Presby-Musings

This week I am preaching the last in a three-part sermon series on the Bible.  As I've said, there is no way to plumb the depths and complexity of Holy Scripture in three sermons.  Which is why I set out to answer three very important questions. For the previous two questions, visit here or here . This week's question is "How is the Bible a guide for my life?" There are lots of Christian-y people who claim that the Bible is the only guide for faith and life, but then seem to live their lives in ways that appear to contradict what the Bible teaches. Then there are those who refuse to be guided by the Bible at all---preferring to be "led by the Spirit," which sometimes is shorthand for "doing whatever it is that I want to do." In my denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA) we say as part of ordination vows, that we promise to be "guided by Scripture."  But do any of us really know what that means?  If our lives are being gui

This Sunday I am continuing my sermon series on the Bible as we seek to answer this all important question: "What authority does the Bible have over my life?" We used this text last week, which speaks right into the heart of what we'll be discussing this week: 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Last week I took a slightly different approach to answering questions of inspiration and the Bible.  Rather than turning the discussion into an apologetic exercise with big theological words and lots of footnotes, I simply encouraged the congregation to have inspirational encounters with Scripture. If you think that's cheating, sue me.  Apologetic exercises with big theological words and lots of footnotes aren't really doing a very good job of convincing both Christians and unChristians alike that the Bible is the inspired word of God.  I figured that actually reading it, studying it, engaging it and letting it fall afresh on us might be a better way of "proving" inspirati

This week I am beginning a brief sermon series on the Bible entitled, "The Book."  This series had it's origins in a sermon planning workshop that I held with church members and staff recently.  One of their greatest concerns had to do with what they perceived as a lack of biblical literacy among the average church member. They're not the only ones concerned about the lack of biblical literacy in the Christian community.  You wouldn't believe how much ink has been spilled and hands have been wrung by pastors and denominational authorities over the fact that we seem to be fighting a losing battle when it comes to passing on Bible knowledge to emerging generations. Here's the thing, I am aware that it's nigh to impossible to cover the complexity and depth of the Bible in three sermons---which is why I am only taking on three major questions about Scripture that most of ask: 1.  Is the Bible the Inspired Word of God? 2.  What sort of authority does t