Review #004: 'Simply Jesus'

Simply Jesus, by Joseph M. Stowell, is a short, easy read intended to help readers develop a closer relationship with Christ.  Stowell addresses Christians who have a knowledge of Christ, but who feel that they lack a true relationship with him.  Of course, this is hardly virgin territory; innumerable books have been written on this very theme.  It's been particularly popular over the last twenty years or so.  The question, then, is this:  does Stowell bring anything new to the table?

God, compressed

God is big. Really, really big. Bigger than space. Bigger than time. Bigger than space-time. Bigger than all those lame alternate space-times on Sliders. Bigger than anything you can imagine. Bigger than anything you can't imagine. Imagine infinity. Real infinity is infinitely bigger than that, and God is infinitely bigger than infinity. Big, big, big.

So here we are ...

[At Chik-Fil-A, where all good Baptists will be after the end of the world.]

Well, here we are, the day after the end of the world. Now what do we do?

Was Jesus Christ an idiot?

I guess that got your attention, huh?  Rest assured, the answer to that question is 'absolutely not', but that leads to another, harder question.  If Jesus Christ wasn't an idiot -- if he knew what he was talking about and was able to correctly convey his thoughts to his followers, and by extension to us -- then why do so many people act as if he were?

Ruthlessly clinging: The Tale of Grunkle and Gruntley

The other day I read a post on Google+ that really struck me.  Greg Gordon of sermonindex.net wrote, "The deception will be so strong in the end times that only those who ruthless cling to the Lord and His promises will be safe."  I assume that he meant "ruthlessly cling", and I thought that "ruthlessly clinging" is something I know a little about these days.

The answer is always simple

On Monday evening I read a G+ post that essentially called me an idiot who didn't care about babies being murdered because I didn't vote against our president in the last election.  (For the record, I abstained from voting, because no candidate was acceptable.  As Charles Spurgeon said, "When faced with a choice of two evils, choose neither.")  Aside from reminding me of the constant bickering that drove me from Facebook, it drove home once again the desperate need for professing Christians to understand the way the world actually works.