Off the Beaten Pulpit

1. Good News & Other News

Federal Appeals Court upholds Texas law requiring public schools to hang posters of the Ten Commandments. Good News or other news?

2. Sermon Discussion

(a) Matthew 28:16-20: Teach them to obey all Jesus commanded—what did and didn’t Jesus command?

(b) Psalm 22: From “My God…Why have you forsaken me?” to "Father, into your hands..." to “It is finished!” What does this supreme Messianic Psalm say about how we understand (and misunderstand) penal substitution atonement theology?

3. Offerings

(a) How God Saves the World: A Short History of Global Christianity by Timothy Tennent

(b) From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life by Arthur C. Brooks

Send your questions for "You Asked for It" to [email protected]

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd."

—Flannery O'Connor

1. You Asked for It

(a) Does President Trump's participation in "America Prays" promote Christian Nationalism?

(b) Should there be qualifications for Bible teachers or is every Christian qualified?

2. Sermon Discussion

(a) Matthew 28: Baptism and the bestowal of identity in a culture of the 'self-made man.'

(b) Psalm 23: The Good Shepherd and stupid sheep.

3. Offerings

(a) Robert Jenson: Visible Words: The Interpretation and Practice of Christian Sacraments

(b) Dallas Willard: Life Without Lack: Living in the Fullness of Psalm 23

Send your questions for "You Asked for It" to [email protected]

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd."

—Flannery O'Connor

1. Sermon Discussion

(a) John 21: Peter's Denial and Restoration

(b) Matthew 28: The Grammar of the Great Commission: Disciple is a verb.

2. Offerings

(a) Corrie Ten Boom's The Hiding Place

(b) Byung Chul-Han's The Disappearance of Rituals

Send your questions for "You Asked for It" to [email protected]

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd."

—Flannery O'Connor

1. You Asked for It (Q&A from Congregants & Listeners)

a) Where do dinosaurs fit in the timeline of the Bible (and where do these timelines of the Bible actually come from)?

b) Response to Reuters article: Evangelicals Amplify Trump's Religious Framing of Iran War

2. Sermon Discussion

(a) John 21: Living in the Epilogue of the Resurrection

(b) Matthew 28: The Two Commissions: The Great Commission and the Counter Commission

3. Offerings

(a) Bonhoeffer on Stupidity

(b) Monet's Waterlilies by Robert Hayden

Send your questions for "You Asked for It" to [email protected]

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd."

—Flannery O'Connor

1. You Asked for It (Q&A from Congregants & Listeners)

a) What do the 3,000 killed at Sinai have to do with the 3,000 saved at Pentecost (commemorating Sinai)?

2. Sermon Discussion

(a) Luke 9: The Feeding of the 5,000: the meal that revealed the Messiah

(b) Mark 1: Jesus touching, and healing, a leper: the touch that cleansed the world. And what's the significance of the command to "Greet one another with a holy kiss" (Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Thess. 5:26; 1 Pet. 5:14)?

3. Offerings

(a) NYT Essay: "We Study Mass Shooters. Something Terrifying Is Happening Online" by James Densley and Jillian Peterson

(b) Book: For the Life of the World by Alexander Schmemann

Send your questions for "You Asked for It" to [email protected]

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd."

—Flannery O'Connor

1. You Asked for It (Q&A from Congregants & Listeners):

Doesn't Christian Zionism attempt to control God's timeline (that Jesus forbids us from even knowing, much less controlling!)?

2. Biblical Zion & (Anti)Christian Zionism:

In this episode we had a special guest guest discussion with Pastor Ben Hurst. We examine the three pillars of Zion in the Bible over against the three pillars of modern day (so-called) "Christian" Zionism: the Land, the Temple (or Governing Power and Presence), and the People of Zion. We show how the geopolitical vision of contemporary "Christian" Zionism is diametrically (and diabolically!) opposed to the biblical vision of all-nations Zion in Christ. The discussion makes it clear: the Christian Zionism espoused by many "evangelical" Zionists is a creation of the spirit of the antichrist (described in 1 John 4) and is decided unchristian, even anti-Christian.

3. Offerings

Sandra Richter's The Epic of Eden

Send your questions for "You Asked for It" to [email protected]

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd."

—Flannery O'Connor