I've added a new page to the blog. It is called "Daily Bible Readings" and you will find it right under the orange header with the other pages of this blog.
If we follow the readings as listed, we will read the entire Bible in 90 days. If we start tomorrow, October 1, we will read the entire Bible by year's end. The list balances readings from the Old and New Testaments. This will allow us to keep both Testaments in mind. The list also evenly distributes readings from the Psalms and Proverbs. This will allow us to appreciate them better than if we consecutively read the chapters in either book.
(1) Jesus Christ sets us on the path of freedom which is based on truth and leads through love to eternal life. (2) Yet false gods continue to enthrall us with the path of power which is based on falsehood and leads through indifference to death. (3) Even Christians have fallen under their spell. (4) But Jesus is calling us to join him as prophetic witnesses in breaking their spell beginning with his Church. (5) Use this website to strengthen your witness to Jesus for our good and his glory.
Saturday, September 30, 2017
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Context: Meaningless Technology, Silence of God, yet Hope
Not until just
recently, with the exponential growth of the internet, did we get a rigorously
Global Technological System (GTS). Too bad.
This GTS presents us—Christians, churches, but everyone else as well—with severe problems on two levels. The first level is that of usefulness—till now, the defining virtue of technology. The GTS, however, has reached that stage of growth where it is no longer useful. Now, the GTS as a whole is fatally parasitical. It is terminally sucking the vitality out of global societies, cultures, human beings, and ecosystems. It is also worse than useless because it is collapsing and will cause unimaginable destruction and death as it does.
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
Which Would We Prefer: Good News, Bad News, or No News?
As Christians
and churches, we rightly confess that Yahweh’s steadfast love for us endures
forever. We rightly affirm that Abba is for us, Jesus is with us, and the
Holy Spirit is in us. Jesus himself tells us, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and
it will be opened for you” (Matthew 7:7, New American Standard Version, here
and following). He assures us, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears
My voice and opens the door, I will come in to
him and will dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). Good news!
Yes, God is love. Sometimes, though, we experience God’s love as wrath. That’s right: God’s wrath is always an expression of God’s love. We might define God’s loving wrath and wrathful loving as God’s rejection of our rejection of him.
Monday, September 25, 2017
How Puerto Rico Foreshadows the Near Future of the GTS
Hurricane
Maria struck Puerto Rico on Wednesday, September 20. The consequences were varied
and catastrophic. One painful result: the island’s electrical system is down.
Estimates for the time needed to rebuild it vary from six months to a year.
Perhaps those estimates are optimistic. The government of Puerto Rico was forced to declare itself bankrupt last May. Already in financial straits, it will find the money needed to extensively rebuild infrastructure difficult to raise. Perhaps it never will be rebuilt.
No electricity. That means a sudden collapse of the Global Technological System (GTS) in Puerto Rico. How will people eat? Drink potable water? How will they treat their sewage? Dispose of their garbage? Stay cool or get warm? Cook? Earn money at businesses without electricity? Put gasoline in their cars without electricity? Recharge their cell phones and computers? How will hospitals continue to care for the sick? What about diabetics and others who are dependent on refrigerated medications?
Labels:
collapse,
Florida,
gts,
hurricanes,
meaning,
Puerto Rico,
repentance,
Texas,
useful
Friday, September 22, 2017
Biblical Narrative and Geological Theories: Rightly Understanding and Relating Both Using the Paradoxical Logic of Chalcedon
The biblical
witnesses state that God created the heavens and the earth around 4000 BC. In
contrast, astronomers, geologists, and other scientists believe that the earth
came into existence about 4.5 billion years ago. The question for us, as
Christians and churches, is how to rightly understand the biblical narrative, geological
theories, and their proper relationship.
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Competing Sources of Truth: The Bible and the Grand Narrative of Olympianity
In an essay
entitled, “TV: The Bible of Olympianity” (April 28, 2015), I argued that we get
our Grand Narrative, the story embodying our worldview as a civilization, from
corporate media especially TV. This is particularly embarrassing for us as Christians
and churches since we should be structuring our personalities and churches in
terms of the biblical witness to Jesus Christ rather than in terms of the
painfully Olympian gods of modern media.
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Are Hurricanes Meaningful?
Usually
hurricanes just come and go. As Ecclesiastes says, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under
heaven” (3:1, New Revised Standard Version, here and following). For the Atlantic Ocean, hurricane season starts each year on June
1 and ends on November 30.
The number of hurricanes, and their relative strength, vary randomly from season to season. Ecclesiastes has some perhaps surprising words to say about that as well: Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the skillful; but time and chance happen to them all. For no one can anticipate the time of disaster. Like fish taken in a cruel net, and like birds caught in a snare, so mortals are snared at a time of calamity, when it suddenly falls upon them (9:11-12).
Time and chance happen. Hurricanes are like that as well. But are there times when they are more than that?
Saturday, September 9, 2017
Be Strong and Courageous
5 No
one shall be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with
Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. 6 Be
strong and courageous; for you shall put this people in possession of the land
that I swore to their ancestors to give them. 7 Only
be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the
law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand
or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 This
book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it
day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is
written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall
be successful. 9 I hereby command you: Be strong
and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for [Yahweh] your God is
with you wherever you go”
(Joshua 1:5-9, New Revised Standard Version, here and following).
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