partsofspeaking

Tomorrow I am teaching on the Old Adam vs. New Adam. I rarely go by the book. I'm going to spend some time on the humanity and lineage of Jesus. Matthew includes five women in his geneaology, four Gentiles and Mary; all were outcasts or shamed in one way or another; two prostitutes, one mistress, two pregnant out of marriage, one a refugee. And they all were mommas or great-great grandmas to Jesus. Pretty cool, when you think about it. What a picture of grace. Their descendant saved them from their shame and sin.

I'll borrow this for the day.  https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2020/february-web-only/centered-cross-fred-sanders-crucifixion.html If regularity of posting means anything, I should have a lot more hits on this blog!  I'm sort of joking. It is my calling to write, and to write positive fiction (although that's hard; mine takes a dark turn much of the time) and messages that spread Biblical teaching, mostly the gospel, and helpful posts about communication. A calling, in part, means you do it even when the results aren't there. In reading the essay on the link above, I reflected on Jesus dying. Do we think about dying? Do we really ponder what it would be like to leave this level of consciousness, which is all we know, to another level, which we don't, and which Hamlet called "the undiscovered country"? It is a door we walk through; unlike the secular version of reality, death was not in the original plan for us. It is now necessary for better thi...

I've been a low-church Protestant during my Christian experience, so Lent has not been a large part of it until recently. Therefore, my reflections are not all that deep. Lent is supposed to be about repentance and preparation for worship at Easter. As such, it is a necessary spiritual exercise. To many, it is also about a personal sacrifice; I grew up in a Catholic area (Maryland), so the concept of giving up chocolate or cigarettes or alcohol for Lent was the default. Perhaps I am too lazy to give up certain foods or bodily practices, but I prefer to focus on "giving up" *my anger *my apathy *my addiction to self concern and self reliance *my active mouth We could probably do an "alphabet" of these.... May our everyday until the celebration of the resurrection be a step toward dependence on God and awareness of the needs of our neighbors, neighbors being defined not be geography but humanity.

What would happen if we substitute we, our, us for I, my, me in every contemporary worship song?

We know there is an entitlement of wealth and affluence. We see it all the time. But is it possible to have a sense of entitlement from being in poverty, a state I distinguish from "not having much money." I think so. It is the entitlement of dependency, the entitlement of others who are better off owe me. Harsh? Again, you can have little money and not have a mindset of poverty. Much has been written on this. I went through a period where I could not find good employment and we had very little money, living on about $20,000 a year (in the early '90s). But we had everything we needed, did without luxuries, and drove old cars. Not fun, but we didn't think we were owed something. Not that I set myself as an example. I resent those who flaunt their wealth and are clueless about needs around them, so maybe there's an entitlement of having lived through hard times.

  https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2020/february-web-only/deconstructing-faith-agnosticism-atheism-journey-husband.html Because I'm at spiritual odds in my marriage, I feel this deeply.  (My situation is not the same, though.) That this writer continues in the marriage is a blessing and a mystery; I don't know how one could when the core thing between you is not there any longer. Paul does give permission for the believer to let the unbeliever leave. I wonder sometimes if we do things, even very hurtful things, to test the love of the other person. It is childish and selfish to do so, but there it is. 4  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; [ b ] 6  it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. I had two funeral visitations...

Tweet: What if God doesn’t really want you to write books, have a blog, have a website, or have a para-church ministry? What if he wants you to just be faithful in serving the local church and sharing Christ with the world without being noticed? Are you OK with that? Me: An intriguing thread. Why is writing a blog or books, trying to communicate the gospel and encourage believers, necessarily conflated with trying to get attention to oneself or be noticed? Yep, there are plenty who do want the notice and are neglecting the local, but not all. So, what is this guy getting at? I have struggled with this enough, that writing is just about me. If it were, I'd stop; it's too ever-loving hard, and it's not working. I'm calling into cyberspace, and hope that someone reads and hears about Jesus, among my more random posts.  And I don't know how to get rid of this browse box.

“Jesus of the Scars” by Edward Shillito If we have never sought, we seek Thee now; Thine eyes burn through the dark, our only stars; We must have sight of thorn-pricks on Thy brow, We must have Thee, O Jesus of the Scars.  The heavens frighten us; they are too calm; In all the universe we have no place. Our wounds are hurting us; where is the balm? Lord Jesus, by Thy Scars, we claim Thy grace. If, when the doors are shut, Thou drawest near, Only reveal those hands, that side of Thine; We know to-day what wounds are, have no fear, Show us Thy Scars, we know the countersign. The other gods were strong; but Thou wast weak; They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne; But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak, And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.

Yesterday in Northwest Georgia we had a perfect snow. Big, thick flakes falling heavily for four hours. At our house, a good four inches. Enough for kids to enjoy and make snowmen and for transplanted Yankees to sigh and wish for more, and for Southerners to revel in the white-covered world that wouldn't affect them much. A Saturday, so schools were not affected. By 5:00 pm, the sun and warmth had taken care of 99% of it. There might have been some accidents, but not inevitable ones. However, the 1% that remained seemed to like my front steps, of which there are 13 from the porch to the sidewalk. I took for granted that at 33 degrees it wouldn't be slippery. How wrong. I slipped and fell on my back and began to slide down the steps in three waves.  Bump, bump, bump.  Bump, bump, bump, bump, bump.  Bump, bump, bump, bump. And I was running late for teaching my life group class. Sore, but nothing broken. I got up (I was at the bottom of the stairs by then), walked to my c...

Is this how we live as a Bible student? This morning in the life group I was leading, a member asked a question about Jesus going to hell after the cross to pay for our sins. Someone asked her because she heard it on the 700 Club, etc. I wanted to set that record straight. "How long would Jesus have to be in hell to pay for our sins? Just two days? No, it was finished on the cross. The gospel doesn't include 'he went to hell to pay for our sins.'" I realize there is debate, 2000 years of it, over those passages in Ephesians  and 2 Timothy, but they have nothing to do with soteriology. (Look that one up.) Yet, those are complex passages. The problem with heresy hunting is that one must know a lot of doctrinal history and hermeneutics as well as the company line on a passage.

I have written a book on Daniel's leadership in a secular position and how he maintained integrity, faith, and testimony. Nehemiah is another example of the same. https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Strange-Land-Daniel-Leadership/dp/1978081359/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=Barbara+G.+Tucker&qid=1581182190&sr=8-4 Here are the notes for my small group lesson on Nehemiah tomorrow. One lesson is not enough to explore this book. There are several Bible studies along this line, Chuck Swindoll's Hand Me Another Brick being probably the most famous.  Time: He and Ezra are leaders of the last group of Jews back from the Exile, which began in 535 B.C. He leads the rebuilding of the wall starting in 445 or 444 BC. Ezra is a religious leader who led the rebuilding of the Temple. Nehemiah is a secular leader who leads the people to protect themselves. Nehemiah is a high level administrator for King Artaxerxes (son of Esther’s husband) I. 1:1-4. 2:1-8; 4. Nehe...

The glory of social media is that with a click you can be connected to a lot of people with a lot of ideas, good and bad, weird and thoughtful. These are people you probably know nothing so there is little context or sense of why in their opinions. You can then create a backstory and personality and life for that person on the feed. Or you can just ignore them or ask Facebook to de-expose you to their rants. Somehow, I think through a writer friend, I got on a feed or thread or page or profile (these are all different but we use the words interchangeably and incorrectly) called Conservatives for a New Movement or some such. And the post of the day was #ThankyouMitt. Why? Because Mitt Romney voted for Donald J. Trump to be impeached, going against everyone else in his party in the Senate. So, was he a Profile in Courage or a traitor? Was he making a statement about what the Republican party must regain and return to--ethics in its leaders--or just looking for attention and a way t...

This is from https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/friday-fragments-173?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=89bbce2835-DNU_2019_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-89bbce2835-198482621&mc_cid=89bbce2835&mc_eid=ab27a3f05f "Speaking of niche entertainment, this week I had occasion to quote Buckaroo Banzai. He was the hero of a largely forgotten '80s cult movie who was given one accidentally brilliant line: “No matter where you go, there you are.” The context was a class in educational administration, in which I was a guest speaker. Someone asked about an inventory of leadership skills and which were the most important. I drew on Buckaroo, and maybe a little Plato, and suggested that self-awareness has to top the list. If you change jobs, you still bring yourself with you; it’s worth trying to figure out what that means. . . . . If it’s all about you, then there’s really no "self" of wh...

Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship ... is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure, and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already—it’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness. David Foster Wallace