There is a great deal being said in recent days about Jesus being divisive. What is a stunning turn of events is that it is not being declared by people outside the Christian faith who you would expect to have a negative view of Jesus. Instead, it is being proclaimed by people within the church …
Category: Christians and Culture
Loving Your Enemies
Several years ago, I wrote a book titled The Provocative God: Radical Things God Has Said and Done. The focus of the book was to address radical passages in the Bible that we have either become so familiar with that we fail to recognize their radical nature, or that, due to their radical nature, we …
Whatever Happened to Hope?
Do we live in troubled times? Of course we do. I don't need to give you a litany of the terrible things happening in our world. You see it 24/7 on your news feed, social media, and from the people around you who are sharing and passing along more of the same. It is a …
Can We Really Love Our Enemies in Times Like These?
I am reminded of a line from a song by Larry Norman, "The Beatles said all you need is love, and then they broke up". If four lads from Liverpool who were making serious bank together couldn't get along, how are we supposed to actually love one another in a time of such division and …
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What Ever Happened to Civil Debate?
One of the more formative experiences in my childhood came in the 6th grade. We had a teacher who encouraged open debate and critical thinking. Several times during the school year a subject would arise in which there were multiple, strongly held, varying positions among the students. Our teacher would use those times to set …
We All Need Forgiveness: An excerpt from my upcoming book, The Provocative Christian: How Gospel Focused Living Changes Everything.
On June 6, 1944, allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France. One of the hardest hit units was the 116 infantry regiment of the American 29th Infantry Division. They landed on Omaha Beach in the first wave of landing craft. David Silva was a 19-year-old infantryman in the 29th Division. When the ramp dropped …
Loving People Jesus Style is Hard Work
What do we mean when we use the word love? Better yet, what did Jesus mean?
Wanting Christianity Without Christ
When we live in our own cultural setting, with little real exposure to other cultures, it is easy to miss how we got to where we are. When we live in our own microcosm of time and ignore the centuries it took to get to this moment, it is inevitable that we will have blinders …
The Sanity of Belief: Why Faith Makes Sense
By Simon Edwards Lately, I have been spending a vast amount of time on the subject of apologetics. If you don't know what apologetics is, don't feel bad. It's one of those almost insider words that theology nerds throw around. However, it is a terribly important subject. It comes from the Greek word, Apologia, which …
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The Flip Side of Justice
Want to make people uncomfortable? Just bring up the topic of justice in American culture today. There will be immediate reactions of every conceivable type. Some will cry out about the level of injustice with claims that America has never been concerned about justice and that the entire enterprise is rotten to the core. Others …
Stop Whining!
For several years I have been hearing and reading lots of Christians, many of them leaders in churches, talk about the persecution that Christians are under in the United States and how it is going to get worse. In the last few days I have read and heard numerous doom and gloom scenarios about the …
When May a Christian Defy the Government?
In light of recent events at our nation's Capitol Building and the close association of Christian banners and symbols with that event, I began to think about the whole question of when Christians may or even should defy the governing authorities over them. The fact that yesterday was the day celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King …
Have We Lost Our Way?
ON JANUARY 13, 2021 BY DAN LACICH There is a line from The Hobbit where Bilbo Baggins is perplexed, and alone, and unsure of where to go, or what to do. In that moment he says, “I have lost my dwarves, my wizard, and my way”. The dwarves were his traveling companions on a mission to restore the …
Of Refugees, Politics, and Jesus
If there is something sad that characterises how we approach difficult or controversial issues in the age of internet memes. It is that the extremes move to center stage and gain all the attention. The pithy, mic-drop sound bite becomes the be all and end all in the debate. Emotion packed retorts push out any …
Why Rob Bell is Right
Recently Rob Bell was quoted as saying some rather provocative things about the church, homosexuality, gay marriage, and the irrelevancy of the Bible. As has been the case for the last few years, whenever Bell speaks there is a minor firestorm that erupts. One of the unfortunate aspects of the firestorm is at some important …
The Provocative Christian 