And I have frankly seen worse. So have you probably.
A Bag of Cardboard Chips
“The folks at Trader Joe’s also confront higher moral problems, such as snacks. Everyone knows that snack food is morally suspect, since it contributes to t he obesity of the American public, but the clientele still seems to want it. So the folks behind this enterprise have managed to come up with globally concerned stomach …
God the Playwright
[Speaking of God as the universal playwright] “But using the illustration of a play is offensive to us. We say that Hamlet is a fictional character, whereas we are real. It is not a good comparison, we mutter, but notice where and why we take offense. We are much greater than Hamlet, and zeal for …
For Food and Wine
Gracious Father in heaven, we thank You for the arrival of another Lord’s Day. We thank You for the fellowship we share around this table. We praise Your name for the food and wine. We are grateful for the opportunity to sing to You and prepare our hearts for worship in the morning. We ask …
AmeriCool
“We sort of take coolness for granted because it is so much around us. However, coolness is one of those pervasive and revolutionary constructs that America exports around the globe. Coolness is a magical state of grace, and as we take our drive through America, we will see that people congregate into communities not so …
God and Figures of Speech
[Speaking of Albert Barnes’ exegesis of the 2nd psalm] “The Bible tells us that God’s displeasure will be great. The literal expression refers to heat or burning, as when one is inflamed with anger. The Openness theologians would say that this is an expression of God’s anger and then haul it down to interpret it …
Believing Is Seeing
After Jesus told His followers that they must believe God since this was the work of God, they immediately asked for a sign. They were asking for a sign when the one signified by any possible sign was standing right there in front of them. And from this we learn that without possession of the …
You Were Baptized in Water
When we gather together as the people of God, remember that we are the redeemed of the Lord. Our characteristic note should therefore be one of exuberance and joy. Accept no substitutes, particularly the substitute of carnally generated joy. We are called to worship God in the joy of the Holy Ghost. We are commanded …
Suburban Supernova
“It’s as if Zeus came down and started plopping vast towns in the middle of the farmland and the desert overnight. Boom! A master planned community! Boom! A big-box mall! Boom! A rec center, pool, and four thousand soccer fields! The food courts come first, and the people follow. How many times in human history …
Trying to Keep the Bible Current
“When folks, even learned folks, actually, especially learned folks, start discovering that what the Bible has been saying all along is reawlly what we here in our own day have only just recently discovered, they are just half a step away from saying that it does not really matter what the Bible has been saying …