We have not rejected the Kingdom. We have reduced it.
— E. Stanley Jones, The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person
Year: 2005
The Kingdom is total.
[The Kingdom of God] is a complete totalitarianism in which, when you obey it totally, you find total freedom. I do not argue. I only testify: When I belong to Christ and his Kingdom, I am most my own.
— E. Stanley Jones, The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person
Safer to separate the sinners from us nice people
Now that my former boss Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom has been sentenced to 25 years in prison, it’s become easier to think of him as a ruthless criminal instead of a Baptist Sunday School teacher. It’s more comforting that way. Continue reading “Safer to separate the sinners from us nice people”
Better than rituals and memories is…
The early disciples had little ritual but a mighty realization. They went out not remembering Christ, but experiencing him.
–E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of Experience
Worship the Bible and worship yourself
The problem with loudly claiming the Bible as your only guide to faith and practice is that, at the same time, you may be quietly claiming your own intellect as your only guide to the Bible. If you aren’t, what other guide to the Bible do you claim? Can’t think of one? I suspected as much. Continue reading “Worship the Bible and worship yourself”
Now Lord, please don’t go to any trouble for me!
My 93-year-old, blind, deaf, arthritic grandmother hates to be helped. We finally learn to stop replying to comments such, “Don’t go to any trouble!” “I hate to have you wait on me,” “I’m just a lazy bum.” I wonder if, when she arrives at the gates of Heaven, she will say to Jesus, “Now Lord, please don’t go to any trouble for me! I can help myself.”
Christians poking fun at themselves
There is a fair amount of humor on the Web at the expense of conservative Christians, but Lark News is the funniest I’ve seen – funnier because it’s written by folks who know conservative Christians. And who love them, apparently.
I haven’t seen the latest edition, but some of my favorite fake headlines included:
Jack Chick buys popular comic strips
Man resigns job to listen to talk radio
Smells of Palestine enhance Christmas dramas
A flippant history of the charismatic movement
Originally, about one hundred years ago, some people wanted to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, so they tarried and prayed and repented until they felt themselves immersed with the power of God, and spoke in tongues. Continue reading “A flippant history of the charismatic movement”
Having a map, not having arrived
My family heard about the gospel of salvation and the authority of the Bible around the same time. Like many evangelicals, we assumed that they always go together. Then I observed that people can be orthodox but lost. And I learned that in previous centuries of American history, almost everybody believed the Bible had authority and that Jesus was the Savior of the world. The Deists believed that too, but didn’t claim to have experienced personal conversion.
The perils of leading worship
A controversy during the Reformation was whether a priest could properly serve the Lord’s Supper if he was living in sin. Continue reading “The perils of leading worship”