The Varsity

Finished an incredible week with some incredible students at one of the most iconic restaurants in the South, The Varsity!

N.T. Wright on the “Fulfillment” motif

Here is Dr. Wright talking about the passage in Matthew concerning Jesus fulfilling the law and the prophets.

Whole Sweep Challenge

I just wanted to clarify the “whole sweep challenge” a bit. This is a challenge based upon the NT Wright short film. (We used it yesterday during our worship time) Within the film Dr. Wright talks about reading the scriptures in longer portions. For instance reading the Gospel of John or Matthew straight through. With our current study of the Sermon on the Mount, we felt that it would be a great idea to read Matthew in one sitting! This will be on your own, it will not take place at the church, although next time we may set up a reading room and block off a couple hours!

Pass the word around to everyone you know, let’s get as many people as we can to accept the challenge and read the Gospel of Matthew in one sitting before next Sunday!

Here is a “mobile” version of the video if you missed it yesterday.

Here are some questions to ponder:

Have you ever read a book of the Bible straight through?

How could we read the Bible more “frequently” and “thoroughly?”

What have been some reasons you have heard for not “frequently” sitting down and reading through an entire book of the Bible?

What do you think about Dr. Wright’s statement that “When you read scripture in public, you are not just informing the people of what is going on, you are declaring the mighty acts of God which is an act of praise and adoration.”?

Have you ever challenged yourself or your family to read a book through in one sitting?

What do you think the response of your kids would be to a “reading challenge” like this?

So, here is the challenge, read the Gospel of Matthew in one sitting before Sunday the 17th. (approximately 2 hours)

Find someone or someones to tackle this challenge with you.

Sign up for the challenge at the blog post previous to this one!

Casey Anthony and the Sermon on the Mount

I am very hesitate to blog about the Casey Anthony case. What a, well, what a lot of stuff. But I have been thinking about it within the context of our recent study together of the Sermon on the Mount. Several questions come to mind: is there anything within Matthew 5, 6,7 that help us in processing an “event” such as this in our culture? How does the pursuit of justice that we see woven within this large teaching of Jesus fit into this news story? And what about the passage in chapter 6, the one about judging others. What do you do with that one as you discuss this case with your family, co-workers and friends?

I would love to hear some conversation on this “news story” from the perspective of the SOTM.

Love Wins: finally

Okay, owe you guys, at least the two of you who read this blog, a big apology. I started week before last ramping up for a blog or two on Rob Bell’s new book “Love Wins.” Then nothing, silence all last week. Well, I was out of town and had irregular internet and I wanted several really smart individuals to finish blogging on the book.

What I would like to do is steer you towards two very good blogs concerning the book. Both are men which I highly respect and both I believe did an excellent and fair job of dialoguing about the book. The first is Scot McKnight at the Jesus Creed blog. He is an excellent writer and very thoughtful. His blog was more of an overview with questions. The next is Ben Witherington. Ben is a scholar of high regard. Very prolific in his writings and also very fair towards Bell. His blogs tended to be more technical in nature and are great for digging into some textual things which Rob may or may not have gotten correct. You can click the links below to read what each has to say.

Jesus Creed Blog

The Bible and Culture

With that said, let me weigh in on a couple of issues which I feel the publication of the book brought to the surface. (One today and one tomorrow.)

The first is the crazy, over the top critical spirit on the part of some of the church today. I have to tell you, some of the comments, blog post and tweets that have been going around are the very reason a guy like Rob Bell feels he needs to write a book like “Love Wins.” They reflect anything but the Christ whose resurrection we celebrate this Sunday! One of the most troubling things is the criticism without reading the book. If you don’t want to read the book, fine, but don’t criticize it. (As McKnight points out, Bell is NOT a universalist, but that is what everyone said, well at least until they read the book.)

And dove tailing with that is this idea of orthodoxy being this or that and if you don’t believe exactly like this your out. Seriously? I’m not the smartest axe in the shed but even a casual reading of 1 Corinthians leads me in a different direction. Those folks in Corinth were anything but orthodox. There were some who would bring food to church and eat it in front of the less fortunate of the church, and call it the love feast. They cheered on behalf of freedom when a guy revealed he was sleeping with his mother-in-law. And yet, Paul calls them his “brothers and sisters in Christ.” Don’t misunderstand me, we should think hard about doctrine and teachings in an age where we are bombarded with thousands of sermons, books and blogs a day. (Maybe our insatiable appetite for knowledge needs to be addressed. How many sermons/lessons a week can one “chew” on as the OT teaches us to do with His Word) We should pray and use discernment, and do so in community. But to say one is “out” of the fellowship via the world-wide-web is far from the New Testament vision of Christian community Christ died for.

For me the ironic and sad thing is, that a book entitled “Love Wins” brought out a part of the ugliest of who we are within Christ’s church. 

Planting Trees

Here is a new video that highlights our mission in Africa. If you weren’t able to be at church Sunday we celebrated having the opportunity to give $50,000 to the Maasai clinic! What a blessing.