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Surviving the American South
I was first introduced to Dr. Esau McCaulley in 2020 as I listened to a new podcast called the The Disrupters: Faith Changing Culture produced by Intervarsity Press. Esau McCaulley was the host of this podcast. My initial responses to Esau were not positive. I argued with him in my thoughts. At first, I was…
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Season of Pentecost
Pentecost: A Day of Power for All People by Emilio Alvarez is the second book in the Fulness of Time series that discusses the church’s liturgical calendar. Of all of the major seasons in the church calendar, Pentecost season is lesser known and lesser observed. The Day of Pentecost is observed with special events, but,…
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Revelation In Real-Time
I just finished reading the book, Revelation for the Rest of Us: A Prophetic Call to Follow Jesus as a Dissident Disciple, by Scot McKnight and Cody Matchett. It is not a commentary, but is a 60,000 foot review of the book of Revelation. It challenges the recent (nineteenth century) predictive readings of the book…
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The Elegant Universe
Normally, I have two books I am reading at one time. One book is for fun. This usually includes legal, spy or detective stories or history books. The other book is for deep or challenging thinking and usually is in the realm of theology or science. Inspired by the son of the pastor next door…
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Not All Birds Are Hydrangeas
Kristin is really interested in discovering the names of flowers, trees, insects, animals and birds. My capacity to care about most of their names is limited. Often when we hike, Kristin will first ask me what flower or bird we see. In Ireland, I just started answering “hydrangea,” which really meant I had no clue.…
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An Evangelical Movement Testimony
The book, Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation by Jon Ward, is a testimony on the author’s spiritual journey. The author grew up rooted in American Evangelicalism and became a journalist for several politically conservative news organizations. Jon’s journalistic talents helped him research and question what he was being told and what he…
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Saints and Souls
I am still experimenting with AI and asked two AI tools to “Write a blog review of the book, “For All Saints”, by N. T. Wright”, the latest book that I read. Google Bard responded with: “I do not have enough information about that person to help with your request. I am a large language…
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Did Jesus of Nazareth rise from the dead?
Today, I listened to the re-broadcast podcast on the Unbelievable? podcast which was the recording of The Big Conversation Season 5 at https://www.thebigconversation.show/videos/season-5/episode-1/ The “conversation” or “constructive argumentation” was around the question, “Did Jesus of Nazareth rise from the dead?” I believe that Jesus of Nazareth did rise from the dead! I believe like Paul:…
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What Happened On The Cross?
The second book that I read for Lent was The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ by Fleming Rutledge. Unlike the other book that was just over 100 pages, this book is almost 700 pages. What did happen on the cross? Most preachers do not really understand and give some vague understanding. Some preachers…
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Lent: The Season of Repentance and Renewal
Over the past several years, I have begun to observe a time of reflection during the Lenten season. Some years, I “give up” something so that the desire of missing it reminds me to reflect. Some years, I take on lawn chores on every Saturday during Lent to remind me of “the curse.” Most years,…