Application of the gospel in culture

A Hackneyed Gospel-Everything

2021-07-04T17:57:52+00:00By |Culture and Christ, Random Thoughts|

If you are anything like me, I have grown weary of seeing the word "gospel" attached to everything. We have gospel-centered, gospel-driven, gospel-community, gospel-doctrine, gospel-communication, gospel-marriages, gospel-everything.  There is nothing wrong with the word, but I fear its overuse will eventually make it meaningless...or worse.  I agree with what I believe is the intent behind the use of these compound words. Authors, bloggers, pastors, and teachers are all addressing heart motivation.  The last thing they want is someone to approach discipleship, marriage, doctrine, or any aspect of life, in a self-centered or self-reliant way--the very antithesis of the gospel. I don't argue we should stop using the word, rather, we should regularly remind ourselves not only of the facts of the gospel, but its implications. In other words, we need to stop assuming people understand the truth of what we are talking about just because we attach the word Gospel to [...]

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Literal Jesus

2021-07-04T18:00:14+00:00By |Culture and Christ, Theology 101|

I love the disciples of Jesus.  The gospel narratives (unlike much of church history) never give us a picture of a group spiritual giants faithfully following Jesus and taking in every word without question, On contrary, they give us a picture of men who are regularly confused, even disturbed, by many of the "strange" things that Jesus said.  More than that, they are often trying to find ways to interpret what Jesus meant--because taking it literally would just be downright nuts.  A good example is when Peter, James, and John are coming down the mountain after experiencing the transfiguration of Christ in Mark 9.9-10: And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.  So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might mean. I [...]

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Jesus would play Halo

2021-07-04T18:07:06+00:00By |Culture and Christ|

I got an X-Box for Christmas from my in-laws.   My bride despises video games because it seems to have the power to bring out the worst in my two boys.  There is some truth to this.  When we got a Wii a few years go, our oldest son quickly became known as the "Wii-wolf" because of the darkness of his video game playing persona.  So despite my bride's protests and my son's history of outbursts, we received an X-box.  One might think the new fangled "Kinect" would be the hit of the party.  No, the real draw for me and my two warriors, is HALO. HALO is your typical shoot-em up, kill everything, kind of game.  Mom wasn't real happy about the violence, believing that much like food--you are what you eat.  I had seen my sons pour out violence after playing Super Mario brothers.   The truth is, boys are [...]

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