Verba Sparsa
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Remembering a funeral at a wedding
Every morning my iPad Pro somehow chooses a picture to feature in the little photos gadget on its home screen. This morning it is this photo from July 21, 2021. Here my mother, Dolores, is seated on the little side deck of her house in Hopewell VA with my niece Lauren. This is the house…
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Thanksgiving: a lesson from Psalm 107
Thanksgiving isn’t just a day. It is the fundamental, permanent stance of a follower of God.
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In Memoriam: Gordon D. Fee
Gordon Fee was an Eerdmans author. He was also my teacher. Here is my brief tribute—along with some memorabilia that my fellow Fee fans and NICNT fans may appreciate.
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Should community Facebook pages allow political posts?
Moderators ban “political” posts because we have a defective understanding of what “political” means.
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Through the storm
What if you are in a storm, surrounded by enemies and headed for shipwreck? And what difference does it make if God is there in the storm with you?
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In absentia
In case anyone wonders why the verba are even sparser here than usual these days, it’s because most of my meager time and energy for this sort of thing are going into my campaign website and Facebook page. That’s right, friends, I’m running for office. Please do have a look at those two places. [As…
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IAQ: How can I get you to block me?
I rarely block people. When I do, it is for these reasons.
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CRT in the textbooks! (not)
Notes on the struggle with false accusations (CRT!) in one West Michigan community’s conversation about social studies curriculum.
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Acquiescence is complicity; love requires truthtelling
Until we have agreed that we will speak truthfully and respectfully to and about each other, and that we will not choose as our representatives people who are unable to do either, we cannot hope for progress on anything else.
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JAMES ERNEST FOR CALEDONIA COMMUNITY SCHOOLS
James Ernest for Caledonia Community Schools: A Platform. I am a candidate for school board trustee. Vote for me in November.
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All those who practice it (Psalm 111)
Psalm 111 is a beautiful psalm of praise. It praises the character of God not as an abstraction but as manifested in God’s works. Note the recurrence of “works,” “work,” “deeds,” and various action verbs (highlighted in pink in the photo). Note also that among God’s works are God’s precepts. God not only gives food…
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What Angela Rigas said at the school board meeting
State rep candidate Angela Rigas takes aim and fires off a wild shot at the Caledonia Community Schools.
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Keeping the Declaration of Equality
Another Independence Day rolls around. Heather Cox Richardson has written a brief essay for the occasion. You should read it. It refers, fittingly, to the Declaration of Independence. I want to say a little bit about the Declaration myself. Note that the document itself is not titled “Declaration of Independence.” We are in the habit…
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Story problems
Once you start down the road of insisting that the only permissible stories are ones that align with your sense of how the world ought to be, you are on the road to ideological indoctrination.
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Pray for Mike Pence (Do not congratulate)
David French, I see your Daniel 6 and raise you Luke 17.
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Needing redemption (Psalm 137)
The bright burning intensity of righteous anger may still fail to illuminate our desperate need for reconciliation. (a post by Jeff HansPetersen)
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On reading Psalm 93
The Lord is “robed in majesty,” yes, and high and lifted up, but the scripture he has given us: it is given through our own mouths, and portrays our own plight, is right down here on the ground with us, in the mud and the blood and the gore.
Keep readingRoe v. Wade and everything else
Praying the Lord’s Prayer again in the context of current events.
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SKANDAL! A Sermon on Mark 9:42–50
For American Christians today, Mark 9:42–50 conveys a stern warning from Jesus about confusing Christianity with nationalism and destroying the credibility of the gospel in other ways.
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“Social-justice warrior” as a term of abuse
Have you heard “social-justice warrior,” or the abbreviation “SJW,” used as a term of derision? I always think, when I hear it so used, that there is no clearer way to announce that you either are unaware of or reject the Bible and its God than to use SJW as a Schimpfwort, a hate-word, a…
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Why Christotrumpians admire Putin
The people who reduce the Trump-Biden choice to anti-abortion versus pro-abortion are victims and perpetrators of the same malignant fallacy as those who reduce the Russia-Ukraine situation to anti-transgender-rights to pro-transgender-rights.
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Illegitimate totality transfer (on praying Psalm 44)
Warnings from biblical lexicography James Barr was for many years, I think, the scholar most feared by other members of the biblical-studies guild. He had a knack for spotting and exposing fallacies that were widely accepted by his peers as standard practice. Probably the best-known example of his work was his book The Semantics of…
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Reading Matthew: Make disciples
Beginnings and endings of books can help us grasp and remember what the books mean. Recently I finished reading through Exodus and left some thoughts on what that book means in light of its ending. I have also just finished reading through the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew begins with a genealogy that grounds the meaning…
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Reading Exodus: Holiness means obedience
When you’re reading a text, some parts carry more weight than others. Even if every word matters, some words shape how you understand other words. If we’re reading well, and trusting the text, we could say that every word affects how you understand every other word. But in practice some words—some parts of the text—affect…
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What to do with suffering
How I make sense of the pain I saw in the hospital last week.
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The omicron spike matters
A personal anecdote to persuade you to get vaccinated and follow suggested safety protocols.
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Grief and gratitude
My mother died Thursday evening. For me she is an icon of the fruit of the Spirit.
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Trump-Russia is not a hoax
If you are not yet reading Heather Cox Richardson’s daily Letters from an American—why not? I am an ordinary US citizen with the education of a theologian, biblical scholar, and pastor, and I work as a religious book publisher. My interests in current American politics are theological, ecclesial, pastoral. Heather Cox Richardson is a history…
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How COVID-19 has sorted us out
Thomas Paine wrote: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” The trials of the American Revolution would distinguish the “summer soldier and the sunshine patriot” for the true patriot. Well, any crisis tries the souls of those who live through it. The crisis puts a spotlight on actors who must respond to it, and…
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Christmas, typology, and Antichrist
If anyone invites you to a Christmas celebration honoring “Jesus Christ AND . . .,” run as fast as you can in the opposite direction.
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Celebrating the birth of Antichrist in Kentucky
In this nativity scene, what lies in the manger is the serpent. But to Congressman Massie and those who see with like eyes, it is sweet baby Jesus. The gun per se, though it has been used for great evil and in truth was designed for such use, is a tool, an implement. As its…
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The real choice
The most basic choice you make is not between left and right, liberal and conservative. Something else is more basic.
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Evangelicalism in the USA: Discipleship failure owing to catechesis failure
The components of the recent discipleship disasters in evangelical Christianity in the United States. The evangelical churches were left vulnerable because they did not catechize well.
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On labeling and name-calling
There is no good reason to categorize every thought in the world, and every person in the world, using one or the other of two labels. There are very good reasons not to.
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What I heard at the school board meeting last night
What I heard and saw at the 10/18/2021 meeting of the Board of Education of Caledonia (MI) Community schools.
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abortion Angela Rigas board of education Book publishing Caledonia Community Schools Christianity & politics Christian nationalism Christotrumpism Covid-19 CRT deception delusion Democratic Party Dolores Ernest Dolores Lipp Ernest Eerdword evangelicalism fascism Heather Cox Richardson hermeneutics idolatry inerrancy Jesus Joe Biden John Brandow lies Lord's Prayer Luke nationalism patriotism prayer Psalm 1 Psalms Putin Republican Party School Board Scripture self-examination Tim Morris Timothy Snyder Trump Trumpianity Trumpism truth Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
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