Author: Michael

Thinker. Lover of life, learning, and relationships. Unashamed follower of Jesus. Hoping to get to know you.

When a Damsel in Distress

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Renee, Flickr

A series of tests were required to be passed for my railroad training. If they were not passed, trainees had to leave the facility immediately, go the hotel and pack their belongings, and go home. It was a betrayal to us all.

After our initial interview sessions, testing included, and notification to start training, we were assured by trainmasters that the job belonged to us. There was never a mention of additional, consequential testing, not until we arrived out-of-state for the 3-week training and realized there were 3-4 paper tests, a riding test, and strength tests to be completed. The failure of any of them meant going home posthaste.Read More »

Sitz im Leben: Understanding Scripture in Context

Michael2 Comments
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Serlunar, Flickr

Context makes all the difference in properly understanding the scriptures. The German phrase sitz im leben, meaning “setting in life”, stresses that biblical interpretation must consider the social context for which a text was purposed and in which it was designed to function. Proper contextual understanding will keep one from error and from developing an eccentric theology.Read More »

A Godly Approach to A Nation on Edge

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Gonzale, NC, Flickr

I wish to address the matters that have our nation on edge at the moment. Rarely do I depart from my usual custom to discuss current social issues. But I must use this small platform now to lend insight and positivity.

We all love America. We all are part of its fabric. We all belong. Unfortunately, it seems that a riptide is slowly pulling us back into a sea we’ve largely crossed, shore sighted. Our nation appears to be slowly Balkanizing, becoming less about “we the people” and more about “us vs. them”, the status quo, minorities, immigrants, and any other bloc.Read More »

My Top 10 in the Bible

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DξβS, Flickr

What are you favorite parts of the Bible? What draws you back again and again? The Bible is a marvelous anthology written by men and touched by God. It never bores. We should be thankful that we get to read the completed canon in our own language, something many people never got to do, if only because they were illiterate.

Selecting my best parts of the Bible was not easy. Yet this is what I present to you now and encourage you to consider what most intrigues you in biblical history.Read More »

Meet Cutter Mattock

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Stemonitis, SA Wikimedia

Do you have a favorite tool? Is it an outdoor or indoor tool? Manual, automatic, or digital—didn’t think of that, did ya? Although I consider myself a bona fide city-boy, I love nature and I like getting out in it. My favorite tool is a cutter mattock—doesn’t that sound like it might be your uncle in the country? “You know, Uncle Cutter said the wind took down Cousin Mable’s ole spook elm the other ni-igh-t.”

A cutter mattock is the combination of an axe and an adze blade.

I like the cutter mattock (there are other types) because it’s a simple tool that is very useful outdoors. I’ve used it and a bow rake alone to transform a property of dense brush into bare ground. It will unearth the toughest root balls and fell small trees. I’ve even lopped off the heads of a few snakes with it.Read More »

The Night Is Dark and Full of Terrors

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Recall with me that richly devotional passage, Psalm 53:10: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Let’s change the wording and context of the verse, O.K.? Reimagine it being prayed to…Satan. That’s right, our adversary. Now you will be able to understand what you’re about to see in the following clip.

One of the most riveting scenes for me in Star Wars: The Force Awakens was when Kylo Ren, the bad guy, prayed to his deceased grandfather, Darth Vader, asking his forgiveness. It was attention-grabbing because…well, watch it for yourself.Read More »

Tithing: My Journey

Michael2 Comments

Church lecturnEvery Sunday at offering time it was the same scripture, Malachi 3:10-12, declared from the pulpit, King James Version: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house”.  It became one of those things you couldn’t help but memorize because it was recited every Sunday. Some people know the Apostles’ Creed for the same reason. “And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts”. My pastor always misspoke “delightsome”—“for ye shall be a delightforsome land,” he would say.Read More »

Fruit and Seed

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Flickr - Orange
Cassiopee2010 NC-SA

Scripture extensively references fruit. Its significance generally ranges from harvested crops to progeny to quality of character. But I wish to draw attention to an important aspect of fruit that the Bible doesn’t highlight and perhaps assumes readers’ understanding. People living in first century agrarian society would have easily made the connection.

First: some science on how and why fruit develops. It begins when a plant is pollinated, maybe by an insect or the wind. Once pollen, produced by the male anther, has landed on the female stigma, it forms a long pollen tube that bores down to the plant’s ovary that stores ovules (eggs). Only then does the pollen release its sperm that journeys along the tube to the ovules where fertilization occurs.Read More »