I’m stepping aside from answering questions in this installment of Tentpegs. Most of you know that I’ve been reading a lot of literature on the Civil Rights Movement and that I’ve been meeting with a series of African-Americans to learn about their experience in America, back in the 50s and 60s and today. My studies [...]
We have dealt with The Problem of Prayer before in this series, but it is probably time to revisit it. In our study last night my wife and I discussed James 5:13-20. I admitted that I struggle with these sorts of passages because they are incredibly clear, and yet don’t seem to mesh with experience. [...]
Here are two quick ones that came in last week. I have been in 5 states in the last nine days so I am running behind, especially over at my Hidden History series. Sorry! I’ll get on it as soon as I can. I am being interviewed this evening via podcast. A cluster of female [...]
Allow me to cheat a little with this one. This one didn’t come into tentpegsquestion@yahoo.com but, rather, was asked of me by a sweet sister in Christ last night. I am presenting a series on Re-Imagining the Church here in Indiana for the next couple of days. When this church heard how free and joyful [...]
Questions have started pouring in to tentpegsquestion@yahoo.com after a bit of a dry spell. All right… let’s go… Given the archeological evidence for the names of the queens of Persia (and that Ester and Vashti are not among the queens) do you think the book of Ester was meant to be a historical narrative, or [...]
I got a version of this question this week: We have a real struggle in our congregation. Most of the older members insist that people should have suits and ties on when they come to church and that those without them are showing disrespect toward God. What do you say? Let’s be very plain and [...]
Here is, shall we say, a seasonally appropriate one: Is celebrating Halloween participating in evil? As a Christian should I celebrate it? This is a sticky one. Many people are so concerned about anything that might possibly begin to think about to commence to lean towards the dark side that they stay away from Snow [...]
We dealt with this once before, but this questioner throws a different spin on it. Remember, you can send your questions to tentpegsquestion@yahoo.com. If you send them via Facebook or my other email accounts, they tend to get lost. Happy Columbus Day. If you want to know more about what history has to say about [...]
Two more quick ones…. You mentioned that the word “angellos” means messenger, which may be a heavenly messenger or an earthly messenger (by implication an evangelist or most in other tribes would say pastor) and that you must draw the conclusion based on the context as to which messenger is being referenced. You mentioned for [...]
Let’s do a couple quick ones: I find it interesting that many promises are issued in the Old Testament. Many of these we take as current promises in addition to historical ones. One upon which I have been ruminating is the promise in 2 Chronicles 7:4 where God says that a nation on its knees [...]