RSS
Events
- Sermon: Kaunas Free Christian Church 26 September 2021 at 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
- IBR Research Group: The Pentateuch 19 November 2021 at 11:30 pm – 1:30 am San Antonio, TX https://www.ibr-bbr.org/pentateuch-1 Respondent
- Course: Zaporozhye Bible Seminary 7 January 2022 – 14 January 2022
Categories
- Bible-Theology (188)
- Culture-Economics-Society (92)
- Giffones in Lithuania (77)
- Links (70)
- Research (108)
- Travels (32)
- Uncategorized (204)
Archives
- September 2021 (4)
- August 2021 (1)
- July 2021 (4)
- June 2021 (12)
- May 2021 (2)
- April 2021 (1)
- March 2021 (4)
- January 2021 (1)
- December 2020 (1)
- November 2020 (2)
- August 2020 (1)
- July 2020 (3)
- June 2020 (1)
- May 2020 (2)
- April 2020 (1)
- March 2020 (1)
- February 2020 (2)
- December 2019 (3)
- November 2019 (1)
- September 2019 (1)
- August 2019 (1)
- May 2019 (1)
- April 2019 (1)
- December 2018 (2)
- November 2018 (2)
- October 2018 (2)
- August 2018 (2)
- July 2018 (2)
- June 2018 (1)
- May 2018 (1)
- April 2018 (2)
- March 2018 (2)
- February 2018 (1)
- January 2018 (1)
- December 2017 (2)
- November 2017 (5)
- September 2017 (1)
- August 2017 (4)
- July 2017 (9)
- June 2017 (7)
- May 2017 (6)
- April 2017 (2)
- March 2017 (7)
- February 2017 (5)
- January 2017 (3)
- December 2016 (1)
- November 2016 (4)
- October 2016 (5)
- September 2016 (8)
- August 2016 (7)
- July 2016 (3)
- June 2016 (10)
- May 2016 (2)
- April 2016 (5)
- March 2016 (4)
- February 2016 (4)
- January 2016 (3)
- December 2015 (7)
- November 2015 (3)
- October 2015 (3)
- September 2015 (3)
- August 2015 (7)
- July 2015 (7)
- June 2015 (2)
- May 2015 (6)
- April 2015 (7)
- March 2015 (4)
- February 2015 (7)
- January 2015 (10)
- December 2014 (16)
- November 2014 (9)
- October 2014 (5)
- September 2014 (1)
- August 2014 (4)
- July 2014 (3)
- June 2014 (5)
- May 2014 (3)
- April 2014 (3)
- March 2014 (3)
- February 2014 (1)
- January 2014 (3)
- December 2013 (1)
- November 2013 (1)
- September 2013 (4)
- August 2013 (3)
- July 2013 (1)
- June 2013 (1)
- April 2013 (2)
- March 2013 (2)
- January 2013 (1)
- December 2012 (1)
- November 2012 (2)
- October 2012 (1)
- September 2012 (1)
- August 2012 (1)
- July 2012 (2)
- June 2012 (2)
- May 2012 (5)
- April 2012 (3)
- March 2012 (4)
- February 2012 (4)
- January 2012 (2)
- December 2011 (4)
- November 2011 (3)
- October 2011 (4)
- September 2011 (3)
- August 2011 (9)
- July 2011 (6)
- June 2011 (9)
- May 2011 (12)
- April 2011 (6)
- March 2011 (5)
- February 2011 (6)
- January 2011 (5)
- December 2010 (8)
- November 2010 (9)
- October 2010 (3)
- September 2010 (10)
- August 2010 (12)
- July 2010 (5)
- June 2010 (5)
- May 2010 (12)
- April 2010 (4)
- March 2010 (6)
- February 2010 (3)
- January 2010 (5)
- December 2009 (6)
- November 2009 (5)
- October 2009 (7)
- September 2009 (6)
- August 2009 (5)
- July 2009 (11)
- June 2009 (8)
- January 2009 (1)
- September 2008 (1)
- August 2008 (10)
- July 2008 (4)
Author Archives: Benj
Pandemic Sermon: Job 42:10-17 and Isaiah 49:14-23, “Receiving Double from YHWH’s Hand”
COVID-19 and the reaction to it has caused deep divisions in our societies, and right down the middle of Christian communities as well….When we come back to meeting together, as a full church, or as an LCC family, or as societies reckoning with the effectiveness of policies (as I hope there will be investigations and evaluations, based in actual scientific understandings of how these viruses work that we had at the time), there will be anger and resentment that has to be dealt with….If we don’t, we could have a permanent division in our communities, which would be tragic.
…As we build back our lives, and build back our church community, can we think of our process as parallel to this—and also see it as an opportunity? Can we articulate our losses, express our anger and our sorrow, hear the anger and sorrow of others, and pray that God would help us to direct it and deal with it appropriately? Can we accept that nothing happens outside of God’s knowledge or control? Continue reading
Online “Church”: Are the Kids Really Fine?
The older generations, having come of age in cultures of society, church and education that are formed by reading physical books and encountering peers and authority figures in physical space and time, are better equipped to transfer those educational, spiritual, and social habits into the digital realm and to cope with the shortcomings of digital media, than are younger generations. Put succinctly, we think the kids are fine (even perhaps doing better than we are with all this Zooming!), but they’re not. Continue reading
Pandemic Sermon: Ezekiel 11:14-25, “I Have Been a Sanctuary”
The human desire to commune with God is very powerful, and when sacrifice according to God’s law was not available, it was very painful. Many allowed themselves to be squeezed into worshiping God on their own terms, rather than according to God’s law. But other Judeans were faithful and accepted the promise of God’s continuing presence through this time of suffering, a presence revealed in ways that they hadn’t seen before, and trusted that he would eventually bring this time to an end. For these Old Covenant saints who were truly seeking YHWH God, this disruption was a time of “creative destruction” that stripped away many beliefs and practices, and allowed them to see just how big and powerful YHWH truly is. Continue reading
Online “Church”: United, or Merely Simultaneous?
If the entirety of my pre-COVID worship experience has been simply passive and receptive (hearing and observing the preaching and the musicians) while I am standing or sitting beside someone else in the assembly with whom I am barely acquainted—then there is little benefit to the incidental simultaneity of our passive reception of the information presented to us by the pastor or the worship leader. If this is all that church has been, then it is not surprising that people would feel little loss by introducing the mediating technology, i.e., receiving preaching and music while at home—with or without a pandemic. Continue reading
Pandemic Sermon: Numbers and Chronicles, “God Draws Near”
Throughout this time many of us are simply missing human touch and human contact, and direct interaction not through a screen. We are doing the best we can, but it is not the same. I imagine those families in ancient Israel who had loved ones with skin diseases, who had to stay outside the camp or the city and only call out to one another from afar. But there is hope, there is Good News. God was not satisfied with living in a tent or a stone temple among his people. As John writes in his Gospel, “The Word became flesh, and pitched a tent among us, and we beheld his glory.” Continue reading
Posted in Bible-Theology, Uncategorized
Tagged covidchurch, covidsermon, Num, Old Testament, Sam-Kgs-Chr
Leave a comment
How Did We Get Here? The Pre-COVID Road to “Online Church”
Even before the pandemic, “word” and “image” had been technologized with some extension of their reach—but with increasing fluidity, and at the cost of “presence,” which cannot be replicated. Technology makes us feel as though we can replicate presence, but it rather enables us to persist in practices that do not really satisfy or edify. Continue reading
Halting In-Person Worship: Christian Liberty? Obedience to Romans 13?
Christians are obliged to respect civil authorities (Rom 13:1–7), and should be willing to lay down our rights for the sake of others (1 Cor 8:9–13). If the government says we may not meet or should not meet, mustn’t we take that into account? Continue reading
Franklin on Why the Christian Response to COVID-19 Must Change
It is my pleasure to commend to you Dr Franklin’s recent piece, “Metaphysics, Medicine and Modern Science: Why the Christian Response to COVID-19 Must Change.” Continue reading
Science, Worship, and an “Epistemology of Love”
So far we have seen that a modern scientific worldview has difficulty accounting for the immaterial “essence” of human personhood, and therefore cannot meaningfully balance the risks of physical and spiritual harms. In this installment, we compare “scientific” ways of knowing (epistemology) with other means of knowing that are just as important for human life and purpose: knowing through love, and knowing through ritual. Knowing truth about God and ourselves by these means gives us purpose and hope. Continue reading
Posted in Bible-Theology, Culture-Economics-Society, Research, Uncategorized
Tagged covidchurch
3 Comments
Humanity, Danger, and “Knowing”: Ancient and Modern Worldviews
How do we know what we are, as humans? How do we know what we know? On whom or what do we rely in order to determine what is safe and what is dangerous? Continue reading
