Present Right Now

It has become a painful and disturbing routine for our country to almost monthly enter into a week of mourning for some sort of violent attack, at home or abroad. This past weekend we felt the shock of a peaceful demonstration in Dallas turn violent. We felt the fear and confusion of witnesses from the many videos of the attack posted online. We felt the immense grief of families in Louisiana, Minnesota, and Texas who have now personally lost someone to gun violence. And we all continue to feel the disillusionment and uncertainty as to how we should move forward to stop such hatred and violence from becoming normal headlines. Can't We Be Better? As I have waded through these emotions over the weekend and attempted to sort out in my mind how we can overcome these problems as a society, the Spirit kept bringing me back to how deep and irreparable our depravity is. The dialogues that continue at the popular level all point to an underlying expectation that there is an answer to

Let's take a word association test. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you see the word "Bible"? Was it a picture of a big leather-bound book with gold-dipped page ends? Was it more of an emotional response, like a feeling deep in your gut that recoiled at the thought of endless pages telling you how you should live your life? Did you think of it as God's revelation of himself to the world, or maybe as just another book in a series of religious texts written throughout human history? Definitions Carry Luggage Words in general are funny things; they carry with them luggage that may not have always been associated with their original meaning. In particular, a religious term like "Bible" has become loaded with meanings too numerous to itemize, infiltrating our American culture across all media platforms carrying both positive and negative connotations. One area that more clearly reveals the popular definition of "Bible" in our cultur