My dad is a great storyteller. One of his best is about a pig. He was training Vietnamese villagers on how to fight against the communists. One day he took his newly trained “soldiers” out into the jungle when all of a sudden, gunshots rang out. The Vietnamese trainees were… Read More
Archive Tag: theology
Masking As Mitzvah
Wearing a mask isn’t just a mandate. It’s a mitzvah! In Hebrew, a mitzvah is a command from God. A bar mitzvah is a son of the commandments and a bat mitzvah is a daughter of the commandments. But a mitzvah is also any good deed that fulfills the commandments… Read More
A Creation Story For All People
In the ancient Near East, there were loads of creation stories. It seems like every nation had one to explain where its people came from, who their enemies were, and what their gods were like. The Assyrians, Babylonians, Akkadians, Sumerians, Egyptians – they all had these stories. And so did… Read More
Choosing Abraham – The New Image (Jesus & Justice Part 4)
Adam and Eve (and their descendants) chose to order the world their own way instead of God’s. Scarcity and harm spread across creation until God flooded the earth. I would have quit on us at that point! But God is stubbornly merciful. After the floodwaters receded, God stuck with the… Read More
In The Image Of God (Jesus & Justice Part 1)
It was common in the ancient Near East for kings to claim to be the image of a god. The king ruled on behalf of the god, ordering their kingdom on earth their god’s good way. Over time, some kings claimed to be gods and made images of themselves. These… Read More
How Well Is My Church Worshiping?
First, we looked at what (little) the bible has to say about church music styles. Then, we explored what the word “worship” means in the bible and what (little) music has to do with it. Today we answer an important worship related question I was asked recently by a minister… Read More