parables of a prodigal world

Last week I wrote about a few things I discovered while preparing to teach an introduction to Romans . Here's one other thing I discovered. The NIV is a pretty blatantly agenda-driven translation. Yeah, I already knew that. And poring over its choices of translation in Paul, and specifically Romans, the point really hit home. But something else caught my eye that makes me want to aggressively go out and tell everyone I know to dump their NIV. While immersed in Romans, I noticed how Paul has a little habit in his writing style. It comes out prominently in Romans 5-8. After every delineable segment of argument, usually around 8-12 verses long, he signs off his thought with a little Christological marker, either "in Christ Jesus" or "through Jesus Christ our Lord," or something to that effect. Now take a look at Ephesians 5:21-22. You know, the famous "Wives, be submissive" passage. C'mon, all you hubbies, you know you've used that one before (or ...

As I read through the latest post at one of my favorite sites, a simple story about a unexciting church conference and an ordinary vote on whether the conference should merge with a neighboring one, it got me to thinking... The more I read and study the Bible, the more I come to agree with Paul’s understanding of God’s master plan revealed and accomplished in the life of one specific Palestinian Jew, and the Church’s role within that plan, as Paul set forth most clearly in the Letter to the Ephesians: With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that ...

My 6-year-old daughter was recently mentioning to me that they had been learning about Martin Luther King, Jr. in her 1st grade social studies class. I was curious about how a teacher could communicate the greatness of someone like Dr. King to a group of 6-7 year olds, so I asked her, "So who was Martin Luther King?" She responded, simply, "He was a man who changed the rules." I was expecting to hear a response that I would need to add to, clarify, to get more in-depth upon, to explain to my unusually bright daughter the details. But when I heard her answer, I could only say "That's right, honey." He was a man who changed the rules. Kind of sums up Jesus, too, don't you think? When my daughter grows a bit older, I might get into the details of how and in what sense Dr. King "changed the rules." I might explain that he didn't literally change the rules, but lived by a model, one taught to him by his Lord, that has a natural tendenc...