One of the gifts of the Old Testament is how faithful Israel was in recording their unfaithfulness. Israel could've erased all their sins, but they recorded their idolatry, oppression of others, and when they put words in God's mouth. Erasing a nation's sins isn't...
It is scandalous how Christians extract ancient texts of the Hebrew Bible, call it our Old Testament, and then interpret them without any reference to the way Jewish biblical interpretation itself has proceeded for over two millennia. from Changing Our Mind
Christians have learned not to see the relevance of the justice teachings of the Old Testament. Despite hundreds of references to justice and to the God of justice in the Old Testament, justice is not customarily an important part of our theology, ethics, or...
Make no mistake about it: the most important musical group in the church is the congregation. Worship is for all of God’s people; the New Testament doctrine of the priesthood of all believers calls for the saints to lift up their voices (whether musically gifted or...
We can learn a great deal about worship by looking at the earliest Christians, for the culture that surrounded them was in many ways similar to ours in twenty-first century North America. Then and now the population is highly pluralistic, with the people’s...
By the mercies of God, this new covenant community has been released from the darkness and foolishness of illicit worship to serve the living God in spirit and truth. In a very real sense this is the goal of the process of redemption, just as it was in the Old...
Sometimes when I have not understood why God has not answered my prayer my way, it has been made clear to me later. Sometimes when it has seemed that my way has been done, I have learned later that it was not the best way. I am gradually learning to turn everything...