Sturtz Stuff

We humans are built for connection. We were made to connect. We like hanging out with our friends and family. We like posting pictures and comments on Facebook for others to see. We enjoy sharing a laugh with others via a text message. We really seem to seek out and desire a connection with fellow human beings.   This is no great insight. We have known this since our elementary school days and our exploits in trying to fit in, get along and otherwise connect with classmates. We all want to be in a place like the TV show Cheers from the 80’s and 90’s. As the theme song for the show says we all want to go “ Where everybody knows your name; And they're always glad you came .” I do not know, nor honestly desire to know, all of the details surrounding Manti Te’o’s fake girlfriend hoax. I am more interested in the reality that Manti Te’o’s situation seems to highlight. Manti Te’o made a “love connection” with a person that he had never meet in person. In fact the person Te’o claimed...

Don’t know if you have ever seen the TV show called Six Feet Under . It was a show about a family that own and operated a funeral home. Each episode started with a short vignette in which someone would die. The character that died in the opening vignette would become the body at the family funeral home for the rest of the episode. There are about six main characters on the show. However, the way that the show was shot, written and produced it made sure that there was one main character that was above all the others and in the forefront of everything that happen to all the other characters. That main character was death. Death was at the forefront of every show. It made the show very challenging to watch. It confronts you with something that we spend most of our lives attempting to ignore. The reason I bring this up is because this is very much like the book of Ecclesiastes. The book’s main character is death. The book constantly brings up the issue of death. Which is a reason why t...

Luke 2:8-19: And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,   14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in th...

Tim Keller's Gospel in Life Study Guide expounds upon the difference between religion and the gospel. The following is the excerpt from page 16. While I like things like this I would add that I would agree with William Cavanaugh's postion found in his book The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict that the word "religion" is a made up word and difficult to define. However, I like the chart.

  Renowned Author and speaker N.T. Wright sits down with J.D. Walt, Maxie Dunnam and Ben Witherington III to talk about his view on justification and salvation. In part two of this four part series, Wright explains how many people have misread Paul's letters in light of justification and salvation.    

  Ran across this blog from Richard Beck . Thought it was good, funny and truthful. Something worth sharing. Our bible class at church recently wrapped up a series on 1 Thessalonians, a study led by my ACU colleague Trevor Thompson. Trevor is a historian and NT scholar in our College of Biblical Studies. One of the texts we wrestled with is 1 Thessalonians 4.3-4. From the NIV: It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable... In the NIV there is a note attached to the phrase "control your own body." The note reads: Or learn to live with your own wife; or learn to acquire a wife Obviously, there is some interpretive ambiguity here. Is Paul saying "learn to control your body" or is he saying "learn to live with your wife" or is he saying "go acquire a wife"? The translation "go acquire a w...

Unconventional Thanksgiving Quote From G.K. Chesterton’s Autobiography, Chapter XVI: “The God With The Golden Key” I can scarcely think of a better–albeit unconventional–note for Thanksgiving than this one, from the salty rhetorical cleverness of G.K. Chesterton:   “… A whole generation has been taught to talk nonsense at the top of its voice about having ‘a right to life’ and ‘a right to experience’ and ‘a right to happiness.’ The lucid thinkers who talk like this generally wind up their assertion of all these extraordinary rights, by saying that there is no such thing as right and wrong . It is a little difficult, in that case, to speculate on where their rights came from; but I, at least, leaned more and more to the old philosophy which said that their real rights came from where the dandelion came from; and that they will never value either [the rights or the flower] without recognising its source… [But] the first thing the casual critic will say is ‘What nonsen...