There are a couple of challenging reads I want to suggest to the readers out there. The first is a short 16 page download. You can get it for $1.00. Not bad.

Here’s a brief review: 

The line between American culture and Biblical conviction has been irrevocably blurred since the Pilgrims and Puritans made landfall on our shores. The sad fact of Christianity in the United States is that our theology has been more informed by the culture than the reverse. If anyone has any doubts, Fred puts them to rest using the example of our country’s preoccupation with alcohol consumption. When we have otherwise intelligent scholars trying to convince us that Jesus turned the water into the oxymoronic “non-alcoholic” or “non-intoxicating” wine, it is high time to acknowledge that our culture is driving our theology rather than our theology being based on sound Bible study. –Rick Chromey; Kentucky Christian University

Abstinence or Moderation? : Liberty or Law? [link to a dollar download]

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The second offering is a 116 page book that Jim Henderson of Off The Map called the “best missional book on the market.” It an easy read with lots of stories and one of the first books by an emergent that can claim to be more a construct than deconstruct. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. You can find a link to the book on the left side bar near the bottom of this page. Just start scrolling down…

 

Files under Culture, bible, book review, missional | |

I’ve spent a lot of time watching (and expositing) culture to the neglect of personal bible study. Publicly, I’ve argued that we need to spend as much time lucubrating culture as we have given to expositing Scripture. Maybe it’s an unconscious neglect based upon a belief that my Scriptural knowledge far exceeds my ability to obey what I know (I know more bible than I’ll ever obey). I need to find my way back to the middle.

Files under Culture, bible | |

Every wondered how two people can look at the same passage of the Bible and come away with such different applications? Take Scot McKnight’s little quiz (he calls it an interactive assessment). You might be surprised. [take the hermeneutic quiz]

Files under Diversity, bible, interpretation | |