• Fred's Blog

    The Over Examined Life

    According to Socrates, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I suppose that is right for the most part. However, is it possible to have an over examined life? In the last several years, I have been in conversations with people young and old about what it means to do something meaningful with their lives. For the young, it is mostly a question of investing their future years in a fulfilling and purposeful career – or series of careers. For many, this leads them to nonprofit work or social entrepreneurship as they have serious doubts about the value of either a corporate career or “menial” work. For the older, it…

  • Bible Studies

    Hosea 3-7

    We talked last week about the context of Hosea. What were his times? They were times of great prosperity for Israel. The kings had taken advantage of the temporary weakness of the nations around them not only to expand their economy but to increase their borders. It was a moment of peace – not through treaties or diplomacy but due to the absence of threats from natural enemies and those who had bothered them for centuries – Assyria, Babylon, the Edomites and Midianites. Those nations were, for the moment, struggling with their own internal disputes and problems. It was an ideal time for Israel. It was a time that people…

  • Fred's Blog

    Against The Flood

    From the first days of the Church there have been competing beliefs about the second coming and end times. Yes, there were and are false teachers but most of the confusion has resulted from jumping to conclusions about certain signs, overly excited imaginations or just different readings of Scripture. Why else would we have pre/post/a millennial interpretations? Why else would we have an end times industry? From the outset there have been two major perspectives on the role of the Church in the world as we await the second coming of Christ. There is the conquering Church– the Church triumphant. There are those pursuing dominion in the world and, in…

  • Fred's Blog

    The Return of Risk

    Carol and I were in Baltimore last week, and our visits included a middle school in one of the worst neighborhoods of the city. The principal told us their students consistently dropped out long before graduation, and the teen pregnancy rate was triple the state average.  On the wall of his office, he had a chart with three columns:  Coping, Well-Being and Agency. Each column listed the school’s initiatives to improve in each area. While all three are important, it is the sense of agency – the belief that there is something you can do about your circumstances – that drives so much of everything else. You are not a…

  • Bible Studies

    Amos 8-9

    1. “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land — not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.” A famine is a terrible thing and they were dreaded by the people. It was not just a shortage but it meant a change of life lasting for years for everyone. A famine forced Jacob and his sons to go to Egypt in the first…