Random Comments on the Bible

As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind beggar was sitting beside the road.  When he heard the noise of a crowd going past, he asked what was happening.  They told him that Jesus the Nazarene  was going by.  So he began shouting, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” “Be quiet!” the people in front yelled at him. But he only shouted louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” When Jesus heard him, he stopped and ordered that the man be brought to him. As the man came near, Jesus asked him,  “What do you want me to do for you?” “Lord,” he said, “I want to see!” And Jesus said,  “All right, receive your sight! Your faith has healed you.”    Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus, praising God. And all who saw it praised God, too. (Luke 18:35-43 NLT) My personal journey:  I was not satisfied because of the irregularity/lack of rhythm in my connecting with God.  My speed was to blitz through huge portions of the bible for severa...

MORNING PRAYERS: To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God. Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory. MID-DAY PRAYERS: Canticle Teach us, dear Lord, to number our days; that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Oh, satisfy us early with Thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all of our days. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish Thou the work of our hands. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish Thou the work of our hands, dear Lord. EVENING PRAYERS: 1. Become aware of God’s presence. 2. Review the day with gratitude. 3. Pay attention to your emotions. 4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it. 5. Look toward tomorrow. Morning Daily Offices: http://www.northumbriacommunity.org/pray-the-daily-office/morning-prayer Opening sentences One thing I have asked of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I...

I recently read Isaiah 1 and in a round-about, blast-from-the-past, mind-bender kind of way was reminded that back in the early 80's I was exploring something fringe, something weird. What was it? Something embarrassingly right wing, something about natural/God's law and... Now I confess that Google and Wikipedia has helped my memory along: what I was reading/exploring was stuff like Reconstructionist Theology with writers like R. J. Rushdoony and Gary North.    The long and short of it was that there was (is) an absolute law (God's) and that we should aggressively recreate our world -- economics, culture, and so on -- accordingly. Their main verse is Genesis 1:26: "Let them have dominion over... the earth...".  I know I'm oversimplifying, but there are two problems with Dominion Theology (Reconstructionism or Kingdom Now Theology): The mandate for dominion -- which is more accurately translated care-taking, I'm told -- was given in a pre-fallen ...

Do not lord it over the people assigned to your care. 1 Peter 5:3 A while ago I was an adult presence among young people who were listening to a fifty-something year-old speaker/professional in a field that will remain as equally vague and awkward as the rest of this sentence (I don’t want anyone to guess who I’m talking about; that’s not the point). From the get-go, I found myself feeling very uncomfortable. He was too much like too many others I’ve know in the past – in another life – who used belittling, control, sarcasm and power to... what? I don’t know what exactly. To feed their ego? To mask their own deep insecurity? And a lot of it ends up being sexual power. Why is that? Is it a coincidence that these kinds of individuals often have the sexual thing going on too along with the control and manipulation? Probably not. If I knew my Freud, I’d probably be able to explain it. What was happening at this particular above mentioned event was that when young peop...

I've just read an awesome blog that talks about the challenges and validity of reading scripture and all the complexities that go along with the Bible being, yes, God-breathed but also rooted in human authors, historical context, unfamiliar genres and so on. Here it is courtesy of Michael Krause, Pastor at Southridge, St. Catharines, ON. http://southridge.cc/news/post/resources-why-context-is-king