Faith and Spirituality

🔊 Listen How are we to understand the male and female, image and likeness of God, within the human creation? The name, Elohim, Creator of all that is seen and unseen, is introduced in Genesis 1:1, as a Hebrew noun in masculine form. Ruach, the Spirit of Elohim that moves about over the waters, is introduced in Genesis 1:2, as a Hebrew noun in feminine form. Thus, from the beginning of the priestly story of Creation, both masculine and feminine gender terms are present, within the context of Elohim’s stated existence.

Read more

🔊 Listen What is your personal credo? Have you thought about creating a statement that defines who you are, what you believe, and how you see yourself interacting with the world? Many of us have been given such statements based on religious identity. Yet when people choose to shed the traditional creeds attached to denominational doctrine, or the beliefs associated with non-denominational movements, one’s tribal identity and credo is also shed.

Read more

🔊 Listen “Come to him, a living stone though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house,” I Peter 2:4-5. Hmmm. What does it mean to be a living stone that can be built into a spiritual house? Perhaps the best clue is found by ignoring the chapter breaks in the Bible and consider what the writer said just before he mentioned the living stones.

Read more

🔊 Listen The idea of biblical inerrancy is one of the most invasive weeds in Christianity’s wheatfield. The weed might produce lovely looking flowers wherever it is allowed to grow, but the notion of inerrancy ultimately chokes out the inherent goodness of the Bible. Notice the defining difference between biblical inerrancy and the inherent goodness of the Bible.

Read more