by Tim | Jun 13, 2010 | God, The Church World, The Gospel, The Scriptures |
I had a conversation with Audra’s brother a few days ago, in which he said that he couldn’t understand what the point is for a church to exist if it’s not evangelical. I agreed with him. It quickly turns into merely a social institution (and a rather unimpressive one to the world at that). I suspect by the term “evangelical,” he meant a church that takes the Bible literally. At least, that’s my simple definition, although it’s a little more complex than that. By and large, however, evangelical churches tend to view the Bible more literally than mainline or liberal churches. That’s why they evangelize. Yet with words like “evangelical” or “literal,” pretty soon words like “conservative” or “liberal” start coming up, and it starts to sound political. And general lay-folk start to check out as the discussion starts to sound divisive or unimportant. That’s why I’m thinking that in order to avoid such language (which can be misleading or confusing), I propose that we start talking about how “seriously” a person or a church takes the Bible. After all, some parts of the Bible aren’t supposed to be taken literally–they are written in a genre of figurative language, etc. Yet, even parts of the Bible that aren’t supposed to be taken literally–even these passages must be taken very seriously. For example, when Jesus says that it would be better to gouge your right eye if it causes you to sin, so that you go to heaven with one eye instead of hell with two eyes….there are very few people, evangelical or not, who would take this passage literally...
by Tim | Jun 4, 2010 | My World |
I’d recommend you check hers out, as her posts will surely be more interesting and concise than anything you’ll find here! www.audrafalk.com Oh, and I’ve added a new feature to my blog–a photo gallery. You can access it from the top menu. I’ll be tweaking it to make it more user-friendly, but it will do as-is for now. Check it out from...
by Tim | Jun 1, 2010 | God, My World |
Yes, you heard that right. I’m blown away that I got a flat tire on my car today. Why would I be praising God for this? Read on… I should have replaced the tires on my car a long time ago. They’ve been bald for at least a few months now. The problem is, we haven’t had the money to buy new tires, so I’ve been literally praying everyday I drive my car that none of the tires would blow out. To make matters even more risky, my job requires that I regularly drive across the state (probably at least once a week). We have two cars, but the other car is used for taking Naomi to school and picking her up everyday, so we couldn’t downsize to one car. So I’ve been praying everyday that I drive my car for work that God would let it hold up until Naomi gets out of school for the summer. At that point, we don’t need to use two cars anymore. Well, my last job assignment was last week in Huntsville all week, and that was Naomi’s last week of school. This week, she’s home for the summer. Today, Audra was taking the minivan to get the brakes fixed, and I got in my car to follow her there so we could come home while the brakes were getting fixed. As I pulled out of our driveway, my tire was blown out! This is a miracle on two counts: 1. My prayers were answered literally and perfectly, as the tire blew out the very first week Naomi was out of school...
