May God Bless the Hell Out of You!

Erik Guzman August 19th, 2010

God is not fair. He gleefully flaunts it too. He shoves it in our faces. Jesus' version of reality is devoid of common sense. The Kingdom of God might as well be called, “Crazy Upside-down Jesus World.”

Here's an example.

Say I need some landscaping done at my house. So I go to the day-laborer place and I hire up all the guys standing around. We agree on $100 per guy for a day's work. They work hard for a couple hours, but it doesn't look like we'll get all th … (Read More)

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New Creation vs New Car!

Steve Brown August 9th, 2010

Guess what?

I just got a new car!

I know, I know, that's not very spiritual, but I'm in that stage where I have to tell someone and you're it. It's a black (befitting the clergy) Honda Accord and I like it a lot.

I generally run cars into the ground, often getting close to 200,000 miles out of them. My old car was a hybrid with 125,000 miles on it. If the batteries go in a hybrid, it can cost up to $4,000. Given that batteries don't last forever and on the advice of a me … (Read More)

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Jesus Deficit Disorder - Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola on SBE

Erik Guzman August 6th, 2010

You've probably heard the joke about the little boy digging through a giant pile of horse manure. An eternal optimist, he exclaimed, "With all this horse poop, there has to be a pony in here somewhere!"

It's kinda like that in the church. Where's Jesus? We're buried in guilt from not living up to the demands of moralism and social justice. All the while, Jesus is in this mess somewhere.

Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola are here to get us digging in the right di … (Read More)

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Will Jesus Buy Me a Double-Wide? - Karen Spears Zacharias on SBE (Re-Air)

Erik Guzman July 23rd, 2010

From The Secret to prosperity gospel preachers, we're told that our thoughts and actions can attract good things to us. Muster up enough good vibrations or faith in God and you can be healthy, wealthy and wise. But when the formula doesn't work, where does that leave the faithful?

Join us as we talk about that with Karen Spears Zacharias, author of Will Jesus Buy Me a Double-Wide?: ('Cause I Need More Room for My Plasma TV). Karen writes,

"I know without question that Go … (Read More)

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A State of Mediocrity?

Steve Brown July 15th, 2010

This morning, I read and graded "integration" papers from a course for Doctor of Ministry students at the seminary. The course was titled: Thriving & Surviving Pastoral Ministry.

I just finished reading the paper of one of my pastor students who wrote (referring to me):

The class helped me think about surviving and thriving. I like Steve. I like his attitude about the ministry. He has survived well. And he has thrived, it would seem. He has served churches, written books, had a ra … (Read More)

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The End of God & Christianity? - Schlichting & "Fuz" on SBE

Erik Guzman June 25th, 2010

Christianity is in decline in the west, and that may be just what the doctor ordered. Randy Schlichting says it enables us to step aside from power brokering and move towards living by four minority rules.

Join us as we talk with Randy about his book Minority Rules: Size Does Not Determine Success.

Then, Dr. Fazale "Fuz" Rana from Reasons to Believe stops by to talk about the world's first synthetic cell engineered by scientists. If humans can "create" life, who need … (Read More)

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