History, Real Life, and Faith
Haven’t you always loved summer reading? Especially when you were a kid with an entire summer to fill with good books, movies, games and outdoor play–maybe even swimming? But it was always time to lay around reading that captured my heart each June when school let out. I could only check out ten books at a time, and I hounded…
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Our church’s eyeglasses mission visited the Rio San Juan region of Nicaragua for the tenth straight year in 2016. The Rio San Juan area, the poorest region of the second poorest country in Central America, has only limited medical facilities. Using a mobile autorefractor, the experience of our leader John, and the organizational skills of in-country citizens Rafael and optometrist…
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Am I a Pharisee like those Jewish scholars in the Gospels? Sometimes I can see where they’re coming from when they challenge Jesus again and again in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John’s books of the New Testament. Not all the time; but they’re such splendid targets to disdain. Except when their misunderstandings and words echo in my heart and life. Then…
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When I typed The End last night, I began to shake. Finished, done, completed–at least the rough draft. I sat back in my computer chair, put my hands to my face and sobbed. While a writer is like God as she writes her book, plans her story, incorporates facts, and hunts for words, this writer doesn’t always feel like God….
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What safeguards do imaginative teachers and writers use when turning to the Bible? I talked about imagination and the Bible in my last post here. But because we believe the Bible is truth, it’s important to accurately understand it and to be careful not to let our imaginations run wild. Can heresy can come from an imagination that is not safeguarded…
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I use my imagination all the time when reading the Bible. I put imagination to good use when I teach Bible study. But what does that mean? For me, it started when our youth pastor, Paul Anderson, asked, “imagine how the older brother feels,” when discussing the parable of The Prodigal Son. I was a new-to-Christianity 15-year-old and in the six minutes…
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