“Why do we fall down Master Bruce?”
This is the question the devoted butler Alfred asks Bruce Wayne during a particularly difficult trial. Alfred asks this question knowing full well that Bruce knows the answer and while it is true, in fact likely, that that at one time such a question would have been an instructive one, by the time Bruce Wayne has taken on the persona of Batman the question serves more to encourage and exhort the Dark Knight.
“Why do we fall down Master Bruce?”
“So we learn to get back up.” Read more…
I spend a lot of time thinking. I like thinking. I even listen to Catholic radio on my way into work because they usually have really thought provoking discussions about faith and modern society. (It’s especially thought provoking when I don’t think I agree with the radio host)
I like to think about some of the craziest things and then, having thought about it, end up dismissing it as irrelevant to living a life of faith. Questions like “In what order did the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit come into being?” or “to what degree are the elements of the trinity the same and different and does it impact their unity of activity?” Read more…
This week, two parents in Oregon City are going on trial for criminal negligence and manslaughter. As near as I can tell these are generally good people, who love Jesus and pursue Him daily while attempting to live as he directed us to do so in the gospels. So why are they on trial?
They did not seek medical treatment for their premature baby who died. The parents did not seek medical treatment because they were convinced that the Father would heal the child just as Jesus did so many times in the gospel accounts. Only He didn’t. A premature baby died because the parents were waiting in faith for Christ to heal him or her (I’m not sure of the gender of the baby) and the healing never came. Read more…
Did you catch the emphasis on NEVER there? I don’t care if we’re talking about Sodom and Gomorrah or the separating of the sheep and the goats, Judgment is not the point. Judgment happens, and punishment is handed out but judgment is never the goal or the reason, the goal or the center point behind it all.
I heard on the radio the other day that God came down to the tower of Babel just like with Sodom and Gomorrah to pronounce judgment over them. It wasn’t that God needed to see the iniquities of man for himself, after all, he has the whole omnipresent/omniscience thing going on. So why did he show up in person? According to the radio it was because the Judge must be present to hand out judgment. That God loves us enough to do it himself to our face, rather than send an intermediary. Read more…
This is a post I wrote for my buddy over at Cowboy Campfire Ministries. Here’s an excerpt and a link for the whole thing.
Now you may say to me “no he wasn’t he was a carpenter!” and if that’s you I have two questions for you.
1) Are you upset about what you see as a misreading of scripture or are you upset about the fact that I called the man who raised Jesus a day laborer?
2) … actually that’s the only question I really have.
Here’s the thing, we think of carpenters and in this day and age we think of people who build cabinets, furniture or maybe even boats. But a person who builds boats is called a shipwright while people who build cabinets or furniture are most often called tradesman or craftsmen. Even today it is true that carpenters are generally involved with the shaping of wood for construction purposes.
Read more
