Miracles have a long and respected place in Judaism and Christianity. Often miracles are seen as evidence of God's reality and His goodness and justice. After all, miracles are considered to be acts or events where the natural processes are disturbed by divine act. So, if something occurs outside of the natural order of things, …
Continue reading Bad Miracles– Does God Allow Us to Do Bad Things With His Power?
https://www.amazon.com/JESUS-ALLAH-Christians-Called-Muhammed-ebook/dp/B08HL973FM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1599560252&refinements=p_27%3AAdesegun+Hammed+Olayiwola&s=digital-text&sr=1-1&text=Adesegun+Hammed+Olayiwola This is another book written by one of my former students. He is a pastor and theologian in his homeland in Nigeria. Hope you will give it a look!
Stephen Larsen tells a story of the Umke, "In the late fifties and early sixties a strange little man used to stand with his podium and flag on the corner of 116th Street and Broadway in Manhattan, across the street from Columbia University. He would preach loudly and emphatically to whoever would listen, and even …
Continue reading Getting One’s Message Heard, Lessons from the “4th Umke”
Okay, so when I was young, like in the 1970s and 1980s, I was told in books (Hal Lindsey's books come to mind, but there were others) and occasionally in some church groups that the "Mark of the Beast" on the forehead and hand (Rev. 13:16-17; 14:9-10; 16:2; 19:20; 20:4) was some sort of tattoo. …
Today I got a call asking my opinion about a missionary using the term "Isa al Masih." The official concern relayed to me was that the missionary was using the Arabic term for Jesus Christ. The issue was not that the term is Arabic, but rather that Isa al Masih is a term that ties …
A few weeks ago I decided to leave Facebook... mostly. I still have a few activities that require me to pop in there for at least brief moments. However, I am pretty sure that my time there will continue to decline and not return to its past. It started in a minor way. A friend …
Vignette #1. Today, I was looking at Facebook again. There were a lot of notes talking about how the WHO (World Health Organization) has changed their view yet again about some aspect of COVID-19 response. Tied to this is the implication that WHO is untrustworthy, and because it is untrustworthy... well, it should be defunded …
Continue reading Looking For Opportunities to Change My Mind
The following is the Conclusions of the book I finished during COVID-19 quarantine here in the Philippines. The book is Missions in Samaria. Conclusions I am writing this during the COVID-19 pandemic. On one side the disease drives us apart. It places us in our own homes, physically distanced and masked. We may live in …
The following is a quote from the book by James F. Engle and William A. Dyrness, "Changing the Mind of Missions: Where Have We Gone Wrong?" (InterVarsity Press, 2000). Who can fault legendary evangelist Dwight L. Moody, who captured the mood of evangelicals at the end of the nineteenth century in his declaration, "I look …
I decided to move some articles from an old blog of mine on Pastoral Theology. That is why some of my posts here are more about pastoral counseling and theology rather than "classic" missions. But since I am in missions and am an administrator at a pastoral counseling center, it is not NOT missions. I …
Continue reading Can You Do Good Pastoral Counseling With Bad Pastoral Theology?