So this is it. The end of the road for Ben.edictions. It started 3 years ago this month and for while it was a blast. I wanted a place to keep thinking and writing when I decided to end my seminary education and this was that place. I challenged myself and more importantly was challenged […]
Read more "The End of the Road"Part 5: Conclusion Click here for Part 1. So the story goes, as Martin Luther spent long hours studying God’s Word he dreamed that Satan appeared to him reading a long scroll with all his many sins from his birth on. As the reading of the list went on and on, Luther’s terror grew and […]
Read more "“Same Ole” Testament: The Gospel According to Zechariah, Part 5"Part 1 of this series is here. Today we are looking at the historical context of Zechariah 3:1-8. Grasping the agony and anxiety, and hope pulsing through the book of Zechariah necessitates a look into the world of both the exiled, the restoration community, and their Persian overlords. Beginning with a short survey of Persian […]
Read more "“Same Ole” Testament: The Gospel According to Zechariah, Part 4"Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Literary Analysis Today we are going to analysis our passage from a theological perspective. What is Zechariah 3:1-8 saying about God? Zechariah 3:1-8 contains some of the most profound insight into the purposes and direction of God for his people to found anywhere in the realm of human understanding. In […]
Read more "“Same Ole” Testament: The Gospel According to Zechariah, Part 3"Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Literary Analysis God’s word came to and continues to speak all to humanity in the form of the written word. The reasons are eons beyond the scope of this paper and any other, at least to speak with any certainty. Though his handiwork is marvelously displayed and interwoven into the […]
Read more "“Same Ole” Testament: The Gospel According to Zechariah, Part 2"It’s been awhile since we’ve dealt with, you know, the actual Bible on here. As a remedy, I’m starting a 5 part series on one of the most beautiful, if overlooked, portions of the Old Testament. I once had a professor (the brilliant Dr. John Sailhamer) who referred to the Old Testament as the “Same […]
Read more "“Same Ole” Testament: The Gospel According to Zechariah, Part 1"I’ve spent a decent portion of my life judging “nominal Christians.” You know, those so-called believers who trudge to church week after week but “don’t really mean it.” They might show up for the fun stuff: the holiday hay rides, the shock-and-awe worship services, maybe even an occasional mission trip (as long as it is […]
Read more "Are You A Nominal Christian? Am I?"I want to talk briefly today about the nature of the conversation experience in the Christian faith. It’s a difficult topic to discuss. Why? As Derek Rishmawy succintly put it, discussing conversion is like trying to, “look at your own eye ball.” True. Nonetheless, I find myself constantly thinking the process through with increasing frequency […]
Read more "What Is A Disciple? Brief Thoughts On Conversion, Emotion, and Baptism"Two ostensibly unrelated items on the religious news landscape caught my eye this week. On closer inspection however I think they are intimate dissections into the dysfunction of American evangelicism and into the dysfunction of my own warped soul. First, Texas Senator and possible 2016 GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz stormed off the stage after […]
Read more "Hubris or Holiness? Can Evangelicals Tell The Difference?"The following is a sermon delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to his congregation in Montgomery, Alabama on November 4,1956. He imagines receiving an epistle from the Apostle Paul addressed to American Christians. It is utterly fascinating. Enjoy. I would like to share with you an imaginary letter from the pen of the […]
Read more "Paul’s Letter to the American Church"
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