Way back in the spring of 1984, as I was winding up my English degree in college, I took a class on theories of literary interpretation. It sounds kind of high falutin', and I suppose it was. The teacher was Louis Menand, who has gone on to a measure of fame as...
We’ve all seen these: And what’s inside most of those illustrated children’s bible tends to be a much-sanitized version of the real thing. By making Scripture palatable to pre-schoolers and pre-teens, we rob it of its wildness and unpredictability. Sometimes what you...
Yesterday's message ... Started a series on a book that I have avoided for 28 years: Esther; Continued a recent trend of devoting July to overlooked sections of the Old Testament; in 2014 it was "Lost & Found" from I Kings 17-19; in 2015 it was "On The Up And Up"...
What if we told you that there is a book in the bible in which God is never even mentioned? Not once. Did the writer omit God’s name from the script on accident? Or was it intentional? This summer, we’re looking at the book of Esther. A book where God is more producer...
Until about 12-15 years ago, I thought of the bible like this: A collection of pearls. Isolated jewels, verses that packed punch and meaning, the parts always greater than the whole. In this way of reading the bible, the book of Ephesians, for example, means little...
Guess what? Tomorrow's the 4th of July. The midpoint of summer, at least emotionally if not technically. The time to take stock of what summer is all about. And to count down the top five summer songs. 5. The Lovin' Spoonful, Summer In The City....
Movers & Shakers has been all about the intersection of leadership and ministries with the next generation. In other words, unleashing the latent leadership potential among the people of Good Shepherd so that those same people can influence the next generation of...
I think this was a real-time photo of one of the most important professional development sessions in the biblical library: Well, perhaps I exaggerate. But I suspect the encounter with Moses and his father-in-law Jethro looked something like that. And that encounter...
A smattering of things whimsical and things weighty that I am always a fan of .... A one-handed backhand; SMU sports; A well designed sermon that teaches me something about the bible and then makes me cry; "The Boys Of Summer"; The fiction of Ann Patchett; Inductive...
We all have impulses. And many of those impulses are not necessarily healthy. Impulses to speak when silence is the better option. Impulses to spend when saving is the wiser choice. Impulses to sex when either abstinence or faithfulness is the path of life. Impulses...