Posts with the tag “cross-points”

The story is told of a rabbi searching for Jewish kids who had been displaced as the Nazi years began, their families seeking to protect them by sending them to a monastery in southern France.  After the war ended this rabbi went to the monastery.  They had been there for years and the priest in charge was unaware of the circumstances.  He told the rabbi that all the children were Christian, not J...  Read More

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).  Proven to be the most well-known verse in the Bible.  It’s a good one, for sure.  The key message: Jesus tells us how much God loves us, and the heart of Jesus’s purpose on earth.  Even though what it says is true, it is probably one of the most abused verses ...  Read More

When people talk about the rapture, the general concept is that either before or during a time of severe persecution before Jesus returns, Christians will be taken from this world (raptured) and the non-Christians will be “left behind” to deal with the evil in the world.One problem with this whole teaching is that it can’t be found in church history until about 190 years ago, according to Revelati...  Read More

G.K. Chesterton, the British Christian author and apologist of the late 19th and early 20th century, once said, “A dead thing can float with the stream, but only a living thing can swim against it.”  The Chosen series about Jesus starts each episode with a fish changing direction and swimming against the stream. As we close out the book of Hebrews with the 13th chapter, our desire should be to rea...  Read More

Who were your heroes growing up?  Mine tended to be sports related.  I was a St Louis Cardinal fan, so naturally I liked Stan Musial, but my favorite back in the 60’s was Curt Flood, their small centerfielder.  My love of reading is largely due to sports biographies I read. Musically, I became an Elvis Presley fan while in Jr High, after watching one of his movies; not sure that provided the best ...  Read More

It’s a normal thing in life that when you stop to think about it, doesn’t feel very normal - a hunter in deer season kills his prize buck, then must do the dirty work, gutting and carrying the carcass to where the blood will be allowed to drain before it is skinned, and the meat processed.  My dad was a quail hunter and although he hunted a lot, often got his limit, and loved to eat quail, the cle...  Read More

I’m a lifelong St Louis Cardinals fan.  During the late 1950’s and into the early 1960’s a real highlight was going with my dad and some of his friends with their sons to St Louis (about 100 miles), eating at a White Castle, then heading to old Sportsman’s Park on Grand Avenue in north St Louis, where the Cardinals played until 1966 when they moved downtown.  But we didn’t go that often.  Much mor...  Read More

Statistics say that only 9% of the people who make New Year’s Resolutions complete them.  In fact, 23% who make resolutions quit before a week goes by, and 43% have quit before the end of January.  The experts say there are four common reasons people fail at these resolutions.The resolution is made as a tradition (like with the new year) instead of when an actual event causing a need occurs that h...  Read More

For those old enough, like me, to remember the old hymns we sang, you’ll remember the song titled “Revive Us Again”.  “We praise Thee O Lord, For the Son of Thy love, For Jesus who died and is now gone above, Hallelujah! Thine the glory, Hallelujah, Amen, Hallelujah, Thine the glory, Revive us Again.”Revival.  We certainly understand the concept.  Our faith has stagnated, grown cold, maybe even di...  Read More

It used to aggravate me a lot.  As a young college student in Springfield, MO, we’d go to the mall just to walk around.  Very often one of the students from Baptist Bible College would come up beside you and say, “Can I ask you a question?”  If you took the bait and said, “Sure” then he’d follow with this, “If you died tonight, are you confident you’d go to heaven?”  Many people (me included) woul...  Read More

We all know the old song, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” And he does. The problem is that often we let that thought overshadow the reality of the spiritual battle going on for our soul. We expect smooth sailing, a love-filled path. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present ...  Read More

I remember well our time in Petra back in 2018.  While visiting the library in Jordan, we were delighted that John and Eileen Richardson wanted to take this 2-day side trip.  It required us to get up before daylight, take a cab to the bus station, get in a crowded bus with a wide variety of people and ride over a very rough highway on the 6-hour journey to Wadi Musa, the town above the Petra compl...  Read More

This is a complicated subject.  It takes some thought to wrap your head around it.  Worth the effort, I think, because I believe we often take a too casual approach that becomes unrealistic.  The simple question is asked: Is God in control?  Our quick response is almost always: Yes!  And I believe that response is true, in the big picture, but maybe not always true in the minute detail of our worl...  Read More

“Whole tracts of our religion are bare of spiritual passion, or spiritual depth.  Modern Christianity speaks the language of our humane civilization; it does not speak the language of Christ.  The age, and much of the church, believes in civilization and is interested in the Gospel, instead of believing in the Gospel and being interested in civilization” (P.T. Forsyth)Again, borrowing from Charles...  Read More

We’ve been fortunate to travel on several “mission trips,” and all have been memorable. One stands out because of where we went and what we experienced that relates to the Bible. We traveled to the country of Jordan, just to the east of Israel. While there we had the privilege of taking a bus (an experience in itself) down to Petra. As you probably know, Petra is a canyon fortress in the southern ...  Read More

Solomon built the original temple in Jerusalem. It was magnificent! The sins of a divided nation would eventually cause their downfall, the northern Kingdom taken away never to return, and the southern Kingdom (a little better) survived, but not until the temple was destroyed and they were taken into captivity in Babylon. Upon their return, under Nehemiah and Ezra, a rebuilding campaign sees a new...  Read More

Happiness is desired by everyone. I want it. You want it. Our kids and grandkids want it. There are no exceptions. This is why it becomes such a lethal tool of the devil.And it is also why my Cross Point title this week is antithetical. No one who believes in hell believes you can be happy there. The words happiness and hell are at polar opposites. Now if you don’t believe in hell, that’s a topic ...  Read More

“The mountains shake before him, The demons run and flee, At the mention of the name, King of Majesty, There is no power in Hell or any who can stand, Before the power and the presence of the Great I Am. Hallelujah, Holy, Holy, God Almighty, the Great I Am, Who is worthy, None beside Thee!”Those words from the song Great I Am by Jared Anderson always move me when Ryan leads it in worship. Life on ...  Read More

The Bible is full of slavery. As we’ve said, it is an overarching theme of life, that we all are slaves to someone or something. We are made with free will; we can make choices. That freedom is real, but once we’ve chosen (or refuse to choose) we will discover who we will obey. The Hebrew word for slave, ebed, can speak of literal slavery to a human master, or be used metaphorically to describe be...  Read More

We ended the previous Cross Point saying, “In the end, the experience of a slave depended entirely on the master.” You might question that. Isn’t slavery always bad, regardless of the master, you might ask? Again, our thoughts about slavery in this country rely too much on the American experience. But the truth of the matter is, we are all slaves to something. From a biblical worldview perspective...  Read More

The Dahomey Kingdom of west Africa ruled during the days when African’s were being sold to the British, who in turn sold these men and women into slavery on the coasts of the United States. It was a sad situation, one African tribe would war against another African tribe, take captives, cage them, then sell them. We often imagine the “slavers” just taking these men and women, but that would requir...  Read More

 In Greek mythology Pandora was the first woman.  According to Hesiod’s Theogony, after Prometheus, a fire god and trickster, had stolen fire from heaven and bestowed it on mortals, Zeus, the king of gods, determined to counteract his blessing. He commissioned Hephaestus to fashion a woman out of earth and bestow upon her their choicest gifts.  Pandora (her name) had a jar containing all manner of...  Read More

In Mark Moore’s book Quest 52, he writes about the trial of Jesus, and how it shows us the preferred way to prepare in a crisis, versus the poor way to prepare when crisis occurs.  Let’s consider some related thoughts that we can learn from, as we gain insight into preparing for crisis.Once Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, he is taken to the high priest. Technically, the high priest...  Read More

In the previous Cross Point we looked at how our salvation must come from the Lord, we cannot create our own salvation.  We must be clothed with Christ, which allows him to cover our sins.  Instead of a Fig Leaf Faith, we need a faith that has at its foundation true discipleship, following Jesus, trusting in him.  In this second article about faith, we look at our need to build on the foundation C...  Read More

At one point in his ministry, Jesus said that if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can do great things (Luke 17:5, 6).  Does that mean just a little faith is all we need?  In context, Jesus said this about faith to his apostles, not to the bigger crowd of followers.  The apostles would have miraculous abilities, to heal the sick, to raise the dead; but even for them it wasn’t unbridled ability...  Read More

“It’s money honey, if you want to get along with me,” sang Elvis.  Unfortunately, that attitude penetrates many people.  In the movie All the President’s Men, about the Watergate scandal, we heard the famous refrain, “Follow the money!” meaning the source of corruption can be found if you follow the money trail.  The apostle Paul would famously say, “The love of money is the root of all kinds of e...  Read More

“Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.  I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us” (Psalm 78: 1-3). With these words this song begins, a maskil of Asaph.  A maskil is a poem or song that enforces wisdom, that calls on your intelligence, asking for piety.  ...  Read More

In the previous Cross Point about elders, I talked about the history of elders and the listed qualifications of elders in the New Testament provided by the apostles Paul and Peter.  As you look at the qualities, you may note a couple of things.  First, they are primarily providing a list of personal characteristics, which define a mature, seasoned, experienced, biblically educated man.  Again, no ...  Read More

I just finished listening to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak to all of congress about how the United States has helped and hopefully will continue to help his country of Ukraine fight for freedom, and how they fight against the powerful lies of Russia’s elite, while Ukraine seeks to fight with dignity and for Truth, or “Pravda” in Ukrainian.  He said he believes they have already won the war f...  Read More

Type your new text here. There’s an old saying you’ve probably heard that goes, “I’m none the wiser.”  In other words, something has happened and yet I know no more, have gained no more wisdom, than before it happened. When I was college age, way back in the early 1970’s, the number of adult people who claimed no religious affiliation, who marked “none” on the question about religious affiliation,...  Read More

Type your new text here. One of the controversies you can find within Christianity is whether a person can become a Christ-follower, truly accepting Jesus in faith as a disciple, then later abandon the faith and no longer follow Jesus, losing the salvation they once had. Such appears to be the case with Demas.The apostle Paul mentions Demas in his second letter to Timothy, chapter 4, where he says...  Read More

What must it have been like for Joseph and Mary to walk from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census?  And why would Mary even go, so close to delivering a child?  It would not have been an easy trip.  Most likely they did the normal thing for the time, avoiding Samaria, crossing to the east side of the Jordan River below the Sea of Galilee and then walking south until they crossed back near Jericho ...  Read More

We live in an odd time for Christianity.  So many “Christians” want to live life their own way, thinking Christian faith is a surreal concept, a mix of fact and fiction, open to their personal take on how it is lived out, typically with the Bible superglued to the shelf, a symbol but thought impractical for our values.  As a result, they accept cultural norms such as sexual promiscuity, living tog...  Read More

Who would be afraid of Jesus?  Does that even make sense?  For many the answers would be, “Surely no one would be afraid of Jesus” and “No, to be afraid of him makes no sense.”  But not so quick.Indeed, the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, is the manifestation of God’s love for us.  “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Paul asked in his letter to the Romans (8:35).  In his book to the Ephes...  Read More

We live in a day when the Bible is pushed aside by many people in our culture.  Even by many who call themselves Christian.  It is no longer the source of morals, of doctrine, of principles for living.  One reason is because of the critics who dismiss it, saying it is not from God, but just a human document.  Here are a few of the myths about it, and responses to the critics.Some say the writings ...  Read More

If you are like me, you look at the landscape of our society and wonder: what in the world has gone wrong?  We once were a country that honored God, the Bible, the morals taught in the Bible, and even though we had many problems and many individuals with problems; overall we trusted in the Lord and had time honored principles we lived by that derived from the teaching of Jesus and his apostles.  T...  Read More

I was at McDonald’s recently to grab an unhealthy lunch, noticing someone I knew in line ahead of me.  After ordering we visited a bit while waiting on our food.  We commiserated about health issues and then he said, “I’ve decided not to worry about my health; when it’s my time to go it’s my time to go. God has a plan for our lives, and I just need to stop worrying.”Now, I agree with one thing.  T...  Read More

There are several slogans that have come out of the Restoration Movement (a church fellowship that came out of a desire to abandon man made creeds and get back to New Testament teaching and guidelines for Christianity), this movement beginning in the early 1800’s.  One example of such a slogan is: Where the Bible speaks, we speak, and where the Bible is silent, we are silent (or allow varying opin...  Read More

In our modern culture we find many people who call themselves “Christian” but who do not want to comply with the guidelines for faithful Christian living described by Jesus and his apostles.  They want what David Faust in a recent Christian Standard article called an “un-angry God.”  This term comes from a reaction to the famous sermon by Jonathan Edwards in 1741 entitled “Sinners in the Hands of ...  Read More

Maybe you remember this from Jonathan Swift’s satire called Gulliver’s Travels.  The Lilliputians (little people) believe Gulliver’s clock is his god.  Why?  Because he seldom does anything without referring to his clock.  He tells them that it points out the time for all his actions.  This response provided a picture of how enslaved such people had become to time management.  It raises the questi...  Read More