Popular belief: Jesus was born in a manger because there was no room in the inn. Two common misconceptions are that Jesus 1. was born in a manger 2. was born in a barn because all the hotels were full These details are interpreted from Luke 2:6-7. While they were...

In honor of Christmas, I will be blogging daily until Christmas Day about certain elements of the birth story that have become distorted over time. I will also be engaging in my annual “prank” of rearranging manger scenes so that they are theologically correct. This is a vast improvement...

“Now he had to go through Samaria.” John 4:4 Usually my blogs address a commonly misunderstood passage of Scripture, but this verse is more often overlooked than misunderstood. At first glance, it seems like it serves as a transition sentence, indicating that Jesus was leaving Jerusalem in Judea to...

If you’ve ever brought pepper spray to a Walmart on Black Friday and used it to “get ahead,” you might be a redneck. Feel free to steal my joke, Jeff Foxworthy. If you get honked at, shot at, sprayed at, or trampled over the next few weeks, you were...

  Growing up, my family always had pets. Dogs, cats, birds, fish, hamsters, ponies, spider monkeys – Ok, maybe not all of those; I mean, wouldn’t it be ridiculous to have a pet hamster?! When one of them died, we lost a family member. Inevitably someone would ask, “Will we...

When tragedy strikes, many find it comforting to say, “God is in control.” They don’t mean that God caused the tragedy; there’s little comfort in that. They mean that somehow, someway, in the midst of hopelessness and despair, God has a plan and everything is going according to plan....

Can God change His mind? Seems like an easy yes-or-no question, but sometimes people make things way more complicated than they need to be. One of the attributes of God is that He does not change. The theological term for this “immutable,” and no, that does not mean you...

Jesus was a pacifist. Jesus was a vegetarian. Jesus was a bold Asian dude with a pet dragon named Jet Li. It seems everyday someone makes a new claim about Jesus. Usually this is done to help support a movement or an organization and their core beliefs. One such...

My most recent blogs have dealt with the Gifts of the Spirit mentioned in First Corinthians 12. For some of you, this might have been very informative as a history lesson on early church practices, but the thought of seeing these gifts in action today made you ask: “Didn’t...

Tongues is widely considered the most controversial spiritual gift. Perhaps it was controversial even in Paul’s day. Fee believes that the Corinthians were so obsessed with tongues that Paul wrote chapters twelve to fourteen to address their obsession. “The problem is almost certainly an abuse of the gift of...