One of the most common practices in the early church was that of hospitality. It was radical hospitality. It started with Jesus never having a house of his own and most often staying in homes of people who demonstrated radical hospitality. It continued when he sent out the first disciples, telling them to preach the …
Continue reading Provocative Bible Verses: Letting Strangers Live in Your House
I find it very interesting to consider "worst-case scenarios". A few years ago I even bought a board game by that name. (By the way, don't bother getting it. It became the fulfillment of it's own name) But thinking about the worst-case scenario recently I thought, what would the typical church going American do if …
There I was in the Johannesburg airport in South Africa. I was supposed to be changing planes in Atlanta right about then and heading home to Orlando. That's what happens when your connecting flight from Cape Town gets diverted to another airport, in a town you never heard of, due to bad weather. The four …
Troy Polamalu wears number 43 for the Pittsburgh Steelers but is clearly more commonly known by his extremely long, flowing hair trailing behind in the breeze, while he runs like few men can. On the field he appears to be everywhere at once. He makes plays that cause the most seasoned commentators, coaches, and players …
Continue reading Steelers Free Safety: a study in contrasts, or is he?
"Think not that I came to send peace on the earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law" Matthew 10:34-35 There is a clear impression …
Continue reading Provocative Bible Verses: Jesus Came to Divide People
"But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also" Matthew 5:39 Many people want to bypass these provocative words from Jesus because they seem to imply that we are to allow people to just beat the tar out of us …
Continue reading Provocative Bible Verses: Turn the Other Cheek
When love is seen as nothing more than a fleeting emotion that we can't control, that we fall in and out of, and that comes and goes in a completely arbitrary way, then it is impossible to obey the command of Jesus to love our enemies. So either something is seriously wrong with our understanding …
Continue reading Provocative Bible Verses: Love Your Enemies
"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." John 4:23 & 24 When Jesus had a conversation with the …
Continue reading Provocative Worship pt 3: What the Father is Looking For
There are few things that can both depress me and make me furious at the same time. This is about one of those things. A headline on the BBC news website is titled Christian Infighting in Jerusalem. The title does not even begin to hint at the appalling nature of the story that follows. In …
The opening cut into the bedrock at the base of the second pyramid at Giza was barely a meter high by a meter wide. I got down low and proceeded in, down the 30 degree slope, doing a near duck walk for about 30 yards. At the bottom it leveled out and the ceiling opened …
George Carlin did a comedy sketch about "stuff". In essence it was a brilliant commentary on how our possessions actually possess us. Of course he did it from a decidedly American point of view. Having spent some time this morning walking around the city of Manaus in Brazil, I can tell you that "stuff" is …
Continue reading “Stuff” and the Lost Art of Christian Contentment
“You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” James 2:19 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe …
Continue reading Provocative Love: Why Believing in God is NOT Enough
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments." John 14:15 In 1976 Pittsburgh was still a very strong blue collar, union town. My friend Howard worked at a manufacturing plant that had a very strong union. One day there was a wildcat strike. Basically that means that the union members went on strike illegally. …
Continue reading Provocative Obedience: The High Cost of Loving Jesus
"I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you." John 17:20, 21 As a pastor I can not count the number of times that I have had people ask me why some …
"In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have" 1 Peter 3:15 To be provocative means to provoke a response. Christians are to be provocative. Not in the sense that we provoke people to …
The Provocative Christian 