Sturtz Stuff

            In Acts 12 King Herod starts making trouble for the Christians. Herod is a puppet King in the area of Judea for the Romans. The Romans selected Herod to do their bidding. This is not the same Herod when Jesus was born. That was the first Herod this his grandson. Yet, he is just a problematic for the followers of Jesus. Herod is seeking to get power and maintain power by making sure that the Jews like him. Herod notices that there was this one small group that was going around claiming that Jesus was the King of the Jews. Herod picked up on the fact this small group created a lot of conflict among the Jews. Perhaps Herod figured that if he picked off one of the minor leaders of the small group then maybe that might go over well with the larger Jewish population and their leaders. Herod could be calculating that that this action might gain him the trust and loyalty of the Jewish leaders.      ...

Tony got word that he had done a good thing. Tony's supervisor had noticed that he got to work on time and often stayed late. Tony’s hard work was rewarded and recognized by his supervisor in front of his fellow co-workers. It was pointed out that that ruff and gruff Tony had not had an accident on his crew in over a year. Tony has done a good thing. When the supervisor told these things to Tony in front of his crew he started to cry. He said “Nobody has ever said good things about me.”   Tony was so overcome that he invited the supervisor to his home. When the supervisor arrived Tony introduced him to his wife. She said “It has been like Christmas around here because of what you said.” About 12 years later Tony and his former supervisor met again. Tony was now a supervisor himself and working for a railroad company. They sat down over lunch to talk about old times. Tony said that “The day you told me I did a good job it changed my life. It made a difference in my li...

             It was August 24 410 CE. It was the day that the Army of the Goths sacked Rome. They burned and killed for 3 days and then left. For the first time in 1,000 years Rome was sacked. Impossible! How could this be? Augustine came along during this time and wrote a book called the City of God . Augustine said that the reason why Christians were freaking out was because they had associated the Kingdom of God with the Kingdom of Rome. Augustine says that there is no eternal human city. There is only one city that cannot be broken, beaten, injured, burned or bombed and it is the City of God. Augustine says that if you are freaking out over what is happening to Rome then you are greatly confused. You have confused the City of God with the City of Rome. If you stop there then you miss out. If you suggest that what really matters is some other city and not the city you live in then what you could conclude is that  ...

  Jonah 3:1-10- 4:1-5 This is probably one of the more surprising passages in all of scripture. It is surprising for many reasons. One of those reasons is the surprising sources of violence. The first source of violence is the pagan society of Assyrian. When I say pagan I mean a worldview. Paganism believes in many gods. When you look across history and the various societies/cultures that believed in paganism you discover that those societies/cultures were often violent cultures. For example the ancient Roman socieity was pagan and violent. Rome built the Colosseum. The Colosseum, by some estimates, could seat up to 50,000 people. These 50,0000 people would gather and cheer as they  witnessed  gladiators kill each other, lions eat people and others burned alive. And in those pagan cultures there was no concern for the poor or weak. In fact many of the gladiators that fought to the death in front of cheering crowds were slaves. Well why are pagan cultur...

Has Science Made Faith in God Impossible? William Lane Craig speaks at the Texas A&M University Veritas Forum - check out the audio here .

             In Jonah 1:3 we read that Jonah “paid the fare” to get on a boat that was headed to Tarshish.   Now the implication made here is that Jonah was not just paying for his own fare. That phrase “paid the fare” suggests he paid for the whole ship. We would say that Jonah chartered the ship. The implication is that Jonah is a dude who has to get somewhere fast. He walks up asks “How much is this ship?” Okay, well here is the cash. Some would suggest that the journey to Tarshish from Joppa would take about a year by ship. So Jonah is a person who can afford to travel for the next year. Jonah can “pay the fare” and charter the whole boat and can travel for a year to the farthest possible place. Jonah is an empowered man. Jonah is a man of wealth. Jonah is a man who can afford options. God says he wants me to go to Nineveh? I don’t think so when I can afford to go the other direction for a year. This is a m...

Increasingly the inescapable conversation happening around many churches (officially or unofficially) is about gun control. I’d just as soon get hit in the head with a ball peen hammer then advocate a certain position. Why? Because I’m not sure what I think. I am torn between Niebuhr and Yoder on this one. In the spirit of full disclosure I must say that I do not own a gun nor do I have any plans on owning a gun. I have shot some shotguns and rifles on a gun range. I have been hunting (came back with nothing). The only heirloom gun I used to own was a BB gun my father had received from his uncle as a child. Yes, I played with toy guns as a kid. I know many who are avid gun owners that I consider brothers in Christ. I am not out to take guns away from those who own guns legally. I am attempting to take a moment and reflect on what I have seen and heard about gun control specifically by Christians. Perhaps it goes without saying yet the politics on this issue seems to be in the ...