Theology, opinion, fiction, and the occasional limerick.
If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works,…
For a little light-hearted change of pace this week, here’s a short story I did recently for one of my Philosophy classes. The assignment was to write a story containing certain theories of education put forth by Robert Gagne and Albert Bandura. This, translated and adapted from the original Portuguese, was the result. ____________________ Friday…
I go weeks without reflecting on the difference in the quantity of melanin between my lovely wife and myself. I really do. Then somebody on Twitter has to go and weigh in on the subject. This week it was a blue-check named Clayburn Griffin, who responded to a tweet featuring non-PC comedian Bill Burr and…
What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? A pastor friend of mine here in Brazil once told me of a man he visited several years back. As my friend encouraged him to take his spiritual growth seriously, the man looked at…
At the outset of this piece, let me say that I know I will be accused of “slippery slope” argumentation. So let me explain my thought process this way: suppose that several students in a school came down with a vicious stomach bug – vomiting, diarrhea, the whole nine yards. And suppose that you observed…
So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. My hands gripped the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turned white, and my upper teeth ground against my lower teeth in…
For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.Did Imagine with me a hypothetical…
I feel I should begin this post by saying that I do not watch the steaming sewage pipeline that is Big Brother Brazil, one of Brazilian TV’s most popular programs. I have much better things to do with my time. Like getting a root canal, for example. For those unfamiliar with the Big Brother TV…
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. The story is told of a small town mayor here in Northeast Brazil who wanted to build a…
Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? As I have contemplated this text over the past couple weeks, two incidents from our life here in Brazil – both involving my oldest son Michael – were brought to my…