parables of a prodigal world

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A few days back, one of the 3 or 4 loyal readers of Parables sent me this email. With his permission, here's the question: Raffi, we have not met -- but I am a fan of your blog. dont remember how i originally came to your blog, but I connect with it and your way of thinking... if i remember correctly you commented on swearing on a post about George Carlin a while back. anyway, I got the email below from someone & (if you have time) - i would appreciate your advice on how to respond. i swear sometimes when i speak. honestly, i don't even notice it most of the time - because i do that in normal conversations at times also. i just dont think it is that big of a deal -- but someone who was listening to me did. anyway, this might seem kind of random -- but any input would be appreciated. peace, greg That "email from someone" was also sent, but since I'm not sure how the questioner would feel about posting his question/comments, I'll just summarize by saying ...

I've got the big picture now. I've immersed myself in getting the big picture for some years. And I think I've got it. Not got it, but, you know, I get it. It's about God's plan to save the world , not just me. I get it. I'm not to sit back content with my ticket to heaven. This is a missional thing. Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Life after life after death. I get it. Unity. No finger-pointing. Its not an us-versus-them thing. We're all in this together. One family. One humanity. One church. One love. I get it. I get it. And there was a very real, very important reason why I needed to get it. Not getting it was destroying my new-found, fledgling faith. It couldn't have been all about me. It couldn't have been all about how I could get to heaven. It just couldn't. None of it made sense if that's what it was all about. It had to be something else. Something altogether different. Well... It's not. It's not black or w...

We all had a good laugh over the guy electro -shocking the pickle to demonstrate the transformed Christian life. Mofast said three people walking by the house overheard it and were instantly saved. Gordan suggested the video should come with a warning: "Warning: This video kills brine cells." He then ducked in anticipation of oncoming fruit. But seriously... Jar full of pickles. All pretty much the same. One pickle gets plugged into a power source. It begins to look different than the other pickles. Not outwardly, but by virtue of the light emanating as a result of the power source... Hmmmm ? Could Grandpa John be on to something? If we look past the whole pickle-zapping thing, maybe he's hit the nail right on the head. Power of the Spirit. Light of the world. City set on a hill. Lampposts. Think about it. Isn't one of the central truths of the entire biblical narrative, one that is so often overlooked, that we are called to be God's children not simply for our ...

The Preface of The Living Word of God is meant as an overarching introduction to the central question to be tackled in the book, which is "What does it mean to say that the Bible is both fully human and fully divine. Witherington makes clear that he will emphasize the "fully human" portion to the extent that it has been marginalized by much Christian doctrinal thought throughout history. He summarizes his position as follows: "The Bible, including the New Testament--our primary concern in this study--has always been seen as the word of God in the words of human beings, and the contribution of the latter has normally been recognized as considerable." And as Witherington develops that position, it becomes clear that the involvement of human beings will introduce a level of "humanness" to the text, which can also be called a level of messiness or instability or (that blasphemous word) subjectivity , not as much personal as cultural/historical. To that e...

My friend Trevin Wax has two posts in today's session of what has come to be one of my most frequented blogs, Kingdom People , one dealing with John Piper's critique of N.T. Wright's understanding of the definition of "the Gospel," and the other with a brief exegetical examination of the Parable of the Prodigal Son . I agree almost word for word with the former, and I especially appreciated the illuminating difference Trevin points out between "the definition of the Gospel" and "sharing the Gospel." Regarding the latter, though, anyone who knows me knows that I am a pretty big fan of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, for obvious reasons. I have just completed a book manuscript, which I hope to release in the near future, that chronicles my testimony through the lens of the Parable, tentatively titled Parables of a Prodigal Son: The Theologically Grounded Testimony of an Ordinary Scoundrel . Shameless plug here. In today's post, Trevin says...