In the preceding post, I referenced an article I wrote for the Indianapolis Star, Halloween or Reformation Day.  In the Star article, I noted the birth of a baby boy on Halloween 28 years ago. The father who made that call was Dr. Brick Scheer, our family dentist for 18 years in Wichita, Kansas. Brick practiced with his father, Dr. Harold Scheer, who had worked with his father, Dr. G. W. Scheer, three generations of dentists. Now, the fourth generation has joined the practice, Dr. Brandon Scheer, the Halloween/Reformation Day baby from 1985.

Take a look at this story from Wichita, Kansas as told by Larry Hatteberg – Woman Treated by 4 Generations of Family Dentists

 

 

Why is one of the most important dates in the church year mostly neglected by the church and celebrated only  by the world?  I speak of Halloween, the ‘een (the eve or evening before) of All Hallows Day or All Saints Day on November 1. October 31 is Reformation Day to me, not Halloween, as it is the most common marker for the birth date and place of the Protestant Reformation.  This is the day of Luther’s protest expressed in the posting of his 95 Theses on the Wittenberg Church door in 1517. If you’ve never read these statements, titled Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, I urge you to do so. It won’t take long, just 95 crisp statements.

The roots of Halloween are complex and varied, but the secular holiday that it has become goes back more to the 18th century Celtic world, not the birthplace of the 16th century Reformation in Luther’s Germany. Continue reading “Halloween or Reformation Day?” →

As a child, I was led to believe that the two worst sins anyone could ever commit were smoking and drinking, the use of tobacco and alcohol.

But where in the Bible is this taught?  It’s not!  Tobacco and its uses is not even mentioned.  Alcohol is another matter for sure, but along with many warnings about the dangers of alcohol, there are affirmations of wine as God’s gift and a source of divine blessing.

So, I’ve had to moderate my hard stance over the years.  A sermon I now look back on with embarrassment was a hard line position in a small Nebraska town in the Seventies that believers should not enter the only restaurant in town because it was primarily a bar. I wonder if I should go apologize to the owners 35 years later for my attitude toward them. A more recent treatment of drinking alcohol about which I’m not embarrassed is a sermon I preached in 2012 in the Wisdom for Life series from Proverbs, Wisdom and Wine,

Have I changed my mind about alcohol and tobacco?  Yes and No Continue reading “Smoking and Drinking” →

It happened on Sunday morning, September 15, 1963.  To my own shame, I did not know that it was less than a month after the March on Washington and the legendary “I Have a Dream” speech when a bomb exploded at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama killing four children.  Ironically?  No, providentially, the sermon prepared for that day was “A Love that Forgives.”

On this, another significant 50th Anniversary of a civil rights milestone, use this opportunity to be informed of this critical era in American history.  I urge you to read Wringing Good Out of Evil by Eric Metaxas and While the World Watched by Timothy George.

President Obama is in a difficult position, attacked from both sides for his changing position on Syria. Should the United States intervene militarily or not?  What are the positive results and unintended consequences of our action or inaction? What if we help the rebels overthrow Assad, but the Muslim Brotherhood or Al Qaeda gains control? What is the basis for intervening in Syria when many nations and dictators have committed atrocious acts, killing millions of their own people?  What is America’s responsibility to hold the world to a standard of life affirming behavior? Continue reading “Children and Chemical Weapons” →

God Loves the Sinner, but Hates the Sin?  That was the question in Episode 140 of Ask Pastor John, a 6 minute audio response by John Piper on 7/31/2013  This resonated with me because of a comment to my earlier post, Danica Patrick on Love and Marriage.  I noted that while it is popular to speak of God’s unconditional love, that can be easily misunderstood and downplay another attribute of God, his holiness, and thus his wrath against sinners.

God’s love is unconditional to the extent that no sin is so great but that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was more than adequate to pay the penalty for it. Continue reading “God’s Love and Hatred for Sinners” →

What were you doing on August 28, 1963?  Okay, so you weren’t born yet.  So ask your parents; or if they weren’t born yet either, ask your grandparents.  Why do I ask?

After a long day, I settled into the couch to watch the Cardinals and the Reds on television.  Unless my team is the featured game on ESPN, about the only time I get to see them play is when they play the Cubs or the Reds. But as much as I love to watch the St. Louis Cardinals, I wandered around a bit with my remote and landed on a PBS special about the civil rights march on Washington 50 years ago.  I was riveted by the film of that day, footage of great Negro singers such as Marian Anderson and Mahalia Jackson; sympathetic white folk singers Joan Baez; Bob Dylan; Peter, Paul and Mary; Hollywood entertainers including Steve McQueen and Charlton Heston, various speeches, including a very young John Lewis who used the word “black” in place of the customary “negro,” and approximately 250,000 Americans who arrived by plane, train, and hundreds of buses to join in the Civil Rights march on Washington.

And I wondered, “What was I doing that day?”  Continue reading ““I still have a dream,” August 28, 1963″ →

It’s a question I’m asked, perhaps, a time or two per year.  What do you think about cremation?  Is it an acceptable means of disposing of the body instead of the more traditional Jewish and Christian tradition of burial.

I’m going to let my brother Wes share his answer with us as he did recently for his church family, Estes Brook Evangelical Free Church in  central Minnesota. Continue reading “What about Cremation?” →

So writes Nancy Ortberg in the summer 2013 Leadership Journal  Sub-title, “Is there a different pathway to maturity for multi-tasking extroverts?”

Ortberg notes that the vast majority of devotional materials written in the past 2000 years were written by introverts. For them (big danger here of over-stereotyping), each day regularly starts with devotions – significant time spent in Scripture, prayer and other spiritual disciplines such as “contemplation, reflection, solitude, and journaling.” Continue reading ““Jesus didn’t Journal”” →

Eliminated from contention for a place in the new Presbyterian Church (USA) hymnal is the contemporary Keith Getty/Stuart Townend hymn, “In Christ Alone.” Why is such an overwhelmingly popular hymn disqualified? Continue reading “The Wrath of God was Satisfied” →