Posted on November 9, 2009 by mattdabbs
Here is a link to Steve Williams book What is Christianity. Steve used to preach at University City Church of Christ in Gainesville, FL and teaches at Amridge University (formerly Southern Christian). It is currently out of print but has been provided to download/print. It is an excellent resources that highlights our core beliefs in [...]
Filed under: Bible, Bible Study, Christianity, Church, Church of Christ, New Testament, Old Testament, Religion, Theology | Tagged: Steve Williams | 5 Comments »
Posted on November 5, 2009 by mattdabbs
John 8:12-59 contains some of the best known lines in John but they aren’t said to a loving, accepting mob of fervent believers. They are spoken to a mostly obnoxious and rebellious group in Jerusalem. In 8:12 Jesus says he is the light of the world. One of the great “I am” statements and one [...]
Filed under: Bible, Bible Study, Christ, Christianity, Deuteronomy, God, Gospel, Gospel of John, Jesus, Messiah, New Testament, Old Testament, Paradigm Issues, Religion, Sin, Theology, Thoughts | Leave a Comment »
Posted on October 28, 2009 by mattdabbs
The second half of Zechariah is probably the most difficult section of the Bible to understand. I am convinced that we never will figure out some of it. Because of this difficulty there are some sections that sound particularly humorous. For instance, Zechariah 14:20-21 reminds me of something from Monty Python and the Holy [...]
Filed under: Bible, Old Testament, Religion | Tagged: Zechariah, Monty Python, Holy Hand Grenade | 4 Comments »
Posted on October 21, 2009 by mattdabbs
Passover/Exodus parallels in John 6:
John 6:4 tells us the Passover was near. The events that follow are the feeding of the 5000, Jesus walking on water, and then questions about mana and eating Jesus body.
If you remember back to the book of Exodus the order of events went something like this:
Passover meal
Crossing the Red Sea
Mana [...]
Filed under: Bible, Christianity, God, Gospel of John, Jesus, New Testament, Old Testament, Religion, Theology | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 20, 2009 by mattdabbs
Another great one from Mark Gungor…
And this one, Song of Solomon Girl. Someone in our 20s & 30s class joked that it would be really funny to dress up as the couple in Song of Solomon for Halloween based on these kind of descriptions. These are from a great DVD series [...]
Filed under: Bible, Christianity, Humor, Old Testament, Religion | Tagged: Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage, Mark Gungor, Song of Solomon | 1 Comment »
Posted on October 14, 2009 by mattdabbs
Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, NC plans a book burning for Halloween [HT: Brian Nicklaus]. They are burning books they believe are Satanic. On the list…just about any version of the Bible other than the Authorized Version (KJV). They are even burning the NKJV! I guess that leaves me asking [...]
Filed under: Bible, Bible Translations, Christianity, Church, Gospel of Matthew, New Testament, Old Testament, Religion | Tagged: 1611 KJV, King James Version, KJV | 16 Comments »
Posted on October 13, 2009 by mattdabbs
Great thoughts from Bobby V on worship. An excerpt,
“Can a person perform worship acts incorrectly, or the wrong acts altogether, and still be pleasing to God?” Another form of this question is “Can a person be baptized for the wrong reason and be pleasing to God?“
I think the question is misframed from the start. I [...]
Filed under: Christianity, Church, Church of Christ, God, New Testament, Old Testament, Worship | Tagged: Bobby Valentine | 2 Comments »
Posted on October 10, 2009 by mattdabbs
Some really powerful and insightful words from Rob Bell at Catalyst regarding the 10th commandment (not to covet) and its application to ministries and ministers. Here is an excerpt from Out of Ur’s summary of his message,
“Rob professed his amazement at Christian organizations that rank the most significant churches and organizations based on size. And [...]
Filed under: Christianity, Church, Ministry, Old Testament, Religion | Tagged: 10 commandments, catalyst, Rob Bell | Leave a Comment »
Posted on October 8, 2009 by mattdabbs
Check out Patton’s easy to read Textual Criticism for Dummies post. It hits the highlights and is helpful to those who aren’t really familiar with what textual criticism is and the process it takes to come to an accurate text and translation today. Here is the link.
Filed under: Bible, Bible Translations, Christianity, New Testament, Old Testament, Religion | Tagged: C. Michael Patton, textual criticism | Leave a Comment »
Posted on September 17, 2009 by mattdabbs
I don’t know about you but I have a tendency to compare the worst moments of my faith to the best moments of those in scripture and wonder why I can’t be more like them or wonder why my faith is so weak. Wouldn’t it be just as easy to pick out their worst moments, [...]
Filed under: Bible, Christianity, Faith, God, Old Testament, Religion, Sin, Theology, Thoughts | 4 Comments »