I’m resuming my series, interrupted for three years. Here’s the first video: Each Wednesday night I’ll be live on Facebook with this posted to the Henry & Jody Neufeld page, and crossposted to my home church, Chumuckla Community Church. I’ll get the video to Facebook a couple of days later. This is an open-ended series…
Subtitle: Following Jesus into a Life of Peace, Compassion & Wholeness I find it hard to fairly review study Bibles. On the one hand, I am a bit hesitant to have so much text combined with the text of scripture, because everything we do to add to the text, even arranging it into chapters and…
Donald C. McIntyre is writing a series about the temptation of Jesus and the texts Jesus used. Do we understand this usage correctly? He titles this What If We Got the Temptation of Jesus Wrong?, and I’m calling attention to part II of the series. I am always interested in intertextuality and the way it…
This article is quite helpful in understanding what biblical criticism is, how it is helpful, and also how it may be threatening to some. Here’s a quote: The basic point, however, is an important one: until we know what kind of material we are dealing with, we don’t know what questions it is sensible to…
Well, perhaps, “choosing” should be “recognizing.” Weird? Doesn’t make sense? Read on! In the late 1990s I participated in a program here in Escambia County called CommUNITY Dialogues, led by a creative and interesting communications specialist (and I had not, up to that time, used “creative” or “interesting” with regard to such people!) named Dr….
The lectionary readings called my attention to Ezekiel 37:1-14. I love the story, not to mention the song. So how about the song? There’s a specific point I want to call attention to. Notice how God provides Ezekiel with very specific instructions as to what to prophecy, first in verses 4-6, and then following up specifically to…
A couple of days ago I was reading 1 Peter during my devotional time and was struck by 1 Peter 2:1-3: Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation—if indeed you have tasted…
It’s a common question, but it’s one I don’t like: What does that Greek word really mean? (You can substitute Hebrew or Aramaic for Greek.) The basic problem is the assumption that a word “really” means anything specific. Underlying this is a tendency to think that one discovers the meaning of a communication by mentally…
The original author responded to another post on this topic. (Note: this is not a response to my own comments, though it provides some valuable thoughts to be read after mine.
I had occasion to discuss this passage a couple of days ago, and it reminded me of many discussions I have had regarding this parable. (It’s Matthew 20:1-16, by the way.) This is a short note and not an extended discussion. The most common response I hear to this is that it isn’t fair. My most…
