The UmBlog

Slate is not known for it's Christian testimonials. But a story about forgiveness is a story about Christ whether acknowledged or not. Here is a Christian version.

Jay at FamilyChristianMovies.com found my review of Bella and wanted to talk about it at his blog . Thanks Jay. Keep up the good work.

Paul boils the list of ejection-worthy offenses down to six in 1 Corinthians 5:11; fornication, greed, idolatry, verbal abuse, drunkenness, thievery. Sounds like 5 of the 10 commandments and an obnoxiousness clause. The commandments I'm thinking of are #7 Adultery a , b , c , #10 Lust a , b , #2 No idols a , b , c , d , e , f , #9 Lying, perjury, slander a , b , c , #8 Stealing a , b , all the links are too my previous series on these commandments. My intention is to revisit these topics in the context of church life and try to figure out how to apply this to my church and my life today. Here's how a bunch of different translators or paraphrasers make English of Paul's Greek. I really like the paraphrases in the Message and the Bible in Basic English. NET © But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who calls himself a Christian 1 who is sexually immoral, or greedy, or an idolater, or verbally abusive, 2 or a drunkard, or a swindler. Do not even eat w...

I belong to Toastmasters International and I'm currently President of my club. I think it has provided tremendous benefit to me and my audiences, which is why I seconded Nadia's recommendation at the Springboards Blog . I let CMP know I would pray for his 2 year old son who might have leukemia . Could you as well?

I've been digging into the concept of character lately and its relationship to self-control and long term perspective. For many people, someone without self-control, basically an adult that acts like a child, is usually unpleasant company. In the church though, the story is much more complicated. We are to be a community of grace and mercy. Jesus's religious opponents frequently complained about the company he kept. In Luke 15 they were muttering about his mingling with tax collectors and "sinners" (Luke 15:1-2). This resulted in three amazing parables of his about the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. His point was, every sinner who repents, who was lost but now found, who was dead but now alive, causes celebration in heaven. So like a good shepherd, a poor woman, and a prodigal father , he seeks those that are lost. The lost are usually notorious, yet Jesus sought their company so he could tell them how to get "home," back with their Father. H...

Thanks to Uncommon Descent with many more links on this topic.

After I published previously , I was able to do more thinking on my bike ride home. I know one of my weaknesses as a writer is that I make long mental leaps between points that tends to leave readers mystified. Sorry. Part of what I wanted to say yesterday is that if character is who we are when no one sees us, then, looking at just our sinful thoughts alone, we all fail miserably. Our minds are filled with good and bad. Some of us in equal proportions and some more good, but all of us have evil within us. Even God tells us this through his prophet Jeremiah. The human mind is more deceitful than anything else. It is incurably bad. 1 Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9 But Jesus himself points out that there are good and noble hearts in his parable of the soils. Regarding the soil that enables the seed to produce a hundred fold he says, But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patie...