The ancient world had many mythical beasts. The phoenix is one of my favorites: A phoenix is a mythical bird with a tail of beautiful gold and red plumage (or purple and blue, by some sources). It has a 500 to 1,000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of […]
Lenten sermon series
No, I am not going to post my Lenten sermon series. But, I will point out that the couple of posts on Christian rudeness that I just finished doing have led me to do my Lenten sermon series on practical Church behaviors. What do I mean? Well, that post on the other blog is now […]
Good Samaritans and waiters/waitresses
This is actually a continuation of the last post because on the other blog, they are already up over 100 comments. One person posted and commented that the people that the New Testament is calling for us to help are the people within the Church, and only if there is enough left over are we […]
Christians, Rudeness, and lack of witness
I am cross posting the following quote from InternetMonk who got it from the blog Prayer Pilgrimage. My daughter, taking a break from her pursuit of a graduate degree, is a server at the Chili’s a few miles down from our house. Like many others her age she is already pretty critical of the church […]
Things are most alike when they are different
Sometimes we get so busy arguing with each other that we fail to realize the similarities in some of our approaches. Let’s take the issue of baptism. Should we baptize infants or should we not? Now, let me tell you ahead of time that I am fully and totally convinced that infant baptism is both […]
Description of too many Christians
Sometimes, the world of fiction gives us descriptions that are more incisive than many a theological description. Read the following excerpt from a fiction book that I am reading. The book is based in very early 20th century England, before WWI. But, see if the description does not actually fit far too many Christians of […]
Can we tell the difference between religiosity and spirituality?
A fellow blogger described the relationship between depression and the unending search for the right church. But that brought up a slightly different twist in my mind. How do you tell the difference between religiosity and spirituality? Internetmonk well described how depression can lead to an unending search for the Truth. In fact, part of […]
Travel Day
Today is a car travel day as I return home. May the Lord bless all of you and prepare you for the Lord’s Day. For today, I will simply include a copy of Metropolitan Jonah’s message for Sanctity of Life Sunday. It is one of the most balanced pro-life messages that I have seen. === […]
How do you handle ethical conflicts?
On the blog that I love to read, there is a discussion on ethics. No, not on ethics, per se, but on disagreeing charitably. It is quite a good set of thoughts and I posted the response below on that blog. But, in discussing ethical conflicts, I wondered whether the author had gotten caught in […]
Another Perú missionary stress story
When my wife and I first arrived in Bolivia, in January of 1990, we went to Cochabamba to attend the Instituto de Idiomas Maryknoll (Maryknoll Language Institute). My wife was taking the beginning course, while I was taking the advanced course. Though I was born overseas, I had grown up in the USA. So, I […]
