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 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 moreWe are saved from hell by Works
The shock of this statement by Calvinist leaning Christians shouting Sola Fide! gives way to a scolding finger wag and head shake once the literary trickery is revealed. I assert we are most certainly saved by works,..
Read moreJesus was not the first nor the only person raised from the Dead
The New Testament story of Lazarus falling ill, dying, and laying in the tomb for four days is fairly well known. This story contains the verse we all volunteered to memorize in Sunday school since it was the shortest verse in the Bible; “Jesus wept”. John recounts the action in Chapter 11. Scoffers doubt Jesus’…
Read moreJust Believe
It’s a normal day. I look around and I find myself…living. In this body. On this planet. I’ve learned many facts about my existence here, first in my home then in a place called school. I know my planet orbits a sun. There are continents and oceans. Fish and fur. I am one of many…
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