Barnabas File

On the way to church, I pass a sign in front of a business with this message:   Step One:  Give Love Step Two:  Get Love   No!  Nice sentiment, but theologically wrong.  The type of love we encounter in the Gospels is not a transaction but a gift.  We refer to this as agape love.   “Agape” is one of several Greek words for love. When the word “agape” is used in the Bible, it refers to a pure, sacrificial love that intentionally desires another’s highest good.   It is the love that God has for us.   No matter how you interpret the Cross and atonement, at the center of this act we find a loving, gracious God who gave not expecting anything in return .  God has invested in us, supported us, and blessed us—not because we are worthy of that love but in spite of it.   If we love another person expecting that love to be reciprocated, is it truly love?  How many parents have given love ...

The latest entry in the Star Wars canon is an entertaining visual treat.  Although it basically follows the structure of The Empire Strikes Back , it gives us as fans a solid second act in this new trilogy.  In this blog, however, I don’t intend to provide a review, but reflections on a couple of main themes in this episode. In the interplay of old and new characters, several key ideas emerge or are clarified.  (I will try to provide as few spoilers as possible.) First, after viewing The Last Jedi , we discover that the Force seems to be more egalitarian than we were previously led to believe.  In The Last Jedi , Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) provides a much more engaging and informative explanation of the Force than Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) did in The Phantom Menace .  He explained it as something in the blood that provided the potential to manipulate the Force.  In some fan literature, the statement is made that you can tell if someon...

Daily News Journal photo “ He [Jesus] answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” --Luke 10:27, NIV Once again, a minority have displayed their hatred and ignorance by vandalizing the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, Tennessee , my hometown. Community response was swift as people of all faiths and none stepped forward to affirm the rights of all people to worship as they wish and to contribute to the common good in our city. At a vigil of support, Noel Schoonmaker, my pastor, said: "As a pastor and as a Christian, I believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and savior and I look to him and obey him in everything, and he taught me to love my neighbor as myself. So I am here to love my neighbor. We also have friends who worship here at the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro and we want to support them." Schoonmaker models the attitude that Christian...

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”-- John 16:33,NIV Earlier this month I attended a Mental Health Conference which featured a presentation by Timothy Jennings, a psychiatrist who studies the influence of various factors—diet, exercise, stress--on depression.   A lot of what he said was way over my head, but these two statements got my attention: “Religion based on fear damages the brain.   Religion based on love is healing to the brain.” Now I certainly cannot follow all the research that led Jennings to that conclusion, but as a Christian believer, his findings make sense to me.   This got to thinking how our view of God impacts our thinking, our mental health, and our subsequent actions. Kim Davis, the county clerk in Rowan County, Kentucky, has stated that issuing marriages licenses to gay couples is a violation of God’s authority and her consc...

How believers talk about the faith to unbelievers, those of faith who have differing interpretations of the faith, or those estranged from the faith has always been a challenge for the Christians.   Does one pursue persuasion and reason or attack and ridicule? Unfortunately, the aggressive approach seems to win out more often in contemporary society.   Apologetics (defense of the faith) very easily becomes polemics (disputation about the faith) in the marketplace of ideas. Much of this is motivated by fear.   We fear that which is different from ourselves.   We fear that which calls into question our established habits and norms.   We also may be afraid that we will be proven wrong or made to look foolish. We see this when a “prayer breakfast” becomes an occasion to attack those who are different from ourselves.   A speaker finds it is much easier to stand on a platform and pontificate than to acknowledge the “other” as a real person who ...