The Theologian's Table

           The year is 2015 and despite opinions about two recent events racism has steadily and thankfully declined since the civil rights era. As of 2010 the U.S. Census reported that 9 million people were claimed to be more than one "race." In my personal life I know of many inter-racial families and marriages. My brother is married to a woman from Venezuela. I have beautiful nieces and a nephew that are half Hispanic and half White. My wife takes care of a little girl whose mom is White and whose dad is African American. My own son is largely Native American from his mother's side and European from my side. So it would seem the United States has mostly moved towards multi-cultural tolerance and acceptance.      Imagine my surprise when I hear out of the mouths of some people that everyone needs to stick to their own kind. What makes these word worse are the fact that they are uttered out of Christian's mouths of any bac...

God is Love The book of John, the most theological of all four gospels. Out of this book we get the most famous Bible verse of all time. You see it painted on the faces or giant stomachs of football fans, you see it tattooed on the bodies of reformed tough guys, or you hear it quoted by misleading politicians clamoring for the Christian vote, it's John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." It is this love that is the theme of John and it is poured out in every chapter. It is this love that gives the Christus Victor view of the atonement major ground to stand on. That the death and resurrection of Jesus was not a business transaction between two parties, but a selfless, covenantal fulfilling of God's promise to redeem us. This love, that was in the beginning with God and was God, became flesh, yet still fully God, wrapped in humility to reconcile us back to the Father. Oth...

Jesus, the Perfect Human As I mentioned in my previous entries, each gospel has a unique perspective on the mission of Christ. Luke's target audience were the Greeks and his portrayal of Jesus was to show that he was the perfect human, someone we should all aspire to be like. The reason for this was because the Greeks of Luke's day spent a lot of time debating on what the perfect human should be like, so through out the text Luke gives examples of why Jesus is this ultimate person. Luke the Physician Luke was a doctor and a historian and this is reflected in his style of writing. He was very concerned with not only depicting accurately the ministry of Jesus, but also Jesus' past. He tells of how an angel came to John the Baptist's mother(John is Jesus' cousin) and told her that her child would prepare the way for the Messiah and tells what happened between that event and his birth. He next covers the events of what lead up to Jesus' birth, but instead ...

    What is faith? What is this concept that the media mostly gets wrong, or Christians sometimes get confused or at least confused? Heck, even some pastors get it wrong. Is there a clear definition for it in the Christian life?      Recently, I woke up in the morning, and the first thing that popped into my head was The Goonies. It wasn't a slow process but a thought that sprung me awake like a lightning bolt to my consciousness: THE GOONIES! It occurred to me that Christians could probably learn a thing, or seven, from the classic 80's flick, especially about faith. So, I will relate this film to our walk in faith and make some arguments about what faith really is and means. Once again, like in my recent posts, I ask you to keep an open mind and open heart to what is going to be said in this entry. The Goonies? Da fudge is that?      Hopefully, everyone has seen or at least heard of the Goonies, but in case you've been living under a ro...

http://mbsdailydrawing.blogspot.com/       As some of you may know I decided about a year ago that I  wanted to go to school so I could become a pastor. One of the requirements is to have read the Bible completely at least once. Admittedly I have not done that, so over the past year I have skipped around to different books in the Bible and read them. For my 31st birthday my wife got me a life applications study Bible and with it I decided to study the New Testament books in order. I have since devoured the book of Matthew and would like to share a taste of what I have learned. I'd like to ask you to please keep an open mind and an open heart to what I have to say, thank you. Common Misconceptions      When some people think of the four Gospels they are confused on why there needs to be 4 different books about the same events. In reality they portray Jesus using different themes such as Matthew trying to prove that Jesus is King/Messiah to th...