http://james.wibberding.com/blog The convictions and questions of a postmodern Christian Sun, 23 Aug 2009 15:46:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Our Souderton church celebrated its 100th anniversary yesterday. The event has caused me to research the history of this local church and has given me perspective on my own efforts to serve God. The local church began with great ambitions, then faltered, then grew over the next ten years by ... http://james.wibberding.com/blog/?p=29 The root of sin is selfishness. This is clear at the moment of Lucifer's fall (Isaiah 14:12-14) and at the moment of man's fall (Genesis 3:4-6), when each tried to elevate self above their proper place before God. In light of this, I think we miss the mark when we ... http://james.wibberding.com/blog/?p=28 I am doing a sermon series right now that approaches the book of Revelation as a collection of character studies. I think this is an interpretive angle that would reduce confusion for lots of people. It works pretty simply: The first time a character is featured, a visual description is ... http://james.wibberding.com/blog/?p=27 As you may know, I conducted a comprehensive study of the biblical Sabbath experience a few years ago and shared some of my findings in the book Sabbath Reflections: A Weekly Devotional. But, I just discovered a new insight. I'm not sure I know what all it means yet but ... http://james.wibberding.com/blog/?p=25 Another part of re-simplifying our views of spiritual gifts (back to the original simplicity of Scripture) is recognizing the categories. 1 Corinthians 12 explicitly presents spiritual gifts as pieces of a larger whole (the members are pieces of the larger body). Yet, we usually consider spiritual gifts as a collection ... http://james.wibberding.com/blog/?p=24 Another significant idea emerges from 1 Corinthians 12. There, it describes the church body as Christ's body on earth. In it, Paul explains that each member of the church is a member of Christ's body (v. 12-14). He rebukes those who minimize the importance of another member (v. 14-19) and ... http://james.wibberding.com/blog/?p=23 Science tells us that, in nature, things tend toward disorder--that time spawns chaos. In the church, I suspect the opposite is true. We take simple things and make them complex. This is certainly true of spiritual gifts. We read texts like 1 Corinthians 12 and make seminars, sophisticated gifts assessment ... http://james.wibberding.com/blog/?p=22 In a previous post, I suggested that appropriate Bible study let's Scripture set the agenda. Let me explain what I mean. Much of Bible study is done to establish doctrine, which means that we look for specific answers when we open our Bible's. This may be church doctrine or a ... http://james.wibberding.com/blog/?p=21 One reason Christians splinter into so many denominations is that Christians don't know how to study the Bible. When we sit down at the Word of God, strange behaviors take over. Instead of taking in the whole message and letting it guide our thoughts, we look for key statements that ... http://james.wibberding.com/blog/?p=20 I tuned in to the Republican presidential debate on 11/28/07, where candidates were asked whether they believe in every word of the Bible. The question made candidates obviously uncomfortable, and I don't blame them. Unless you define what it means to believe the Bible, a yes or no answer may ... http://james.wibberding.com/blog/?p=19