Category Archives: Bible

You Are Perfectly Positioned (for what God wants you to do next)

Posted on November 29, 2021 by salooper57

This message explores the reasons why a Christ-follower might miss the fact that God has something for them to do, why they can believe that is true, and what to do about it.

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The Secret of Gratitude: Receiving Life as a Gift

Posted on November 27, 2021 by salooper57

G. K. Chesterton wrote, half in jest: “The worst moment for an atheist is when he is really thankful and has no one to thank.” Never having been an atheist, I cannot know whether this is true, but I find it doubtful. I do know, however, that it is a bad moment when a believer who does have someone to thank is not thankful. Continue reading →

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Wide Angle: You Don’t Get to Know God in an Easy Chair

Posted on November 25, 2021 by salooper57

…nowhere in the Bible do we find God calling people by saying, “I have a no-hassle life-plan for self-fulfillment, and it has your name on it.  All I ask is that you do me the honor of signing up.”   God’s call stretches people.  Continue reading →

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Wide Angle: The Line Begins

Posted on November 24, 2021 by salooper57

We’ve been using the image of a panoramic picture to help us in thinking about the coherence of the larger story of what God is doing in the world. But it may also be helpful to think of the biblical … Continue reading →

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Is the Bible Relevant to Your Life? Maybe Not

Posted on November 20, 2021 by salooper57

…many people use the Bible like the box top to a jig saw puzzle. They look at it, then try to order the pieces of their lives according to what they see. The trouble is that the pieces they are working with came from a different box. They try to use those pieces to construct the picture of peace and joy as it is presented in sermons, but no matter what they do, they cannot make the pieces go together. Continue reading →

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Wide Angle: Fallen (and Still Falling)

Posted on November 16, 2021 by salooper57

When Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden, humanity’s authority over creation was ripped from them. They were divided from God, divided from their inner selves, divided from each other. God had warned them, “In the day you … Continue reading →

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Proof of … Faith (1 Peter 1:6-7)

Posted on November 7, 2021 by salooper57

I don’t know what you think about proof of vaccine (and I hope you won’t feel the need to tell me), but the Bible reveals that God also has a “proof of” requirement—and no one is going to pass legislation … Continue reading →

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What to Do When the Bible Bothers You

Posted on November 6, 2021 by salooper57

Why has this bothered me? Because it sounds as if Isaiah – and worse, Jesus – is saying that God doesn’t want people to hear or to see and so to turn to him and be healed. Such a calloused deity seems incompatible with the God I have known in Jesus, who loves even messy people and offers them his blessing. Nor does it fit with other passages in the Bible that unambiguously state that God wants all people to come to repentance and to be saved. Continue reading →

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Wide Angle: Presenting God as a “Cosmic Spoilsport”

Posted on November 5, 2021 by salooper57

I have always assumed, when I read this passage, that the entire temptation took place in a day, even in a few moments. But the text does not really say this, and I suspect that it is not so. Perhaps this temptation continued at intervals for days, or weeks, or even months.

The serpent began by asking a question—not that he cared how the woman answered the question. It was not an answer he was after. He only asked the question to prepare the ground of her mind for the seed of doubt he intended to plant. By prefacing his question with the words, “Did God really say,” he introduced uncertainty into the situation and into her mind. Continue reading →

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Wide Angle Series: It Was [Not] So

Posted on November 1, 2021 by salooper57

In ancient times leaders would place images of themselves throughout their kingdoms. (And they do it today, too – one need only think of Kim Il Jong, the North Korean head of state or, previously, Saddam Hussein.) Such images served to remind their subjects of their ruler.

When God made the earth, he intended to place his image everywhere, a constant reminder that he rules the world.  Humans were intended to be the living image of God, ruling creation (Genesis 1: 28) as God’s representatives, with his love and wisdom flowing through them to all creation Continue reading →

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