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God and the Google Effect

2012-02-21T19:47:24Z

The Google Effect is a complaint that, while modern research has become more immediate and prolific in the Internet age, its results are frequently shallow and even suspect. It would seem there is likewise a Google Effect upon Bible study and research as well.

Website Update: February 19, 2012

2012-02-21T14:17:18Z

Today, ElectronicGospel added two new sermon audio files:

The Other Beatitudes (3) is the third in a monthlong series
Revelation (6) continues the examination of the last book of the New Testament

The Song of Songs, Which is Solomon’s

2012-02-16T16:20:14Z

“The whole world is not worth the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel; all the Writings are holy, but the Song of Songs is the holy of holies.” That sentiment, so eloquently voiced by Rabbi Akiva (ca. A.D. 17–ca.137), is hardly shared by many Bible readers today. While most seem to accept the canonicity of the Song of Solomon, few find its inscrutability endearing and the book’s overt eroticism has reduced it to a homiletic footnote in many pulpits.

Website Update: February 12, 2012

2012-02-13T01:58:19Z

Today, ElectronicGospel added two new sermon audio files:

The Other Beatitudes (2) is the second in a monthlong series
Revelation (5) continues the examination of the last book of the New Testament

Website Update: January 29, 2012

2012-01-30T01:54:09Z

Today, ElectronicGospel added two new sermon audio files:

Imitators of God is a discipleship sermon based on Ephesians 5:1-21
The Tie is a sermon in scripture and song that discusses our fellowship with God and each other

The audio links are at the bottom of the respective pages. Thanks for visiting.

Looks Like the Gardener

2012-01-04T18:27:45Z

Even today, Jesus is frequently misidentified on both personal and doctrinal fronts. There are those who label him a good teacher and great man, but who balk at his claims to be the Messiah. Others embrace him as the prophesied savior, but emasculate the harder things that he taught, so to make faith more palatable to recalcitrant sinners. Sadly, Jesus Christ is so chronologically removed from modern minds that his entire character becomes subject to revision and abuse.

2012

2011-12-21T15:40:00Z

A popular movie a few years ago dramatized the notion that the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world in 2012. Like the vague writings of Nostradamus, however, the Mayan calendar threat has been exaggerated and mythologized beyond anything credible. Could the world end in 2012? Absolutely! If it should, however, it will be due to the will of God and the readiness of Christ to return in the clouds, according to the plan revealed in the New Testament, and only coincident to the Mayans’ dayplanner. Predicting the end of the world seems almost as old as the world itself, as we will learn from our study in the book of Revelation, set to begin this afternoon at 5:00. This thirty-part series of lessons will continue with only rare interruptions on Sunday afternoons for the next several months. In it, we will learn how first-century Christians could have anticipated relief from their struggles, but not necessarily through the conquest of their enemies or the immediate return of the savior. Like them, we must be patient and redeem the time, for we know not at what hour our master will return to require of us an accounting of how we lived our lives and used our talents.

Winter of Discontent

2011-12-20T15:38:00Z

When the mercury conquers triple digits more than forty times in the summer, it is only natural to crave the cooler temperatures of winter, forgetting how bone-chillingly uncomfortable it can be. A crippling ice storm can quickly make just about anyone long for the return of the melting sun. We find ourselves in the calendar’s extreme seasons suffering from palpable discontent, but God’s promise to Noah’s generation holds steady: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22 ESV). I’m reminded of an old piece of wisdom regarding morally neutral, unchangeable things: Learn to love it. Six months from now, we will again be longing for these cooler months, just as much as our runny noses and cabin fever are now inspiring perverse nostalgia for the Texas summer. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1 ESV). Winter affords us more quiet times for meditation, more opportunities for lingering over the Bible or snuggled under the blankets in prayer. Take advantage of the unique benefits of earth’s coolest season and learn to love it.

Pedophilia: Sexual Orientation?

2011-11-16T19:56:05Z

Interest in pedophilia has waxed with the grand jury indictment of former Penn State assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky, and the related firing of legendary coach Joe Paterno. While he has been convicted only in the court of public opinion, Sandusky has maintained a certain level of innocence, although admitting to remarkably inappropriate behavior. The psychology behind the sin – still only alleged in this case – is both curious and alarming, especially as it is offered parallels and, perhaps, protection, by the successful movement to legitimize another deviant sexual habit, homosexuality. Writing in USA Today, Donna Leinwand Leger suggests, “Some scientists believe ‘this may be like a sexual orientation. It may not be a choice. It may be how they are wired’” (November 16, 2011). Homosexuality was once defined as a mental disorder – it isn’t – before gaining popular acceptance and theoretical justification. Only the matter of consent, then, would distinguish homosexuality from pedophilia under such an amoral assessment. Consistency in defending sin can get awfully messy.

A Spirit of Slavery

2011-11-15T19:52:49Z

Slavery becomes an appropriate way of describing a perverse dependence upon the tempter for the satisfaction of wicked and self-destructive yearnings, as well as the resulting guilt and disillusionment that shackle the wayward believer to iniquity. A spirit of slavery is surely undesirable, but is apparently inescapable where human weakness prevails.