i have been asked to post on my practice of exposing this board to beliefs or lines of thinking that i myself do not hold to. this thread is meant to be an answer to that request. in the interest of keeping it clear for those who won’t read more than a few sentences, i’ll […]
what is holiness?
i have been studying the sermon on the mount for several months now, and i’d like to explore here some insight i have had on what, exactly, holiness is: Matt 5 (ESV) 43 – 48 Love Your Enemies You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But […]
on hurting a burgler
assume you live alone, and are home alone, in your apartment, asleep in bed, when you realize that your apartment is being broken into, downstairs. what is the proper course of action for a follower of christ? don’t assume you have, or don’t have, a gun, a bat, a tazer, or any other weapon: all […]
Plankeye
A friend of mine recently wrote: This is the very reason I stopped attending my youth group. It was so unwelcoming. And, there’s something else, too. It seems to me, that rejection from the church crowd holds a bigger emotional consequence than rejection from other crowds. These are, after all, the people with whom you […]
this is the message we heard from christ
finish this sentence: this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you… no, really… read it and try to finish it in yer head, knowing that this is the first half of a verse from john, how do you think he’s going to finish this sentence? how would one of jesus’s […]
patriotism
patriotism, as most people understand it (regardless of what the dictionary says it “means”) is, in my opinion, not a stance a follower of jesus can take. it means, at its most basic, that one is aligning himself with an agency on earth, rather than with god’s kingdom, where jesus instructs his followers to make […]
sharing the truth in love
how did jesus do it? he told stories that made points about heaven, and let people draw thier own conclusions. he had a small group (120) that he encouraged to follow him around, learning how he lived, and an even smaller (12) that he went out of his way to teach deeper meanings to, and […]
“not acting like jesus would”
Matthew 11:19 (Contemporary English Version) 19 But the Son of Man goes around eating and drinking, and you say, “That man eats and drinks too much! He is even a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” Yet Wisdom is shown to be right by what it does. jesus was, as we see here, accused of […]
“your life is your best witness”
i have heard, many times, something along these lines: “your life is your best witness” it is simply not true. your words are your best witness. your life, and the way you live, will prove out what’s really in your heart, but no one gets “saved” without hearing — and sitting there not sinning, but […]
love
john said that “they” will know us by our love. jesus said the entire law and the prophets comes down to love. the “odds” (if you will) of you going door-to-door and finding the right person who’s all ready to “give thier life to christ” and you “leading them to the lord” are amazingly small. […]
a thought on calvinism
i remember, back when i liked to take the label “calvinist” for myself, how i had so little understanding of what it means, really. i imagine there are lots of people like i was. i also know, now that i’m several years older (and hopefully wiser!), that all the discussions i had, thinking it mattered […]