Given the choice, and wanting to avoid fire and brimstone or perhaps what some misguided people, even Sunday school teachers, present as a state of perpetual nothingness, I would choose to be saved. Saved from a judgement proceeding during which I will certainly be found guilty. Old Testament prophet Hosea says of people at the…
Read moreHolding the Flashlight
Those of us over 60 remember automobile engines that one could actually service. Changing spark plugs, adjusting timing, even spraying something-or-other into the carburetor-thingy (I was the helper, not the home mechanic!). Despite these jobs starting right after dinner, when projects took longer than planned, my job was to hold the flashlight as the sun…
Read moreWe are not commanded to forgive everyone
You’ve heard ‘turn the other cheek’ and all that. So, does a good Christian (as if the term Christian needs a modifier, especially the word “good” since Jesus says “No one is good—except God alone” (Mark 10:18) but I digress. Where was I? Oh yes,) So, does a good Christian forgive those who wrong them?…
Read moreThank Joseph for the enslavement of the Jews
We all know the history of Moses freeing the Jews from Pharaoh’s evil enslavement. But did you ever wonder how they came to be slaves in the first place? Genesis 47 catalogs the spiral the Jews experienced during the seven years of famine of which Joseph (not Mary’s husband, Joseph of the coat-of-many colors fame)…
Read moreMoses had a Second Set of Tablets
No, I’m not referring to the very funny scene in “The History of the World – Part one” where Mel Brooks, dressed as Moses, drops one of three tablets he is holding as he proclaims, “The Lord has given unto you, these fifteen (breaks tablet) … Ten! Ten Commandments for all to obey.” The commandments…
Read moreEveryone will be Resurrected
If you are like me, you may have conflated the terms and concepts “resurrection” and “salvation.” As children we are taught good people who die go to heaven. Bad people either remain dead, exist in a state of nothingness (eternally separated from God?), or go to “h-e-double-toothpicks.” (Like I said, when we were kids…) The…
Read moreLove your Neighbor? Nah, I’m good.
I can’t do it. I can’t love my neighbor. BTW, if my real neighbors Sharon on my right and John on my left are listening, I’m not talking about you. You guys are great and easy to love. Though I do want to talk about that sprinkler rotting my fence post.
Read moreThere are only two destinations, Heaven, and Hell
Despite some religions which espouse reincarnation or a ‘state of nothingness’ as the end game, the Lord Jesus himself clarified there is no middle ground, and he spoke a lot about hell. He told us more about hell than any other prophet. It seems like we needed to hear this from someone we could not…
Read moreTrying to teach ChatGPT to write a Joke
ChatGPT’s responses remind me so much of Data, the android character on Star Trek The Next Generation.
Here was my prompt: I am giving a sermon on love thy neighbor. I wonder if you can help me create a few jokes about how hard it would be for Jesus to love his neighbor if he lived today.
Read morePeople went to heaven before Jesus
The empty tomb and the hundreds of eye witnesses to Jesus walking the earth for 40 days after coming back from the dead testify to his overcoming death. His accession to heaven shows Jesus returned to whence he came (yes, I said whence!) Blinding Saul on the road to Damascus shows Jesus can act upon…
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