I know I promised another book review for this post but I want to slip in a personal lesson I recently learned. At the Ash Wednesday service at my church our pastor’s sermon was about some of the things we Christians do during the Lenten season. He mentioned that a common sacrifice for Catholics, he was one as a child, was to not eat meat. … Continue reading Sacrifices for Lent?

I am going to spend this post studying John Howard Yoder and particularly his book The Politics of Jesus written in 1972. Here is what Wikipedia says about him. John Howard Yoder (December 29, 1927 – December 30, 1997) was a Christian theologian, ethicist, and Biblical scholar best known for his radical Christian pacifism, his mentoring of future theologians such as Stanley Hauerwas, his loyalty … Continue reading The Politics of Jesus

      On the last post I let it be known that I am definitely not a Calvinist. I will give you a few more reasons on this post. Some time ago I read a book entitled Why I am not a Calvinists by Jerry L. Walls and Joseph R. Dongell that very much influenced my views of Calvinism. For those of you who … Continue reading Why I am not a Calvinist

  I am going to spend the next few posts reviewing books that I have recently read or reread. I must admit that the emphasis of these current reviews are to generally show areas that some, if not many, Christians believe but I tend to disagree with. As always, even if as I disagree with these things I will respect your not seeing things the same … Continue reading RC Sproul Book Review

I know I promised a book review for this post but something else has been on my mind lately so the book review post will come on Friday. Is it OK to question things about your faith, your religion, your theology, or must you take everything at face value with the so called “leap of faith”?  To me, that is a very important question. I seem to be … Continue reading Why???

I am making an unusual Tuesday post to add a little to the study of the Lord’s prayer.  As I mentioned before the only part of the prayer that I have significant trouble with is the petition “lead us not…” I recently received a message from a good friend trying to help me figure this out. Here is his comments: If you read Luke 22:40, … Continue reading Lead us not…. another view

Today I am going to close out the study of the Lord’s prayer with an almost overwhelming task. That is to try and put the prayer into my own words. This endeavor is for my own sake. For those of you who think this is approaching sacrilegious please forgive me. If any of you want to suggest alternate wording please let me know. Thanks to … Continue reading The Lord’s Prayer in my own words

Now that I am done with the “official Lord’s prayer” I want to address the red letter that come immediately after the prayer. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. I understand that Jesus by dying on the cross … Continue reading The Lord’s Prayer (the epilog)

We are now at the final part of the Lord’s Prayer which is: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. ‘ I must admit these are some of the most challenging words in this prayer for me. I certainly don’t expect God to tempt me with sin. He did that to Job but I think that was a very … Continue reading The Lord’s Pray (and lead us not into temptation…)

We are now at the third part of the prayer which is Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Of course we depend on God for our very existence. If he doesn’t want us around then we would no longer exist. We have free will to make our own decisions but not whether we exist … Continue reading The Lord’s Prayer (Give us today…)

Continuing through the Lord’s prayer we come to the following petition: your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Even though He knows what is best for us He gave us free will to do what we choose. Many times this gets us into trouble but without free will we would just be robots who mindlessly do what we … Continue reading The Lord’s Prayer (your kingdom come…)

 Let me get to work on my interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer. (see my previous post for more understanding if you missed it). Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, Sometimes we forget just who God is. He is not a buddy across the backyard fence who we chat with from time to time. His knowledge and wisdom are beyond our comprehension. After all … Continue reading The Lord’s Prayer (Our Father in heaven)

  Matt 6:9-15 To me the Lord’s prayer is not as mysterious as some would like me to believe. I take the Lord’s prayer to be a call to action for Christians and not just a general statement by God. I don’t believe God wants any “couch potato Christians” but instead wants us to actively practice our faith. The individual petitions in the Lord’s prayer … Continue reading The Overall Theme of the Lord’s Prayer – My Interpretation