I decided to write this up as its own parable. Once there was a man who worked at an insurance company as a programmer. He was an expert in statistics and computer science, and ran ever more complex actuarial studies on a massively parallel super-computer. One day, his young son asked him what he did […]
Once there was a great music teacher who only took a few of the most gifted and promising students. One of his students was a very disciplined young man, hard-working and eager to please. He had not at first wanted to play, but he realized it was something that pleased his mother, and because he […]
This is a note to the mystified reader who wonders how an otherwise intelligent guy ended up not only as a Christian, but as a person seemingly obsessed with some kind of controversy about some fine point of faith that seems frankly irrelevant. I am not out to convert you. I might be out to […]
I was listening to an excellent teaching by R.C. Sproul, and he came to a point where you can hear him cracking the chalk against the blackboard decisively with this equation: Faith + Works != Justification (‘!=’ is programmer shorthand for ‘not equal’) Faith = Justification + Works How the dust was flying! You can […]
“In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron.” Luke 1:5, NIV. Here we have a pretty obscure verse that shows us something very profound. John the Baptist is descended from the Levitical […]
This is a response to an absolutely fascinating post by a guy named Peter Rollins. You can and should read his original post here:peterrollins.net/blog/?p=1231 It really got me thinking about some of the foundational aspects of grace and love, so I wanted to post my response on my own blog as a matter of record. […]
There is an event called “Eighth Letter” where writers are encouraged to write a letter to the church in North America. eighthletter.com/ A site listing many other contributions can be found here: rachelheldevans.com/8th-letter-synch I think it is a cool idea and I think anyone who is following my blog knows what I would say. However, […]
I decided to post my sermon notes for this message so I can get some comments back and new ideas from everyone. It is kind of a loose amalgam of blog post and brief speaking points, but I’m throwing it out there anyway because I’m out of time and I have to go to work. […]
This is a response to a list of ‘problem’ verses that seem to indicate that Paul doesn’t really mean it when he talks about grace. My friend Kim Dickson (who is a wonderful Christian woman, and with a beautiful spirit of free dialog and exploration for truth) posted this verse in the midst of a […]
This is my reaction to one of the numerous articles about Ann Rice’s departure from the Catholic church. Read the article here: www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/localnews/religion/stories/DRC_Mann_Column_0827.94e71a77.html I am so sorry to constantly stir up trouble. This is not an attack on Jim Mann, whom I know and respect. However, the tenor of this is typical of just about […]