Why is it so Hard to Help People? Part 2: Tyranny, Order & Chaos
In our first part, Human Nature, we pondered the reason that it is so hard to really help people. It’s not hard to try to be helpful, people often strive…
Why is It So Hard to Really Help People? Part 1: Human Nature
Ever notice how hard it is to help people? We are always losing the war on drugs, stagnating in the war on poverty, failing to end bullying, never quite able…
Why the United Airlines Fiasco Leaves Me Little Hope for the Future of Our Nation
If you’ve seen the video that was released this week where the man is being dragged off a United Airline’s flight because he refused to exit the plane when asked…
Let’s Think About This Practically: A Response to “I Lost My Purity (And I Haven’t Had Sex)” Part 2
The article, “I Lost My Purity (And I Haven’t Had Sex)” is well written, provocative, cleverly titled, and advances the true notion that sexual purity is bigger than virginity, fornication,…
Let’s Think About This Practically: A Response to “I Lost My Purity (And I Haven’t Had Sex)” Part 1
It is common to find certain posts on social media that have gone viral. They are usually something provocative that challenges (at least in my circles) the standard Evangelical Christian…
Deadly Compassion: When Suffering Trumps Discipleship
I’ve been reading of late, a lot of viral posts on social media in which a person accuses pastors and churches, teachers and schools, politicians, police, government agencies and the…
Justice Seeker vs. Sinner Winner
Two realities confront us a Christians. The first is that, as loving members of our own communities, it is unthinkable that we do not do all that is in our…
Spirituality is Not a Personality Trait
I’ve had some interesting discussions this week about various churches’ perception of “Spirituality, Love & Humility,” My ministry is non-denominational and I travel around a bit so I encounter all…
Stop the Madness: Equality of Outcome as the New and ONLY Morality
What you are about to read is real. These are not actors, but are the actual opinions of the people who are expressing them. No, seriously, I couldn’t make these…
So, Two Arrogant Punks Walk Up to a Seasoned Professor in Church: Youth, Respect & Ageism
I had an over the top experience in a congregation yesterday after preaching a message on a Biblical Theology of Holiness, called “Whole Life Holiness.” I have grown accustomed to…
Can They Make Glasses for This? Myoptic Visions and Human Limitation
Myopic visions of reality are a basic human trait. The mind is incapable of tracking enough information for a person to see everything, to know everything, to anticipate the effects…
The Idolatry of the Modern Mind
When I was a child, I spent a lot of time irritating my teachers. I had the tendency to say, “What does that mean?” and “What am I supposed to…
Unfair or Unfortunate? Emotional vs. Principled Thinking
It is a piteous thing to look upon the suffering of others no matter what the cause of that suffering. A child born with disabilities whose own struggle to survive…
The Most Important Political Question You Will Ever Answer
There is something wrong with the world. Everyone, save a few Pollyanna hold outs, knows this. Thus, one of the most ideologically revealing questions that a person can answer is,…
Just desserts and Accidents of Birth: The Insidious Lie about Personal Responsibility
I wouldn’t normally write a blog in response to a Disney movie, but stranger things have happened to me… I can’t think of one right now, but I’m sure there…
Solutions vs. Trade-offs: The Insidious Lie About Reality
There is no solution, this side of eternity, for the human condition. Anyone who promises solutions is either selling something, stealing something, or completely disconnected from reality. This is the…
A Word Concerning the Political Christian
In MacArthur’s commentary on Titus, we find a complex tirade of sorts against the political Christian who involves himself or herself in an attempt to effect culture in America by…
Do You Really Have a Big Heart?
There is an old saying that goes, “If you’re not a liberal at 20 you have no heart, if you’re not a conservative at 40 you have no brain.” Indeed,…
Weirdo Fixations and the Heart of True Religion
During my recent convalescence after surgery I received a disturbing letter from an earnest young man who was understandably distraught over his shunning from a congregation for whom he felt…
The Obliterating Folly of Single Text Christians
There’s been a lot of chatter on social media of late about torture. Now, torture is a powerful weasel word… i.e. a term that comes pre-loaded with good or bad…