One of the great ways to approach the Psalms is to personalize them, to take the text and make it real for your own life. Make the promises, warnings, descriptions, theology into statements you prayerfully speak back to God. Rachel Pannell has recently done just that with Psalm 23, and has graciously allowed us to [...]
Archive for the ‘Bible’ Category
Personalizing Psalm 23 – by Rachel Pannell
Posted in Bible, Prayer on October 3, 2008 | 1 Comment »
A Sufficient Bible, A Prophetic Spirit – Sam Storms
Posted in Bible, Books, Charismatic on July 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
If the Bible is inspired and sufficient, why do we still believe in prophecy? Great question. Sam Storms wrestles with that in his chapter called, “God Still Speaks,” from his book, Convergence. The entire discussion is wonderful, but here are a great couple of paragraphs to chew on:
[We] need to be more precise [...]
The Emergent Journey: Are the Pilgrims Still Making Progress? Part 1
Posted in Bible, Books, Cross, Culture, Gospel, Sin, Theology, tagged emergent, emergent church, journey, mclaren, mystery on June 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Experience, Journey, Doubt, Traveler, Introspection, Mystery. These are some of the key words of the Emergent movement. The authors of Why We’re Not Emergent rightly begin their book with the first chapter focusing on what emergent’s hold to be of great importance to their entire doctrinal system (though they would say they have NO doctrine…), [...]
Are YOU an Emergent Christian???
Posted in Bible, Books, Culture, Gospel, Theology, tagged A New Kind of Christian, bell, Bible, Blue Like Jazz, christian, doctrine, emergent, emergent church, gagging of God, inspired, journey, kluck, mclaren, paggitt, reformed, scripure, Tomlinson, Velvet Elvis, Vintage Jesus, why we're not emergent by two guys who should be on June 18, 2008 | 9 Comments »
“You might be an emergent Christian if: you listen to U2, Moby, and Johnny Cash’s Hurt (sometimes in church)… and always use a Mac; if your reading list consists primarily of Stanley Hauerwas, Henri Nouwen, N.T. Wright, Stan Grenz, Dallas Willard, Brennan Manning, Jim Wallis, Frederick Buechner, David Bosch, John Howard Yoder, Wendell Berry, Nancy [...]
Memorizing Scripture in 2008
Posted in Bible, Devotional Life on January 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The benefits of implanting Scripture into our memories — typically filled with too many thoughts of high school mistakes, the current events of yesterday that have become irrelevant, the various canons of statistics that our hobbies require — are numerous. Perhaps one of the greatest is that we are armed with weapons with which we [...]
Wisdom for Battling Sin
Posted in Bible, Gospel, Sanctification, Sin on December 18, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Jerry Bridges’ book Respectable Sins is written to encourage us to battle sin, especially those “respectable sins” that good Christians commit, often without guilt or regret. Wisely, before he begins to take shots at our well entrenched sin patterns, he reminds us of the place that the gospel has in our fight. Why does he [...]
Does the Bible Contradict Itself? Part 7
Posted in Bible, Theology on September 22, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Football to some is a complicated game. To them, the arbitrary lining up, the scattered pattern of players going to the sideline and back on to the field, the surely contrived penalties, the myriad of “backs” and “tackles” and “downs” and offenses and defenses, none of this is coherent. The only thing that makes sense [...]
Can you be biblical and charismatic?
Posted in Bible, Charismatic, Holy Spirit on September 15, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
In our church we have a shorthand expression that helps communicate our theology: “We are essentially Reformed with a significant charismatic dimension.” Once we explain what we mean by this those who are traditionally Reformed head for the doors, and those who are traditionally Charismatic follow right behind them. Surprisingly, once this exodus has occurred, [...]
Does the Bible Contradict Itself? Part 6
Posted in Bible, Theology on September 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
There are some things in which being right is helpful but not essential: making pancakes. My kids know the difference between pancakes when I follow the recipe, and when I have to embellish because we’re out of something—“can’t cottage cheese duplicate eggs in a recipe? I think so…” Yet, in other matters, right and wrong [...]
Does the Bible Contradict Itself? Part 5
Posted in Bible on August 22, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
What does Jesus think of the Old Testament?
For some, that sounds like a strange question. Yet, the record of the theological history left for us in the four gospel accounts—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John—records for us the actual words and deeds of Jesus Christ that God predestined for our benefit—and life. And significant within that record is [...]
