Mission Faithwalk

                  This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. (Roman 13:6-7)                 Pay taxes? Pay revenue? Pay respect ? Pay HONOR? Didn’t Paul read the Declaration of Independence?  We must fight for our freedom! We might fight for the freedom and dignity of others! He didn’t understand what we face and have faced! Well, except the Jews were conquered by the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Greeks, and Romans before Paul’s time and Rome still controlled Israel at the time Paul wrote, and what’s more, the Christians (not called that yet) were being persecuted and martyred.    ...

              For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (I Corinthians 1:18)                 You’ve seen the movies or read the book. Someone (usually a scientist) comes forward with some warning about a disaster, and “everyone” laughs. Then it happens. The boy cries “Wolf!” repeatedly, and then he cries “Wolf!” because there really is a wolf. The cliché of “a wise man raises an alarm and is called a fool” is alive and well and thriving in our culture. I suspect it is in every culture and always has.                 This is just reality. Last week, I mentioned schismogenesis, and it comes into play again. We can warn everyone, and we’ll be ridiculed and worse, because they have a choice between their worldview, which ...

                     Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8)                 Debt: something owed: obligation                 Financial advisors tell us to get out of debt. Even if they don’t, at least some of us have the sense that debt is a bad thing. It may be something we believe we’ll never escape, but when one is in debt, one is not free. Some people think that certain people owe endless debts to others that we can only repay by handing over everything we own and spending the rest of our lives as their slaves. In a sense, they’re right, but I do not hate those to whom I am indebted in this way to require that they take on the role that they described as evil when ...

                 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10 NIV) This is a case where I am not satisfied with the NIV translation. Anyone can declare anything. We lie through our teeth in our declarations. Supposedly, declarations are given in a solemn and emphatic manner. The NASB uses “confess” instead. And again, a person can make a false confession, but it in terms of the words, I prefer “confess.” What is truly significant is the combination of the declaration/confession and the belief. This is because “belief” that does not produce declarations, proclamations, or confessions and other actions or behaviors is not belief. The other thing that needs to be noted, however, is the tense of the verb in th...

                 Whoever heeds life-giving correction will be at home among the wise . (Proverbs 15:31)                  The first reason those who heed life-giving correction will be at home among the wise is that they will be alive to give it.                 The second reason they will be at home among the wise is that, by listening to life-giving correction, they will grow in wisdom.                 The third reason they will be at home among the wise is because the wise will recognize that allowing this person to be among them won’t be a waste of time and breath. Instead of suddenly not being home or having pressing business elsewhere, the wise will invite them to stay for tea.    ...

                 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:22-23) The Eight Core Worldview Issues: Origin, Identity, Meaning/Purpose, Morality, Destiny, Ultimate Reality, Nature of the World, Knowledge                 The German word for “worldview” is weltanschauung, and it is described as “a comprehensive conception or apprehension of the world, especially from a specific standpoint” (Merriam Webster)  It seems to me as if someone wanted to claim a concept higher than religion or philosophy. This might partly be because they saw religion as limited to “spiritual” ideas (or as only a corporate entity) and philosophy to “material” (or as only an individual entity) but I don’t see a functional difference among the three. They all explore the nature of the universe (including ...