• 4 Minute Read For the past several years I have publicly discussed why I tend to avoid associating myself with Independence Day. For a few years in a row I posted what was called my “annual unpopular post.” It all began in 2009 (when I hardly blogged), with a post titled: An “unpopular” …
The Unexpected Voice of God: Recognizing the Many Ways God Speaks to Us
• 4 Minute Read A few weeks ago, I introduced you to my colleague Dr. Andrew Gabriel by reviewing his new book Simply Spirit-Filled. To give you a better taste of the book, enjoy this excerpt from Simply Spirit-Filled below. A couple of days after we buried our stillborn baby, God spoke to my wife. It …
To Be Simply Spirit-Filled
• 4 Minute Read New Experiences Being slain in the Spirit, speaking in tongues, and healing are not part of my everyday vocabulary. Nor, for that matter, are they part of my everyday practice. Not that I view these practices as unimportant or unnecessary. They just haven’t been a significant part of my relationship …
Why the Rapture isn’t Biblical… And Why it Matters
• 8 Minute Read I grew up in church culture. Most of what I recall from those early childhood and teenage years bring memories of good things. People genuinely taught me that loving Jesus matters more than anything else in the world. The world, after all, is corrupt and the place we truly long …
Why I Still Love Logos Bible Software (Version 8)
• 6 Minute Read I’ve wanted to write this reflection for some time. As some of you may have heard, we had a baby at the end of the year. She is amazing. Now that I am easing back into writing and podcasting, this was the first piece I wanted to write. It would …
Why Rapture Predictors Are Always Wrong (Revelation in a Nutshell)
• 4 Minute Read You will never correctly predict something that isn’t actually in the scriptures.
Protestants Don’t Know What to Do with Mary
• 6 Minute Read Mary. There’s something about her, so they say. Protestants haven’t known what to do with her. I’ve seen two basic trends. 1) Protestants who ignore Mary’s subversive joy. 2) Protestants who run from Mary’s miracle. Both of these trends are troubling. Many “traditionalists” ignore Mary (for the most part) because of …
Baby Jesus meek and mild, overthrew an empire – Wild!
• 6 Minute Read Baby Jesus Meek and Mild // Pray for me an Orphan Child // Be my strength, be my friend // Be with me until the end Perhaps you remember this prayer from childhood that kids would say around Christmas time. Well, kids… buckle up…because this post is all about the …
10 Years Ago, I Embraced Nonviolence & Anabaptism
• 4 Minute Read In the past month or so, I’ve been interviewed on two different podcasts. Bros, Bible’s, & Beer: This was fun. Three great guys who talk about faith from three different angles. One is closer to where I’d be at when it comes to theology. Another is more in the conservative-evangelical …
Romans 13 Doesn’t Give Government an Ethical Blank Check
• 6 Minute Read Kurt Note: I wrote this originally as an FB post. It got long. Here it is in its original form (so it is a tad raw): Romans 13 cannot and must not be used to give government structures a blank ethical check. I have much to say, but lets start …
Does God plan everything that happens? (4 Views)
• 9 Minute Read A couple of weeks ago, I introduced you to my friend Bonnie Kristian. She is the author of A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today. Her guest post (“What happens to people who never hear about Jesus?”) was so well received that I asked if she’d be up to …
What happens to people who never hear about Jesus? (4 Views)
• 7 Minute Read Is it fair for God to treat people who have honestly never heard this stuff the same way he treats people who knowingly reject him? Is ignorance as bad as an intentional embrace of evil? Christians have historically answered these questions three ways, positing theories that are today called exclusivism, inclusivism, and postmortem evangelism.
Cosmic Signs Don’t Signal a Rapture (Another Prediction by David Meade)
• 5 Minute Read I thought you might want to know that the rapture is set to occur on April 23rd. According to Christian Numerologist David Meade, we all need to be ready. <<<By the way, this reflection is based on podcast episode #4 from, Rapture Drill: Reframing Revelation, the End Times, & Our Weird …
Revelation’s climactic verse is dirty & powerful (how to avoid spiritual STDs)
• 3 Minute Read I grew up around charts. Big. Scary. Charts. Can you relate? And on these charts were several pictures accompanied by verse labels and a timeline. Oh, yeah, gotta have the timeline figured out. These always came with the acknowledgement that no one could truly know the day or the hour. …
Let’s bring the soul back to biblical scholarship
• 2 Minute Read Recently I had a unique opportunity. I was asked, by members of the Comparative Religion M.A. cohort at the University of Washington, to lead a conversation on being a pastor who is also an aspiring scholar. Most of them were not Christian in any sense of the word. And yet, …
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