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What Does It Profit a Man?
There has been a recent flurry of articles by the World Bank, Nick Kristof in The New York Times, Andrew Mayeda in Benchmark and others about the progress in the elimination of extreme poverty in the world. Multiple studies are showing better than expected results in the reduction of extreme poverty around the world. Their main measure of success is based on the World Bank’s decision to raise its definition of extreme poverty to income of $1.90 per day, from $1.25. Of course, there have been other articles, notably Jason Hickel writing in Al Jazeera, that these reports have been intentionally distorted and based on faulty data. Hickel believes that…
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Romans 1:18-32
When we left Paul last week he was in Corinth and had just finished telling the Roman church that he was looking forward to seeing them. He opens with his calling as an apostle even though much of the leadership of the early church thought of him as an outsider and someone pushing his way in. And then he reiterates his special calling to the Gentiles and we looked at all the years he had spent unsuccessfully preaching to the Jews. But, we also said it is often the case that those very things we might consider failure and wasted effort might well be God’s way of keeping us occupied…
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Jacob Wrestles With God
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Would You Vote for an Atheist for President?
At a dinner this week I was asked the question, “Would you vote for an atheist for President?” In the past that would have been rhetorical as I have yet to meet an atheist running for political office so have never thought about the notion of how that might affect their decisions. Of course, we’ve had brushes in the not-too-distant past with well-intentioned evangelicals deeply worried about electing John Kennedy as a Catholic President. More recently, Dr. Ben Carson, a Seventh Day Adventist, has been criticized for doubting a Muslim could serve as President because their theology and worldview would be incompatible with the principles of a democracy. Catholic, Mormon…
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Introduction for Michael Card – The Gathering 2015
The imaginative Bible teacher requires a particular sort of humility. Whereas the writer or the poet or artist can create with an almost totally free hand, the Bible teacher does not write the text. So, teaching comes with limitations that frustrate some and in their desire to be creative and not repeat what has been heard over and over again, they fall into the trap of distorting the text in ways never intended. They are fascinating but they mislead and instead of using imagination they create fictions. We know that Rembrandt, Picasso and Van Gogh all painted over their own masterpieces and produced two masterpieces on the same canvas. But…
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Introduction for Kay Warren – The Gathering 2015
Maybe that’s just the right place to introduce Kay this evening because she has been down many roads over the last several years. C.S. Lewis said that a young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere – Bibles laid open, millions of surprises…fine nets and stratagems. God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous.” It was one of those open books – actually a magazine – that disrupted Kay’s life as a wife, mother and cofounder of Saddleback Church. But it was just a few months after that she was diagnosed with the first of two bouts…
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Introduction for Andrew Peterson – The Gathering 2015
Artists require a special quality of humility. Not the kind that denies their gift but that which is often surprised when the ideas, images, words and melodies first come to mind. Because, in the end, they do not create out of nothing. The best are those who know how much of their work is listening and then following the thread to see where it leads. When asked where his inspiration comes from Andrew replied, “The biggest thing is this: by the discipline of paying attention.” But there is something else. I read this in an interview by Sarah Geil with Andrew in the studio while he was recording his new…
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Leaning on the Everlasting Arms: Opening Talk for The Gathering 2015
There are times when people ask what the theme of the conference is, and without exception I tell them there never is a theme. We have no idea what the conference will be when we start thinking about next year. Sometimes a theme emerges that is totally unplanned and we are all surprised. This may be the first time in many years I have seen something ahead of time but only a short while ago did I realize it. I was looking at the speakers and noticed there is a pattern in some of their lives. I met Kay Warren and Lynne Hybels through their husbands, Rick and Bill. At…
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Romans 1:1-17
When I was in the Navy there was one thing you could count on doing constantly. It was the paint detail. While I was never on a ship I served in a number of hard places that were surrounded by the sea Italy, Bermuda, Key West and every surface was subject to corrosion from the salt air. Yes, there were times when we did paint detail just to keep us busy and out of trouble but, on the whole, it was necessary because of our environment. We added layers and layers of paint to surfaces that were painted over for years. There was never any arguing with the…
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A Movement or a Mob
Nicky Gumbel, the Rector of Holy Trinity Brompton Anglican church in London said, “Movements grow from the intersection of a personal story and circumstances.” It’s true. Movements do not begin without an extraordinary individual, but they are not just a series of rallies around that charismatic individual. That person must come at just the right time and under the right set of particular circumstances to make change possible. Because so much of what I believe about human behavior and group dynamics comes from stories in the Bible, I’ve looked at the number of times mobs came up against the movement of the early Church—a movement founded in hope in the…
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The Rent House in Rome: Acts 28
Nicky Gumbel, the Rector of Holy Trinity Brompton Anglican church in London says, “Movements grow from the intersection of a personal story and circumstances.” It’s true, isn’t it? Movements cannot be explained in any other way. They do not begin without an extraordinary individual but that person must come at just the right time and under the right set of circumstances that make change possible. It’s interesting to watch the movement growing around Donald Trump right now. Conditions and personality are in perfect alignment. Erik Erikson in his book titled “Young Man Luther” said this, “Ideological leaders, so it seems, are subject to excessive fears which they can master only…
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Jacob Wrestles With God
