Sturtz Stuff

I went to the GQ magazine online and read the interview that has stirred up bloggers, news outlets and social media. You can read the Phil Robertson interview in GD Magazine here . My takeaway from the article is that Phil Robertson is Phil Robertson. He, just like millions of other people, had his life changed by Jesus. Phil now seeks ways to share Jesus with others. The quotes from the GQ article should be viewed in that light. Phil is not stating anything new, making some major theological statement nor do I think he is connecting homosexuality to bestiality. The reaction to all of this has been, in my opinion, immature. ·          Some Christians are calling on other Christians to “stand by Phil” via social media. Perhaps we should all “stand by Phil” via social media while standing in line at Chick-fil-A. Maybe Phil might take a cue from Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy and invite a member of the LGBT community to a sit down meal at t...

I think Larry's main point (which if you're time crunched just read the last 2 paragraphs) is very helpful in dealing with stuff like: 1. The new book Zealot which does not take into account Larry's well researched position and points he makes here. You can check our Larry position in this book . 2. Certain TV programs on the Discovery or History channel that suggest that the early Christian idea of Jesus as Lord/Son of God was something that evolved over years/centuries. These programs suggest/present as "fact" that early Christian leaders left out certain "gospels" to defend Church teaching not uphold a historical fact. “Early High Christology”: Clarifying Key Issues and Positions December 18, 2013      As a follow-up to my previous posting in which I cited again Andrew Chester’s review of recent scholarly analysis of earliest “christology” here , I want to offer some further comments intended to clarify a few matter...

Luke 1:13-17   But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Why start with John the Baptist? Why this story? Why doesn’t Luke just start his story off by talking about Jesus and his teachings? It would seem that you have to get ready for whatever God is going to do. The promised Messiah does not appear all of the sudden. Luke sta...

Today is National Buy Nothing Day . National Buy Nothing Day one of the campaigns promoted by Adbusters . Adbusters is a media organization and magazine that supports social activism aimed at combating the destructive forces inherent in capitalism. Much of this effort is focused on waging "meme warfare" against mindless consumerism. National Buy Nothing Day is an example of this. In an attempt to push back on the frantic shopping going on today--Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year,  some have described as "the most dangerous day of the year for Christians". Recently Pope Francis warned about the "idolatry of money"  claming that our current culutles obsession with money is hurting the old, the young and the poor. And if you want to do more than opt out Adbusters encourages a variety of culture jamming activities. A list of activities from Wikipedia that people have done for National Buy Nothing Day: Credit card cut u...

This is blog post from Larry Hurtado who has spent tons of time write about and resreaching the early origins of Christianity. If you want the original blog post click here . For some time now, the general view has been that earliest Christians met (e.g., for group worship) in houses, at least mainly. In a newly-published study, Dr. Edward Adams (Kings College London) queries this, contending that the evidence for this view isn’t as solid and consistent as commonly thought, and that the extant evidence suggests instead a variety of settings. The book results from a research project that extended over a few years, and should be considered carefully by anyone seriously interested in the question: The Earliest Christian Meeting Places: Almost Exclusively Houses? (London: T&T Clark/Bloomsbury, 2013). Adams first (Part 1) reviews the evidence for use of houses as Christian meeting-places (NT texts, extra-canonical texts, archaeological evidence, and “comparative evidence,” i.e...

Luke 12:13-21 13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward G...

      Pride is one of the big stories in the Bible. It begins in a very interesting place. In Isaiah 14 we read some things that are being said about the king of Babylon. Isaiah 14:11-14 11 All your pomp has been brought down to the grave,     along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you     and worms cover you. 12 How you have fallen from heaven,     morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth,     you who once laid low the nations! 13 You said in your heart,     “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne     above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,     on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. 14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;     I will make myself like the M...

The book of Proverbs uses the word sloth or sluggard in various passages. For example Proverbs 26:14 states As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed. I was fresh out of Bible College and serving as a youth minister at a church in GA. One evening I got a phone call about one of the teenagers in the youth group. I was asked to head to the local hospital.   The teenage girl that I was asked to see was only 15 years old and had been in a terrible accident.   She was on her way home from a date with her boyfriend. They were traveling down a country dirt road that had a tight curve. As they went around the curve another car, which was being driven too fast for conditions, hit them head on. The Mom and Dad of the girl had received the frightening phone call about their daughter’s dreadful accident. The parent’s were told that their daughter was being taken to the local hospital. The parents quickly gathered themselves together, hopped into their car and began...

           Many of us have heard the saying that “Money is the root of all evil.” Some say that this saying comes from the Bible. 1 Timothy 6:10 reads “ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs ." So it is in the Bible . . . kind of. The saying that we are used to hearing is that “money is the root of all evil.” That is not exactly what the Bible says. It does not say that money is the root of all evil. If it did say that then I suppose we could all simply get rid of our money and thus rid ourselves of evil. Yet, what the Bible says is that love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. As we have explored with the other deadly sins of lust and gluttony the questions we are facing are those of our desires and passions. Remember that the 7 deadly sins are vices or habits in our hearts that drive us. It is our desires that ...

Luke 12:22-34 22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life[b]? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? 27 “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows...