Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ is due to hit theatres on February 25, 2004. This movie has received universal acclaim from Christians who have seen it with reviews ranging from positive to ecstatic. Many are saying that this movie represents the greatest opportunity for evangelism and outreach that they have seen in…
Theology has become a bad word in Christian circles. It seems that theology is linked in people’s minds with cold, dead religion that cares more about principles and matters of the head than deeds and matters of the heart. It is associated with fundamentalism and with cold conservatism. Yet if we look at the meaning…
One of Satan’s greatest triumphs is in convincing Christians to abandon the Bible, or at least keeping them from really mining its depths. He tries to convince us that the Bible is outdated, unimportant or less important than many other things. He tries to convince us that it is difficult to understand and that we…
I have been seeking to understand how God works in the conversion of souls. The more research I do, the more I realize that many standard evangelistic practices must be flawed, for it seems we often try to do the work that God tells us He needs to do. Here is a list of some…
Today is the last Sunday Reflection for a while that will contain a hymn. I promise! This is a hymn written by Christopher Words worth that celebrates the Lord’s Day, looks back at the first Sabbath as celebrated by God at the close of Creation, and looks forward to each upcoming Sunday, as “Each Sunday…
Two days ago I wrote about Mel Gibson’s upcoming movie The Passion of the Christ. I asked the questions ‘If my wife was brutally murdered, would I want to see a movie about it? If I love Jesus more than my wife, why would I want to see a graphic, brutal portrayal of His death?’…
Yesterday I posted a Review of Biblical Hermeneutics. In reading and researching the topic of hermeneutics (Biblical interpretation) I ran across a few interesting quotes. I hold that the words of Scripture were intended to have one definite sense, and adhere rigidly to it…To say the words do mean a thing merely because they can…
Thousands of churches are still in the midst of Rick Warren’s 40 Days of Purpose and little do they know that if they do not hurry it up, they are going to miss out on the best outreach opportunity of the past 2000 years! Yes indeed, Mel Gibson’s movie “The Passion of The Christ” is…
There are some books I can read in an evening or two and feel like I have a good grasp of what the book is all about. There are others that I can pour over hour after hour and still feel like I am only scratching the surface of the book. Evangelical Hermeneutics falls into…
The church has traditionally positioned itself as a place for those who believe to find a place where they can belong. As the church changes and evolves with the times there is a trend to make the church a place where anyone can belong regardless of whether or not they believe. Having people who wish…
I have managed to acquire a good bit of Web space and for just a few dollars can get setup with a new Web site. I am undecided if at this time I want to do that, but do have a couple of ideas for a second site. My first idea was based around Web…
Every month or so I like to drop by George Barna’s site to read his updates, which are generally published every two weeks or so. In case you are not familiar with Barna Research Group, it “is a full-service marketing research company located in Ventura, California. BRG has been providing information and analysis regarding cultural…
Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life is a runaway bestseller, having already sold over ten million copies, making it one of the best-selling Christian books of all time. Thousands of churches have committed to leading their congregations through the Forty Days of Purpose program. I decided to spend forty days journaling my way through this…
Forgive me if I deviate from my usual theological themes to discuss America’s other religion for a moment… A weekend like this makes me wonder why I love football so much. Going into this weekend I was cheering for the Rams, Titans, Packers and Chiefs. Incredibly enough, all four of those teams managed to lose…
This week’s Sunday Reflection comes courtesy of John Newton and his hymn, Safely Through Another Week. It is a song of thanks for another week of safety and a song of petition, that we may feel God’s presence near to us during the upcoming week. Safely through another week God has brought us on our…
I recently completed a critical (by which I mean in-depth) study of Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life. I went through each chapter of the book not only reading what he had to say but also looking up each and every Biblical proof-text he used (more than 1200 in all), paying special attention to his…
This week’s Blog of the Week is Blogs4God. This site is both a Weblog and a listing of over 900 other Christian blogs. The various blogs are divided into several categories, each of which has an editor who, at least once a week, writes an introduction to some of the topics being written about in…
At the request of a few people, I have begun a series examining the basic teachings of Christianity. Consider it something of a “Christianity 101.” The series is intended for two main audiences. The first is people who are not Christians and are seeking to know something about this faith. The second is people who…
A Web site I visited recently which seeks to explain Catholic doctrine and beliefs to Protestants contained the statement “Protestants do not believe in confession.” The statement is incorrect insofar as Protestants do not practice auricular confession (confessing ones’ sins to a priest in order to receive forgiveness). That statement along with others I have…
A few days ago I had a lunch appointment with a group of church planters connected with my church. One of them was supposed to cook for us but there was a miscommunication and we were forced to find a restaurant where we could eat. We ended up heading to Pizza Hut for their all-you-can-eat…