Seeking Your Complicated Questions About Life, God, and the Bible

We all have them: questions about life, God, and the Bible that we’ve been quiet about, or that have been building in us over the years.  This blog seeks to answer your questions as best we can, and in a way that’s understandable and NOT complicated.

So…what do you do?

ASK!  Post a question in the comments below, and we will try to start answering those questions one by one!

Use this as your opportunity to learn, figure life out, or just to poke around and see what Christians REALLY believe.  We are here for you!

So ask away, we will do our best to answer honestly.

Poverty in Appalachia: Third World Living Conditions in America?

I recently took my students on a trip to serve the people in the Appalachia region in Kentucky, and was struck by the severe amount of poverty that exists here in our own country.

The experience impacted all of us who traveled to Kentucky. I would like to share with you all I saw while I was there.

If you are interested in learning just what the trip was like, please check out my article on Associated Content:

Poverty in Appalachia: Third World Living Conditions in America?

Also, I encourage everyone to be on the lookout for ways that they can help the people in Appalachia as well. Let’s bring hope to the hopeless.

Christianese Terms on the Bottom Shelf: the Word of God

What does the term “Word of God” mean when Christians say it, and where did it come from? One in a series on defining Christian terminology and Christianese sayings.

Cutting Through the Christianese
Christians have a language that they have developed over the past 2000 years: Christianese. It is an insider’s language, a mystery to those outside the Christian faith, and a secret to be unraveled. The good stuff should always be available to everyone. The “cookies,” the good stuff, should be placed on the bottom shelf for everyone to be able to get to. Over the course of this series, we hope to remove the cloud of Christianese, and expose what those terms really mean, and to put the cookies back on the bottom shelf.

To learn what the “Word of God” is, read:

Translating Christianese Terms: The Word of God on the Bottom Shelf

Resources on Gay Marriage: Dr. Darrell Bock

Recently Dr. Darrell Bock wrote a series on gay marriage in response to an article posted in Newsweek.

If you are interested to hear his informed take, take a look at these resources:

Haircuts, Public Homilies, News Magazines, and Gay Marriage: A Look at the Case from Newsweek Post # 1- The Starting Point

Journalistic Integrity, the Bible, and Marriage in Newsweek’s Gay Marriage Piece: A Need To Give Context

Newsweek and Gay Marriage: The Bible and Marriage

Newsweek on Homosexuality

Remaining Issues on Homosexuality

Social Networking and the Church

As the Internet continues to grow and develop (I sometimes describe it like a child, the first decade of the Internet being somewhat of an infant/toddler phase and the last few years seeing a transition into more of a childhood phase – with many more phases to come) and on some levels mature, there are many exciting opportunities and advantages for the Church. One of these is the Social Networking space.

So, what is Social Networking and what’s all the hype about? On the most basic level SN’s are the network of connections between people. They exist all around you. You are involved in social networks: your neighbors, your family and at church (for example you know Jason who knows someone you don’t, Clint – and Jason can introduce you to Clint). There are a number of internet sites and technologies (platforms) that try to assist with the organization, faciliatation and interaction of these connections (like Facebook, MySpace and MyChurch).

For more of Chris Goodman’s thoughts, please read Social Networking and the Church

Christians and the Economy

I was reading on biblicalfoundations.org, and found this to be a fascinating discussion of the relationship between Christian thought and the current economic crisis.

It should be noted that Andreas Kostenberger, the author of this post, got his first Ph.D. in economics:

A generation ago, Francis Schaeffer prophetically lamented that the West had lost its spiritual moorings in its pursuit of prosperity, personal peace, and affluence. Now, as Arthur Laffer, Stephen Moore, and Peter Tanous suggest in their recent book The End of Prosperity, it appears that this prosperity is fast slipping away, too (though, as will become clear later on, while I agree with their diagnosis, I believe their solution does not nearly go deep enough). In fact, the current economic crisis is global in scope, and the depth of the recession increasingly approaches the magnitude of the Great Depression. The major economic indicators paint an exceedingly dismal picture, as the following sampling of relevant information illustrates. Consider this disturbing set of data.

To read more, check out Christians and the Economy: Is There Hope?

The Bible Buffet: Picking and Choosing What You Want From Scripture

Accomplished writer Sheryl Young posted a conversation between a server at a buffet and a customer about what the customer would like to take from the Bible, and what he would like to leave out.

This is so true, and yet so sad.

Please read it, it is definitely worth your time:

Today’s Christianity, Part 3: Welcome to the Bible Buffet

For Love or Money in Luke 15: God’s Value System Vs. People’s Value System

Luke 15 says much about the world and what drives it, and contrasts that against what drives God. Jesus doesn’t play around with the things that He desires.

The Evidence of Money, Passion, Sacrifice, and Time
What is it that drives us in this world? As we hit our daily grind and churn out whatever work we occupy ourselves with, what is the moving force behind the decisions we make, the people we interact with, the lives we lead?

In Luke 15 Jesus is challenged by men for his acceptance of what most would consider disreputable company, and his response is one of the most beloved parables of all time: the story of the Prodigal Son. In Luke 15, Jesus draws a sharp contrast between the value system of God and the
value system of men by showing a father who so loves his ungrateful, sinful son that he runs to meet him when he returns in shame and remorse against the backdrop of a selfish, self-righteous older brother who is angry that the father loves the sinful son so much.

The contrast between the father’s and the elder son’s reactions in the story of the prodigal son shows a great disparity between God’s value system and man’s value system. God, as we see in Scripture, IS love. Man, as we see in life, is selfish.

Consider for a moment our run-around, tail-chasing lives. What is it that we really value, and what do we sacrifice for?

For the answer to this and other questions, read:

For Love or Money in Luke 15: God’s Value System Vs. People’s Value System.