Always Reforming

    Of late, the issue of head coverings has come up in my circle.  Okay...my cousin and I have been discussing it, but the point is, the issue has been bouncing around my head for the past few days.  It is a topic that I have avoided for some time.  Every time I read through 1 Corinthians, I would tell myself, "We'll get around to that."  The reality is that I didn't want to be "that guy"...that guy who people view as a chauvinistic jerk who wants to make sure everyone--especially his wife--remembers that he's the head of his home.  I think I'm beginning to respect "that guy"--those men who have cared enough to stand for what they believe.     Let me be clear that I am referring to head coverings for women (those old enough to leave them on...)  DURING CORPORATE WORSHIP.  I am not advocating head coverings at all times.  Though I see nothing necessarily wrong that practice, I don't see any command for it either.   ...

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord , the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the rig...

"And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,  To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command you this day for your good?  Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD's your God, the earth also, with all that therein is.  Only the LORD had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.  Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff necked.  For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regards not persons, nor takes reward:  He does execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loves the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.  Love you therefore the stranger: for you were strangers in the la...

                                                                 Exodus 30:11-16: "And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,  When you take the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul to the LORD, when you number them; that there be no plague among them, when you number them.  This they shall give, every one that passes among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the LORD. Every one that passes among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering to the LORD.  The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering to the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls....

Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he has done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God. (These are my notes, unedited, from a lesson this mornin...

Haggai 1:  "In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the  LORD  came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: “Thus says the  LORD  of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the  LORD .” Then the word of the  LORD  came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the  LORD  of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. “Thus says the  LORD  of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to th...

    This will be my second Father's Day as a father.  I have learned much about life over the past 15 months, but  I'm still quite wet behind the ears, if you will.  I thought it would be interesting to take a second to think about what it means to be a father.     Firstly, I would like to say thank you to my father and to all the father figures that God has placed in my life.  All these men have shown me a thing or two about life, even if they didn't realize it, by their triumphs and defeats in life.  I've found that one of the best ways to grow up/learn stuff is just to watch people. Analytic observation of real people in the real world is one of the greatest tools for growth.     Secondly, what does it mean to be a father?  That is a deep question.  Being a father, I suppose, combines bread-winning, spiritual guidance, mentoring, and many other things.  Ultimately, however, fatherhood is a metaphor.  Unde...

    As I was reading my Bible today, I read 2 Timothy 2:8, which says, " Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel."  Seeing as we are coming upon Easter, I thought I'd take a moment to comment on the Resurrection of Jesus.       Paul tells Timothy to remember the Resurrection.  The Resurrection of Christ is an essential doctrine to the Christian faith, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15.  In our day, however, many have denied the Resurrection.  They try to make Christianity and the Bible more acceptable by saying that miraculous events like a body coming back to the dead couldn't actually happen.  They say that it's a metaphor.  They say Jesus was just a teacher who showed us the path of sacrifice.  They water down the message of the Gospel.     The Resurrection was not merely a side note to the Apostles.  It was the foundation of their ministries.  R...

    An issue that is hot in the Christian world is "To judge or not to judge?"  Jesus specifically said, "Judge not, lest ye be judged," right?  He did in fact say that (or something approximate), but what did He mean?  Did He mean that you are not to make a moral judgment in your own mind regarding another person's behavior?  Did He mean that we ought to accept any and all behavior?  Was He telling us that we should never, ever, absolutely never ever tell anyone else that what they are doing is forbidden by Scripture?  Should the elders of the Church wink at sin?      I don't think so.  If we balance Scripture against Scripture, other passages make it clear that Jesus meant none of those things.  Passages such as Matthew 18 and Galatians 6 suggest that Christian "iron sharpening iron" is not only permissible, but commendable.  The key is that we must do so humbly, with correct motives, and ...

Exodus 13:17-22 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” 1 But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.” And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people     Our passage today is a brief account of the...

My father was never big on holidays.  I wasn't raised in a family that loved to commemorate things, at least not over the top.  One day that we always remembered--but never celebrated--was the anniversary of Roe V Wade.  To my father, this day embodied all that was wrong with our nation.  We disregard life.  We prefer convenience to responsibility.  We only think about the present.  The list goes on.  My parents felt strongly about children and abortion, and they conistently put forth their time and money to help pregnancy services.  I write all of this simply to introduce a set of song lyrics that I jotted down a week or so ago.  With callused fingers, She holds the test, The only solution, Is someone's death, As she walks in the door, She hears a voice, "What about me? Don't I have a choice?" "Mama, don't do it! Don't believe the lies! I can feel the pain! Can you hear my cries? Mama, don't do it! It'll b...

   In Genesis we have the familiar story of the testing of Abraham.  Between Genesis 12 and 21, God had visited Him many times, making a covenant with him and blessing him with a son in his old age.  God had promised Him that Isaac would be the heir of the Promise.  All of God’s promises to Abraham concerning the land of Canaan and a multitude of descendants were to be fulfilled in Isaac, but in Chapter 22, God visits him again and gives him a command that he could hardly believe.  God commands him to take his precious son, Isaac, and to sacrifice him.       How does Abraham respond?  Does he try to reason with God, insisting that sacrificing Isaac would be a step in the wrong direction?  Does he plead for the life of His son?  No, he simply obeys.  He obeys quickly.  He awakes early in the morning and sets out for the mountains.      He gathers the wood and fire, and he retrieves t...