Jesus Creed

Scot McKnight: February 2009 Archives

Saturday February 28, 2009

Categories: Weekly Meanderings

Weekly Meanderings

Cauldron.jpgHere is Chicago's famous cauldron on a hazy sky night.

There was an interesting series of responses at "On Faith" for the Washington Post about whether or not we should read the Bible, a concern of mine in The Blue Parakeet. Two of the more suggestive ones are by Jim Wallis and Susan Thistlethwaite. Milwaukee's archbishop Timothy Dolan moves to NY to be archbishop there. G-Rated movies doing well. Tamara's surprise.

My opinion: the only people I pay attention to who criticize internet sites (blogs, Facebook, etc) are folks who have actually participated in it seriously.

Here's some fun. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then CT's new picture blog is worth a thousand blogs.

You've got to read this piece about Deborah, one of my former students.

Speaking of blue parakeets, I've been had by :mic. I laughed on this one for a long time. Dan Reid is no "maestro" Bible reader: good metaphors for theology. And you've got to read his advice to readers about kinds of writing. One of the best pieces of advice I've seen on Lent. But read this, too. Lent is the time for confession and brother Don does. It takes so long to fill little bottles to remind us of what we can be grateful.

Here's a view of Facebook's uselessness.

The Ellington quarter is fantastic; we need an ML King Jr 1 dollar bill in constant circulation.

Have you seen the Semi-Pelagian Narrower Catechism? Wow, is this thing funny. (HT: MV)

Tim Keel's reflections on rest . Barna's newest study is on the "technology gap." Anne Jackson has fired up the conversation about online "community."

John Stackhouse's new book -- worth your reading.

Jim Martin has a good question and some good discussion: the neglected curriculum.

James Dobson has stepped down as board chair of the ministry at Focus on the Family. Dobson led the Christian resurgence of discipline, worked out a Christian theory of self-esteeem, and has been a leader for millions of conservatives on marriage and family concerns.

1. Pay as you go phone plans.
2. The impact of texting on the next generation.
3. I've seen some progress on racism in my lifetime, and perhaps Holder's way is the way forward; but Goldberg's not convinced. Michael Eric Dyson is.
4. Maybe we'll have time to visit this area of Cape Town this summer.

I wonder what the Pope said when his little cap blew off?

PopeDecapped.jpg5. Nordlinger has the audacity of hope, too.
6. FAFSA form.
7. The costs of the death penalty.
8. My favorite period in class as a grade schooler? Yes, stats prove it helps.
9. Very serious, but helpful, research on abuse and its toll on life and health.
10. And Brooks is always serious: "I fear that in trying to do everything at once, they will do nothing well. I fear that we have a group of people who haven't even learned to use their new phone system trying to redesign half the U.S. economy. I fear they are going to try to undertake the biggest administrative challenge in American history while refusing to hire the people who can help the most: agency veterans who are registered lobbyists."
11. A wildfire in our neighborhood.

Sports

Friday February 27, 2009

What's your favorite...

Song by these two guys?


This guy?

Friday February 27, 2009

Network in Need of a Name

This is the official letter sent out by Dan Kimball about our new network:

Hello!

This is Dan Kimball and I am writing on behalf of the Creative Team for the new network/community we are all forming together.

It has been incredibly cool and extremely encouraging to read the responses and hopes and dreams that people have been writing in as they connect to our community. We have had an overwhelming amount of response so far, and if this is any indication of the future, it seems exciting days are ahead!

We are setting up a website as well as sending out regular updates soon but wanted to start getting everyone's input as we move ahead on this.

Friday February 27, 2009

Categories: Books

iGens 10


Twengepic.jpgThe oddity of Jean Twenge's conclusion that we discussed Wednesday, that our youth are more anxious and depressed than before (see her book Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before), is that one would guess that the youth should be happier ... "In many ways," as she puts it, "there's no better time to be alive than right now" (109).

Her contention is that the growing "tendency to put the self first" leads to "an enormous amount of pressure on us to stand alone" (109). This is the downside of the focus on the self that has emerged out of the Boomers' approach to education and parenting.

What are the long term impacts of a self-esteem approach that leads to our young adults feeling even more need to "stand alone" or "do it on their own"? Do you think standing alone is a major issue today? What are some remedies or approaches to these issues? Do you think there is a "social anorexia" at work?

She thinks there is (and I use my own term here) a social anorexia.  That is, "we're malnourished from eating a junk-food diet of instant messages, e-mail, and phone calls, rather than the healthy food of live, in-person interaction" (110). There is an instability in relationships -- beginning with divorce and casual romantic relationships and the biological clock ticking for young women and young men (1.2 men unmarried for every one woman). Lots of living alone and lots of moving from one location to another ... looking for jobs and the economic realities of how expensive it is to buy a home and dual income and then kids and fees for taking care of kids ... much of this driven by the desire to stand alone. Add to this higher expectations by the young adults ... and the desire to make it on our own.

That is, the desire to stand alone leads to more isolation and loneliness and they lead to anxiety and depression.

That is, standing alone leads to more depression. People need one another. Studies are best explained along these lines.

The USA has more but feels worse. Part of the problem is the decline of community. 

Friday February 27, 2009

Categories: Happiness

Friday is for Friends

Thinker.jpgWe're looking at happiness and using David Naugle, Reordered Love, Reordered Lives: Learning the Deep Meaning of Happiness,and what he says here dovetails nicely with our examination of Jean Twenge's book about the iGens. There is a significant increase in anxiety and depression records today, and there is also a constant pursuit of happiness.

But why can't people find happiness? Everyone in history has agreed that happiness is the general pursuit of all of us -- but humans don't find it. Why?

Naugle examines both theological and cultural reasons for why we don't find happiness. We are ignorant of the chief good for humans and we are ignorant for a variety of reasons:

Thursday February 26, 2009

Individualist or Collectivist?

Which are you when it comes to making moral decisions? Which situations in life do you think are most in need of either individualist reasoning or collectivistic reasoning? Here's a set of lines from a book I'm reading: Individualistic values center...

Thursday February 26, 2009

Categories: James

A Brother's Wisdom 8

Doubt that God is good renders a person's faith unstable. Notice the terse, strong, and insightful words of James 1:6-8:But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the...

Thursday February 26, 2009

Categories: Books

iGens 9

One of the more alarming features that Jean Twenge uncovers in her new book, Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before concerns levels of anxiety among iGens or what she...

Wednesday February 25, 2009

The Monkey and the Fish

One thing that I have learned in the last five years of traveling the country speaking is that pastors like to hear from pastors when it comes to pastoral matters. Of course, pastors want to hear from experts on biblical...

Wednesday February 25, 2009

Categories: James

A Brother's Wisdom 7

James, the brother of Jesus, is no promiser of happy days. Notice what he says in James 1:6-8: 6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the...

Wednesday February 25, 2009

A Brief Letter from a Friend: Everday Heresies

Great question I've been asked:Scot, what are the "everyday heresies" the church embraces and/or espouses? Any insight? Wondering if complacency, consumerism, and the outsourcing of parental responsibility are more harmful than doctrinal irregularities or inconsistencies....

Wednesday February 25, 2009

Categories: Lent

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday: here is the order for Ash Wednesday from The Book of Common Prayer. It is a time for confession of sin as we prepare ourselves for Good Friday and Easter, the days on which God removed sin and...

Wednesday February 25, 2009

Categories: Commentary Recs

Pastor's Bookshelf: Matthew

I'm going to begin a series on commentaries for pastors, teachers, and those who want to study the New Testament. I will try to give my top five commentaries, but one has to make judgments each time and there are...

Tuesday February 24, 2009

Orchard Grove Community Church

Last Thursday Kris and I flew up to Detroit for a conference put on by Orchard Grove Community Church called Equip. Chris Cramer, a lead pastor, knew how much he had benefited from attending conferences and yearned for his whole...

Tuesday February 24, 2009

Categories: James

A Brother's Wisdom 6

James is like his brother Jesus in how he understands God. God is good and God is there and God is not silent and God responds.who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to...

Tuesday February 24, 2009

Prayer Book Suggestions

Last week one of the prayers in the prayer book tradition Kris and I use (The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime (Tickle, Phyllis) ) was this prayer:O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth...

Monday February 23, 2009

NPC

I'm a bit behind getting up a brief report on my time in San Diego at the National Pastor's Convention. The NPC is a mix of young pastors and older pastors, a mix of concerns for both, and a whole...

Monday February 23, 2009

Categories: James

A Brother's Wisdom 5

James starts off James 1:5 with a line that has brought comfort to many: If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.Many...

Monday February 23, 2009

A Pastoral Question

This pastor gave permission to take this letter to the Jesus Creed blog. So, what is your advice and wisdom?Hi Scot, I'm a pastor near Minneapolis.  I have a question that I'm wondering if you could give me some insight on. ...

Monday February 23, 2009

iGens 8

I've been reading about 20somethings of late and one book I found particularly helpful is by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett: Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens through the Twenties . (The title has nothing to do with the...

Sunday February 22, 2009

Gloria in Excelsis Prayer

Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth. Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father, we worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory. Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of...

Sunday February 22, 2009

Categories: Prayer and Formation

Prayer for the Week

O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed...

Saturday February 21, 2009

Categories: Sports

Hank Aaron

Saturday February 21, 2009

Weekly Meanderings

OK, it's Switzerland and not Chicago, but we get that kind of snow at times. Too bad for Arizona and sunny Southern California and Texas and Florida. There's something beautiful about snow (now go away).Tamara Buchan's lesson in airports is...

Friday February 20, 2009

What's your favorite...

Song by Johnny Cash? Anyone out there go to any of his concerts? We really liked the movie "Walk the Line" and the other night we found a few YouTube videos by Johnny and had a great walk down memory...

Friday February 20, 2009

Is the Jesus Creed community a "community"?

Recently a gifted young anabaptist pastor, Shane Hipps, weighed in at Out of Ur blog about whether or not cyberspace provides "community." He says "No" and I'm wondering what you think? Here is my response. Can "community" exist in cyberspace?...

Friday February 20, 2009

iGens 7

What about the idea that you must love yourself before you can love others? Jean Twenge, in her new book, Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before, takes on this...

Friday February 20, 2009

Categories: Happiness

Friday is for Friends

David Naugle's second chapter in his fine new book, Reordered Love, Reordered Lives: Learning the Deep Meaning of Happiness, is about Augustine.Augustine lists the three causes of unhappiness and the one cause of genuine happiness. What do you think...

Thursday February 19, 2009

A Letter about Messianic Christians

Before we answer this, I'm wondering if you are hearing things like this. Any response?Scot, This is unbelievably forward of me.   I am a reader of your blog.  I have a question about New Testament history, perhaps you can...

Thursday February 19, 2009

Categories: James

A Brother's Wisdom 4

James sees the testing of faith -- the ability to see through a bad situation to what God will make of it -- as an opportunity to set off a chain reaction:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face...

Thursday February 19, 2009

iGens 6

The third chp of Jean Twenge's book, Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before, concerns this theme: "You can be anything you want to be."Her concern is research on the...

Wednesday February 18, 2009

Stimulus Package Requests

Let's put in our orders, before this gets out of hand, for funds from the stimulus package since it is really "our" money we are lending out. Chrysler and GM are already asking for more, a mere 21.6 billion dollars,...

Wednesday February 18, 2009

Categories: Biblical Studies

Biblical Diet?

There are many today who advocate specific diets -- more organic food, no pork, no shrimp, etc -- on the basis of the Bible. One can go back to the Bible for such things to carry out a number of...

Wednesday February 18, 2009

Categories: James

A Brother's Wisdom 3

James exhorted the messianists to face their exploitation with some courage and faith and to see through the exploitation, which they were incapable of resisting, to something they could get out of it. So he tells them to face the...

Wednesday February 18, 2009

Categories: Evangelicalism

Who are the NeoReformed? 2

We are looking at the rise of the NeoReformed; we began Monday and this is part two. The NeoReformed movement of which I speak is an attempt to capture evangelicalism, redefine it by some clearly-defined doctrines that are Reformed, and...

Wednesday February 18, 2009

Categories: Prayer and Formation

Prayer Coach

James Nicodem, pastor at Christ Community Church in St. Charles Illinois, gives the church a gift in his book about learning to pray: Prayer Coach: For All Who Want to Get Off the Bench and onto the Praying Field .A...

Tuesday February 17, 2009

A Letter about the End Times

What do you think?Dear Scot,I wondered if you might do some blog posts addressing this (or maybe you have some past posts addressing this that I've missed and you could link me to).Growing up in a typical conservative evangelical home...

Tuesday February 17, 2009

Categories: James

A Brother's Wisdom 2

James, brother of Jesus, offers us wisdom. He opens his letter with a very typical greeting and then dives right in with these words: 2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know...

Tuesday February 17, 2009

iGens 5

We turn today to the self-esteem curriculum that Jean Twenge, in her fine and important book, Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before,  sees as one of the culprits for...

Monday February 16, 2009

Categories: Prayer and Formation

A Prayer

O God, the source of eternal light: Shed forth your unending day upon all of us who watch for you, that our lips may praise you, our lives may bless you, and our worship may give you glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. †...

Monday February 16, 2009

What do you think it was?

Let's have some fun. If that fireball was not satellite debris, what was it? I've got a few ideas, but how about you?...

Monday February 16, 2009

Categories: Gospel

The Gospel Series

I want to thanks some very kind folks who collated the Gospel series we did and here is the whole thing.The Gospel by Scot McKnight 1 We begin a new biblical study on the word "gospel" today.  We will start...

Monday February 16, 2009

Categories: James

A Brother's Wisdom 1

We begin our series on James today and I suspect it will take us some time. As with previous Bible studies, we'll do these Monday - Thursday. Our focus will be on how the brother of Jesus, James, offered wisdom...

Monday February 16, 2009

Categories: Evangelicalism

Who are the NeoReformed?

I have been using the term "NeoReformed" now for a year or two and a few of my friends have asked me what I mean and why I don't just calls such folks "Reformed". This post will sketch who they...

Monday February 16, 2009

Categories: Jesus Creed

A Lenten Tool

The major turns in the Church calendar can discourage even the most creative of pastors and leaders and lay folks -- how many times can you talk about Advent or Lent and not return to the same (ol') themes? Well,...

Sunday February 15, 2009

Amazing Grace

Listen to this version of Amazing Grace....

Sunday February 15, 2009

Tennis Scandal

Very sad. If this were an Arab or an African, there would be an outcry. The United Arab Emirates has refused to grant a visa to a female Israeli tennis player, preventing her from competing in the Sony Ericsson World...

Sunday February 15, 2009

Categories: Prayer and Formation

Prayer for the Week

O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your grace, that in keeping your commandments...

Saturday February 14, 2009

Blago and Burris

Oh, oh ... a confession:U.S. Sen. Roland Burris who repeatedly denied anyone tied to disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich solicited him for cash in exchange for his seat, now acknowledges Blagojevich's brother asked him three times to help with fundraising....

Saturday February 14, 2009

Faith and Culture 7

I've been asked and given permission to publish this week a series of chapters from the new A Faith and Culture Devotional: Daily Readings on Art, Science, and Life . Contemporary Culture: Sex, Intimacy, and Worship By Bruce Herman,...

Saturday February 14, 2009

Categories: Love and Marriage

Valentine's Day and the Song of Songs

The Song of Solomon is a love song between lovers and for lovers. Perhaps it was a play or designed to be dramatically played before others. Perhaps it was designed for the king's courtiers as entertainment. Perhaps it is a...

Saturday February 14, 2009

Categories: Weekly Meanderings

Weekly Meanderings

Here in Chicago we have had some unseasonably warm weather. Makes me think baseball is ... hey, it is. Pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training today! We are saddened to hear the news that Harold Hoehner has passed away....

Friday February 13, 2009

Kindle 2

We've had a few conversations about this, but I'm wondering once again if (about to release) Kindle 2: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation) , is the wave of the future? Do you think we will all be going...

Friday February 13, 2009

Faith and Culture 6

I've been asked and given permission to publish this week a series of chapters from the new A Faith and Culture Devotional: Daily Readings on Art, Science, and Life . Art: Picasso: Art as Entertainment By Kelly Monroe Kullberg...

Friday February 13, 2009

Categories: Happiness

Friday is for Friends

David Naugle's new book, Reordered Love, Reordered Lives: Learning the Deep Meaning of Happiness, is a delightful series of reflections on a Christian understanding of happiness. I like his theme of balance and I wonder if some want to...

Friday February 13, 2009

Categories: Pastoring and Leading

Pastors or Personalities?

I posted this in my monthly post at Out of Ur blog.I think I was in college when I first saw that title of a magazine that brazenly called itself SELF and it was so bold it could have been...

Thursday February 12, 2009

What's your favorite...

Song by Elvis Presley? Dare I ask what is his greatest song ever? Got any stories to tell about his songs? Or, anyone ever attend one of his concerts?When Kris and I were in college (and married) we would stay...

Thursday February 12, 2009

Faith and Culture 5

I've been asked and given permission to publish this week a series of chapters from the new A Faith and Culture Devotional: Daily Readings on Art, Science, and Life . Literature: Augustine's City of God: Two Cities, Two Loves...

Thursday February 12, 2009

iGens 4

We are doing a series now on the fantastic book called Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before. The second chp digs deeper than the first. Two points before we...

Wednesday February 11, 2009

My Facebook Group

I've formed a new group at Facebook and invite you to join: The Society to Return to Pre-Steroid Home Run Leaders....

Wednesday February 11, 2009

Faith and Culture 4

I've been asked and given permission to publish this week a series of chapters from the new A Faith and Culture Devotional: Daily Readings on Art, Science, and Life . Science: The Copernican Principle By Guillermo Gonzalez, PhD, associate...

Wednesday February 11, 2009

Categories: James

A Brother's Wisdom 15

Ask any pastor who knows suffering and persecution first hand and he or she will tell you that what James turns to in James 1:13-15 is the rugged, pastoral, moral reality:13 When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me."...

Wednesday February 11, 2009

iGens 3

We are doing a series now on the fantastic book called Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before by Jean Twenge.We continue with her chp that sketches how cultural shifts indicate...

Wednesday February 11, 2009

Categories: Biblical Studies

Introducing the New Testament in its Historical Context

I don't know how long it lasted, but it had to be at least twenty years. Famed Wheaton professor Merrill C. Tenney's two books on the historical context and the contents of the New Testament were standard textbooks. I got...

Tuesday February 10, 2009

Where do you get your news?

During the past few months, the crisis in journalism has reached meltdown proportions. It is now possible to contemplate a time when some major cities will no longer have a newspaper and when magazines and network-news operations will employ no...

Tuesday February 10, 2009

Faith and Culture 3

I've been asked and given permission to publish this week a series of chapters from the new A Faith and Culture Devotional: Daily Readings on Art, Science, and Life . Philosophy : Plato: Lover of Truth, Beauty, and the...

Tuesday February 10, 2009

Categories: Books

God in the Shack

If you have questions about The Shack , and if your questions are theological, and if some have suggested that this book is full of heresy and you are wondering about the book, then you need to read Roger Olson,...

Monday February 9, 2009

Categories: Sports

A-Rod Takes a Hit but ...

A-Rod has taken the hit of public suspicion that more than a couple baseball players have taken steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Today he openly confessed that he took such drugs during the 2001-2003 seasons. But ... If A-Rod really...

Monday February 9, 2009

Response to Atheist Bus Ads in London

Have you seen this? What do you think of the approach? The Bible verse chosen? What verse or verses would you choose?The word of God is on the move in London -- literally. Beginning Feb. 9, three separate Christian groups...

Monday February 9, 2009

Faith and Culture 2

I've been asked and given permission to publish this week a series of chapters from the new A Faith and Culture Devotional: Daily Readings on Art, Science, and Life . History: The Council of Nicaea: The Voice Beneath the Altar...

Monday February 9, 2009

Categories: Culture

iGens 2

We are doing a series now on the fantastic book called Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before by Jean Twenge.Last Friday we posted some big image ideas from her book. Today...

Monday February 9, 2009

Categories: Women and Ministry

Women Denied

Last Thursday I was at the Evangelical Covenant Church's Midwinter meetings where I conducted a day-long seminar on The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible. That evening Kris and I were chatting about the session and about Cheryl...

Sunday February 8, 2009

Faith and Culture 1

I've been asked and given permission to publish this week a series of chapters from the new A Faith and Culture Devotional: Daily Readings on Art, Science, and Life . This first one is by Sarah Sumner, on General Revelation....

Sunday February 8, 2009

Categories: Prayer and Formation

Prayer for the Week

Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you,...

Saturday February 7, 2009

Categories: Weekly Meanderings

Weekly Meanderings

It's Around the Corner!(Beats hockey any day of the week!)Luke's #100 was a beer brewed by Trappist monks in Belgium. One way the internet and blogs can be redemptive. Speaking of redemptive, Habitat for Humanity's founder, Millard Fuller, has passed...

Friday February 6, 2009

Script on Mozilla Firefox

Here's a weird one that I'm thinking someone in our community can discern. We have an Apple AirPort in our basement to distribute a wifi signal in our home. Kris and I both have MacBooks that we use upstairs. We...

Friday February 6, 2009

A Feeble Attempt at Canadian Humo(u)r

Is Quebec in Canada? OK, I heard a bit about this up in Canada last week.  Which State in the USA is most like what Quebec is to Canada?...

Friday February 6, 2009

Categories: Gospel

Midday Bible Study: Gospel 70

Though the entire sweep of the verses below is not called "the gospel" or the "message," it unmistakably evokes 1 Corinthians 15:1-5 as a narration of the saving events of Jesus' life:16 Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He...

Friday February 6, 2009

Friday is for Friends

David Naugle's new book, Reordered Love, Reordered Lives: Learning the Deep Meaning of Happiness, probes into the deep senses of happiness -- a yearning in each person and yet something found by many to be elusive.I like that Naugle...

Friday February 6, 2009

Categories: Public Issues

iGens 1

When it comes to grasping the big picture of what is doing on in culture, the single-most important book I have read in the last thirty years is Robert Bellah's famous Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American...

Thursday February 5, 2009

Pat Reaches a Summitt! 1000 Wins

And I love this horsing around picture of her. Congrats from the Jesus Creed community to Pat Summitt and the Lady Vols!...

Thursday February 5, 2009

Cartoon in Need of Theological Comments

What say you?...

Thursday February 5, 2009

Categories: Gospel

Midday Bible Study: Gospel 69

By the way, if anyone is collecting all this series into a MS Word document, I'd be happy to give you a bundle of credit and repost the whole series in one document. One of these days I'll learn the...

Thursday February 5, 2009

Categories: Gospel

The Gospel and Orthodoxy

In my recent research on the meaning of "gospel," I read Ted A. Campbell's new book, The Gospel in Christian Traditions. Here is a book that needs to be read as a primer to theology in the history of the...

Wednesday February 4, 2009

Trouble posting comments on Beliefnet?

I've heard from a few of you that you are having trouble posting comments on this blog. We'd like to hear what is happening....

Wednesday February 4, 2009

Categories: Gospel

Midday Bible Study: Gospel 68

We will finish this series this week and we will begin [in two weeks] a series on the letter of James. But today I want to observe that Paul's gospel can be "gospeled" or "proclaimed" through the grid of several...

Wednesday February 4, 2009

Obama and God's Sovereignty

I don't know about you, but I think the game of knowing "why" God is doing things in this world is a presumptuous and often self-serving game to play. One thing I've observed is that most folks who "know" the...

Wednesday February 4, 2009

Edmonton in January

The single-most common quip we heard last weekend at Break Forth's conference was this: "Why in the world would I want to go to Edmonton in January?" Confession time: when we were invited to speak at Break Forth, that was...

Tuesday February 3, 2009

Categories: Public Issues

Obama's Inauguration: A Poem

From Stephanie SeefeldtA Shadowed HopeIt can be heard on the wind - in the words that are written,in the faces of the gathered who watch him ascend."Change", it says."New.Better.More.Hope."I see the hope. I even sense it some, and want tograsp...

Tuesday February 3, 2009

Categories: Gospel

Midday Bible Study: Gospel 67

The "gospel" changes at Acts 1-2. One way of saying this is the proclaimer became the proclaimed one -- but this misses that John preached about Jesus, too. And Jesus' own message was self-directed. But, still, a good point to...

Tuesday February 3, 2009

Categories: Books

Capital Punishment and the Trial of Jesus

This last weekend in our travel to Canada and back, I read lawyer and professor of law at Baylor University, Mark William Osler's new book Jesus on Death Row: The Trial of Jesus and American Capital Punishment . There are...

Monday February 2, 2009

Categories: Coffee

Drip Coffee? You gottabekiddin' me!

Someone needs to stand up and call a halt to this silliness. Perhaps I should be the one. Okay, now that I've got your attention, here it is: Throw away your drip coffee machine and your French Press and buy...

Monday February 2, 2009

Categories: Gospel

Midday Bible Study: Gospel 66

We can look at a slew of references for all say basically the same thing. We've had some early pushbacks here so I embolden the words that make our point: preaching/gospeling. Notice these references [where the word "kerusso"/preaching/proclaiming/gospeling appears]:1. John...

Monday February 2, 2009

Categories: Public Issues

Obama's Attribute

A Third Way approach to politics works from Christian principles to applaud what is worthy and to critique what is not. It is not tied to defending any politician on every issue or stance. I was not surprised by Obama's...

Monday February 2, 2009

Anyone Know?

Anyone know who the artist of this piece might be? What would you call this picture? ...

Sunday February 1, 2009

Categories: Prayer and Formation

Prayer for the Week

Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you...

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About Jesus Creed

Scot McKnight is a widely-recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. He is the Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University (Chicago, Illinois). A popular and witty speaker, Dr. McKnight has given interviews on radios across the nation, has appeared on television, and is regularly asked to speak in local churches and educational events. Dr. McKnight obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Nottingham (1986). Click to continue reading Scot McKnight's Bio...

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