Commonsense Christianity

“Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?” (Habakkuk 1:3) For many years, like many people, I was contentedly asleep, focusing the majority of my time on minor, day to day things, allowing those things to swallow up an inordinate proportion of my thoughts: I accepted without question everything I saw on the news, thereby finding myself in a…

“I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.” (Acts 20:29-30) Jesus did not mean for His earthly flock to be left without wise, caring shepherds. In this…

“Come near to God and he will come near to you.” (James 4:8) Whenever I tell an appalling church story, I am sure to be scolded. “Not all churches are like this!” is the general response. “You shouldn’t be so harsh on churches because people need them.” (No, actually, they don’t: people need God, and He…

“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.” (Acts 4:32) If you attend conventional church for any time at all, you will be unable to escape the annual, or semi-annual, sermon upon tithing, which encourages — admonishes,…

Recently, a friend sent me this Bible verse from Isaiah 50:10: “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? “Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.” Initially, this verse was most perplexing to me…

Depending upon our interests, those of us who live in the world of mass media can rattle off names of note in the sports arena, TV land, cinematic Fantasia, network “news,” political affront, musical medley, or the religious circus, er, circuit. So well versed are we in this trivia that entire game shows are set up so…

People matter. “Of course they do,” we all nod our heads emphatically.  A ridiculously easy way to bring people to tears is to show them a clip of a politician, movie celebrity, or extraordinarily rich and famous businessperson wiping their eyes and stumblingly uttering how much their spouse, daughter, or grandfather means to them. “So beautiful,” we sigh.…

The other day, I read an intriguing post by a Famous Face. Like many Famous Faces, when he speaks, hordes of people — far too many of the Christian persuasion, incidentally — listen. But the general message of this man, like much of what is propounded on a mass scale by people whose faces we recognize but whose genuine essence we…

There are two primary ways to learn about God: The first, and most obvious to all of us (even though we may not take advantage of the resource), is Scripture itself. Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, Gospels, Epistles, History, or Poetry — the Bible is full of references about God, and when we read it…

Family, teamwork, community — for years these words have circulated through our corporate business culture as a means of convincing people that the workplace is warm, caring, fuzzy, and cuddly. What’s intriguing is that the same words are employed within Christian settings, which increasingly look like the business world: with our leadership meetings, discipleship committees, and small…

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