• Fred's Blog

    Practice Resurrection

    Last week I attended the annual meeting of the Wedgwood Circle. Wedgwood seeks out and convenes people who are committed to creating and supporting art and entertainment that is “good, true and beautiful.” It’s hard work being an artist. Jack Kerouac said, “Genius gives birth, talent delivers.” It’s oftentimes discouraging and unrewarding work spending years turning inspiration and imagination into something tangible for others to appreciate or value. However, it is even harder if your desire is to create something not just commercially viable but also “good, true and beautiful for the common good.” Consider the odds just in getting your film into the Sundance Film Festival. Over 12,000 independent…

  • Bible Studies

    Do Not Covet

    So, here we are at the final commandmentry. Do not covet. The commandment has been used to describe a number of sins and faults and I would like to describe it this morning as the sin that comes at the end of a process – and not something that is sometimes spontaneous like murder or lying or even adultery. There is something about covetousness that reflects intentionality and meditation. In fact, as we’ll see when we look at Micah that is exactly how God describes it. But first let’s look at two things that are often described as coveting – but are not. Neither of these involve other people, really.…

  • Fred's Blog

    Up in Smoke

    Growing up Southern Baptist I have indelible memories of the Sunday School offering envelope used by the church. It was more than a tracking device for offerings. We were also graded by our teacher on bringing our Bible, preparing for the lesson, and attending church to hear the preaching afterwards. However, I don’t have any recollections of our asking the church about its own performance during the week. I remember hearing occasionally about attendance, baptisms and money – and that was pretty much the whole list. We gave our offering because we were supposed to give and had been taught to do so out of obedience, not unlike the Old…

  • Fred's Blog

    An Abiding Interest

      If David Brooks and Frederick Buechner do not know each other, I wish they did because they have at least a couple of things in common. Buechner once told an interviewer that he is “too religious for secular readers and too secular for religious ones.” Both Brooks and Buechner share an abiding interest in the world around them. David describes it as “paying attention” as he walks around New York, travels and teaches at Yale. His ability to find both the obscure and the familiar and hold them up in fresh ways is what keeps people coming back to his columns and books. Frederick Buechner writes about “listening to…

  • Bible Studies

    Stealing

    1.  You have probably heard this: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among them are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. There are some things that we hold as self-evident which means you need no proof for them. They are accepted by all people at all times as true. All we need to do is affirm them – but not prove them. In the same way, you would expect a number of the commandments – like do not steal – to be self-evident. After all, don’t we just know that…

  • Fred's Blog

    Till the Cows Come Home

      I have had the privilege of learning from many wise older men throughout my life, one of them being Peter Drucker. Peter and I worked together through my role with Bob Buford and Leadership Network. For the first 12 years I was around Peter, I spoke only when he asked a question. Otherwise, I listened and took notes. In 1996, Peter and I spent a day together talking about the future of The Gathering. He was especially interested in our focus and what we hoped to accomplish. And if you know anything about Peter, you know that all discussions lead back to results. Peter and I met again to…

  • Bible Studies

    Adultery

    1.  Now we come to the seventh commandment: you will not commit adultery. In a sense adultery is a combination of all the sins that follow. It is theft in that it involves the taking of something is not ours. It is covetousness in that it is desiring something belonging to someone else and it always involves a lie. That is why it comes after murder – it is a type of murder. The murder of fidelity and a sacred relationship. There are a number of words for sexual sin in Scripture and let’s look at those individually. First, there is porneia or what we call fornication. Several times Paul…

  • Bible Studies

    Murder

    1.  Last week we looked at the fifth commandment – honor your mother and father – and pointed out that the first four commandments are about who God is and our relationship with him. The fifth commandment is then about the next most important relationship in our lives – that with our parents. That relationship is the root of all our other relationships in life. The sixth commandment begins a series of commandments about our relationship with others – but in a way it begins with the first family and the almost immediate effect of sin – the murder of Abel by Cain. No sooner had they lost paradise than…