Do you have a favorite book of the Bible? The one you think is the most important and stands out to you in some special way. For Luther it was Romans (see his preface), for Calvin it was the book of Ephesians (see this TGC article), and for Wesley it was 1 John.
I began expounding the deepest part of the Holy Scripture, namely, the first Epistle of St. John; by which above all other, even inspired writings, I advise every young preacher to form his style. Continue reading
Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. – Jesus
Have you ever been approached by a stern-looking man, carrying a sword with a large blade and eyes that glowed as if on fire – eyes that could pierce right through to your very soul? He walks up to you with an unmistakable urgency, wearing a robe splattered with blood and on his belt hung the keys to the land of the dead. I doubt you have so let me tell you, calling it scary is an understatement. Huge understatement! But that is a story for another time.
I sense much fear in you
Fear of the dark. I have known it. At least I thought I did. That was until I saw this terror redefined. True darkness is the absence of all light. I can’t imagine what it would be like to experience that. But I saw someone who did once. But that is getting ahead of ourselves.
Fear. That was something that we dealt with a lot following Jesus. Continue reading
Dawkins at the University of Texas at Austin
What is faith? Many define faith as “blind trust” or irrational beliefs:
[Faith] means blind trust, in the absence of evidence, even in the teeth of evidence. … The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry. Blind faith can justify anything. (Dawkins, the Selfish Gene, 198)
Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence (Dawkins)
Is faith really blind? Continue reading
Dead Heroes Don't Save 