Tag: Religion

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Summer Reruns: Real Religion, Part 2

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Yesterday, we took a look at an old post from James that has our Lord’s half-brother describing what real, good, God-honoring religion should look like. What that first part of this two-part reflection established is that even people who profess to have no religion at all are a whole lot more religious than they think. This second part has us diving further into what James describes as the right kind of religion. The bottom line is this: real religion should accomplish kingdom good. If it’s not, then it’s bad religion. And there are few things worse than bad religion. Let’s take a closer look together at just what makes the kind of religion that is worth having.

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A World Designed for Discovery

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“The Lord founded the earth by wisdom and established the heavens by understanding. By his knowledge the watery depths broke open, and the clouds dripped with dew.” (Proverbs 3:19-20 CSB – Read the chapter)

When Charles Darwin first proposed his ideas about human origins, our understanding of the complexities of life was pretty rudimentary. Of course, we didn’t think that at the time. The mid-19th century through the early days of the 20th century were marked by incredible confidence in human knowledge—a confidence we now recognize as a rather wild overconfidence (even as we fall into the same trap ourselves about our own knowledge). What we have come to understand since is that life is vastly more complex than Darwin could have imagined. Not only that, but the universe itself is complex almost beyond all description. To borrow the phrase that is commonly used to describe it, we live in a finely tuned world. It takes a great deal of wisdom to manage such a world. Fortunately, that’s the nature of the God we serve. Let’s talk about it.

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Digging in Deeper: Matthew 6:18

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“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The church has a bit of a bad rap. Some of that we’ve earned over years of hard work. Much of it is unfair thanks to the equally hard work of critics who range from ignorant to bigoted to hurt and vengeful. Whatever the precise reason, though, the church in America and in the cultural West more generally isn’t what it once was. This trend started in earnest a couple of generations ago, but over the last generation it has accelerated to a sociologically rapid pace. Yet while there have been folks variously cheering and mourning this decline depending on which side of the line they fall on, some recent cultural trends backed by a growing body of research is pointing to a potential need for the ones celebrating and the ones mourning to change sides. Let’s talk for a few minutes this morning about the cultural comeback of Christianity.

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Digging in Deeper: Ephesians 6:4

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“Fathers, don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I’ve long been a numbers guy. Numbers just stick in my head. Random numbers. And they don’t go away. Sometimes it’s pretty handy like at my former church, before I was really using a cell phone all that much, when I had almost half the phone numbers of the members memorized. Because I’m a numbers guy, I love looking at data. It doesn’t matter too much what the data is, but sociological research data is some of my favorite to digest, especially when it’s on a topic I care about and from a research outfit whose methodology I trust. I’ve had the chance recently to review some research from the Barna organization into the world of people who are spiritually curious. Let me highlight a couple of things I’ve noticed along the way.

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Digging in Deeper: 2 Peter 1:16

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“For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Religion is an interesting thing. It’s a powerful thing. Some try to argue that it’s a bad thing. But the truth is that religion is just a thing. How it’s used, who’s doing the using, and for what purpose determines exactly what kind of a thing it is. It’s not all bad, and it’s ignorant to argue otherwise. Neither, however, is it all good. Only a fool would think that. It has to be taken on a case-by-case basis, and some religions are better than others. But try as we might, we can’t escape it. We’re drawn to it. That’s part of what gives it such power. What has me thinking about all of this is my recently finishing both watching and reading Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic, Dune, in which religion plays a profound role. Let’s talk about it.

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