Articles for tag: 1 Corinthians 1

The Lord”s Supper as Abstraction

By Jason Bembry I want you to imagine our world in the year 2111, 100 years from now. Imagine it”s a few days before Thanksgiving. The fastest-selling grocery item is “Thanksgiving on the Go,” a package containing a little cube of pressed turkey meat, a congealed cube of stuffing, and a tube of cranberry sauce. People in the 2100s are busy folks. Traveling to see loved ones for the holiday has become too hectic; many have deemed it psychologically stressful. Most people opt to work on the fourth Thursday in November, carrying with them the handy “Thanksgiving on the Go.”

Lesson for Oct. 23, 2011: Finding True Love (Song of Solomon 4:1″“5:1)

This week”s treatment of the International Sunday School Lesson (for October 23) is written by Mandy Smith, associate pastor at University Christian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio, and author of Making a Mess and Meeting God: Unruly Ideas and Everyday Experiments for Worship, available at www.standardpub.com/makingamess. ____________ Finding True Love (Song of Solomon 4:1–5:1) By Mandy Smith At first reading, the fourth chapter of Song of Solomon seems a little ridiculous to modern ears. In fact, when my Old Testament professor in college heard I like to draw, he asked me to create a literal depiction of these metaphors, and I ended

Protestors at the NACC: “˜Where the Action Is”

By Darrel Rowland “We’re not out here to turn people to Christ.” So said one of six sign-toting demonstrators (including two children) from Westboro Baptist Church, Topeka, Kansas, who protested outside the North American Christian Convention for about an hour July 7. A woman with an NACC name tag was asking the female protestor about Jesus’ love and whether they thought their message would turn gays and others to Christ. But the protestor said gays are “in the pit”—and, in fact, so was the NACC attender because she had cut her hair, in violation of 1 Corinthians 11. As the

I Majored in Pushing God Away

By Shane Taylor It was 1988 and the end of my second year at the state university. My prodigal journey took all sorts of twists and turns, mostly while I was under the influence of Budweiser and the liberal arts department of the secular campus. For me, college was an opportunity to rid myself of the flannelgraph stories from Sunday school lessons of bygone days. My dorm room was littered with dirty laundry and stacks of unread textbooks. I majored in procrastination and pushing God away. And yet Jesus loves to interact with people who push him away. The Gospels

Let All of Us Examine Ourselves

By David L. Eubanks The major focus of Communion is the Lord Jesus Christ. When he inaugurated it, he said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” The Lord”s Supper is not primarily about us but about him, what he did for us, and the life he gives us when we feed on him. At the same time, there is a definite element of introspection that goes with this feast. That was true of the meal at which Jesus instituted it. When Jesus told his apostles that one of them would betray him, they immediately began to ask, “Surely you don”t

Why We Need to Listen to the Message of “Love Wins”

By Dustin Fulton There has been no shortage of controversy in Evangelical circles surrounding the release of Rob Bell”s latest book, Love Wins. One of the blogs I read hailed it as an “instant classic” (she was a self-proclaimed friend of his from college, with a picture to prove it), while others have called it “complete heresy” and labeled him a Universalist (apparently they weren”t his friends in college!). While Bell certainly didn”t shy away from publicity on this one, I think we ought to be a bit more careful of jumping on or off the bandwagon so quickly. In

Read the Bible

By Jon Weece Of all the books our children will read in their lifetimes, none will prove more valuable than the Bible. But the Bible has been exiled from far too many Christian homes. I love to read. Always have and probably always will. When I was in the third grade my older brother, Jud, introduced me to the book My Side of the Mountain. It chronicled the life of a boy who ran away from home and lived in a hollowed-out tree in the Catskill Mountains of New York. At the age of 9, I did not possess the

Confronting Our Own Heresy

By Dick Alexander I became a Christian at age 9 to escape Hell. That”s not necessarily a bad thing, but it”s not the only thing, and maybe not the best thing. It took me years to get past fear and learn to love God. In retrospect, I wish I could have started with love. The quintessential evangelism question is, if you died tonight, are you sure you would be in Heaven tomorrow? But statistically, the chances are small the person will die tonight. While it”s dangerous to presume on the future, especially in the highest stakes game of all””eternity””is there

After an Earthquake Bedrock Faith

By Mark A. Taylor Internet news sites always provide a ready distraction from a deadline. But when those posts contain a dozen stark videos of the unprecedented Japanese earthquake and tsunami, perhaps the procrastination can be forgiven. Each new harsh scene of ships and cars tossed together like bathtub toys, each new account of surprising survivors and shocking destruction, contributes to the jumble washing through my thoughts. Responsibility””what should I do with my plenty to help a population reduced to a struggle for survival? Reevaluation””how can I believe all my attention to what I own and what I earn will

Choosing What You Remember

By Brian Giese It has been said, “Education is everything you have learned minus all you have forgotten.” How can you be certain you remember the most important stuff? One way is by memorizing the information and regularly reviewing it. I was motivated to do just that when I was told I probably was going to become legally blind. I asked myself, What do I want to have in my head if I get to the point where I can no longer read? That was 24 years ago, and my experience in memorization has proven to be a real blessing.

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