted in Common Heresies | May 14th, 2005 | No Comments »

Jolly Blogger makes several good points in his comments about Silent Spring, a book which helped to launch the environmental movement.

• Believers should care more about the natural world than unbelievers do, because we know the one who made it
• We should care about the natural world, not because it’s purer and superior to us, but because it’s fallen like us.

Posted in Babylonian Captivity | June 8th, 2007 | 2 Comments »

“Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge.”

- Abraham Joshua Heschel

Posted in Incisive Quotes | May 18th, 2007 | No Comments »

We secretly mock those who want to be spiritually pure, but we penalize those who sell gasoline that isn’t purer.

Posted in Desperate Suggestions | April 14th, 2006 | No Comments »

Forget about the secret and lost gospels of Thomas, Mary Magdalene, and Judas. If 1st century Christians thought they were God-inspired, they would have made more than one copy of them, no? (Thousands of early copies of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have been preserved, in spite of official persecution from church and state).

No, there is another gospel, a different gospel with a greater appeal to conservative American Christians – and it’s even included in many editions of the Bible. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Common Heresies | March 23rd, 2007 | No Comments »

“Is it not excessively ridiculous to seek the good opinion of those whom you would never wish to be like?”

– John Chrysostom

Posted in Incisive Quotes | September 9th, 2007 | No Comments »