The Tulip Driven Life

By: Sean Rice Lady Gaga's message in  Born This Way  is 'you were born like this - so there is nothing wrong; celebrate it!' But what if things aren't that sweet and simple? Right up front, this isn't a post about lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender lifestyles (which is mainly what Gaga is singing about  in her song ); we're talking about the entire human condition. When it comes to sin, wickedness, and depravity, we were born this way. This is who we are.  (1)  But that's a problem; despite what Gaga says, that's nothing to celebrate.  (2)  The solution isn't to feel better about our sin and say 'I'm on the right track'; it's to be born  again  -  Christian parlance for putting your faith in Jesus  and letting God change you, letting Him fix what is broken in you. THE CHILDREN OF CHERNOBYL: BORN BROKEN It was the second-last day of an event called  Youth Quake  when the prayer request came out....

By: Sean Rice Aside from  Matthew 7.1 , which says "judge not, that you be not judged,"  John 3.16  is the most well-known Bible verse in the world. This verse is on plaques. This verse is on T- shirts. Max Lucado even wrote an entire book on this verse called  3:16: The Numbers of Hope , which came on the scene with a whole multitude of related products, church music, CDs featuring top Christian music artists, and "ancillary publishing products," according to the Amazon.com website for the book (link above). This short quote completely overshadows the rest of the context in which it is found. The full verse is as follows: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in  him  should not perish but have eternal life." John 3.16   OUT OF CONTEXT This quote just feels sort of warm and cuddly, doesn't it? God loves us, and we're going to have eternal life! And both of these things are true. Still,...

By: Sean Rice An American publication named  Slate  recently published an article by Will Oremus called 'Was Jesus a Homophobe?'* Surprisingly, given that it is a pretty left-leaning publication, I actually agree with a lot of what Oremus had to say. He doesn't seem to stretch facts to come to favourable conclusions. He does criticize Paul for wording things a little harshly when it comes to homosexuality (most Christians would criticize Paul's use of language, too - how many of  you  would stay if your pastor dismissively told the troublemakers in your church to castrate themselves? See  Galatians 5.12 ), though I don't disagree with the strong tone that Paul sometimes takes on issues. Will Oremus writes, '[Was Jesus a homophobe?] Yes and no. While it's reasonable to assume that Jesus and his fellow Jews in first-century Palestine would have disapproved of gay sex, there is no record of his ever having mentioned homosexuality, let alone express...

By: Sean Rice "The Apostle Paul," writes the agnostic and best-selling Bible scholar  Bart Ehrman  in his newest book,  Did Jesus Exist? , "is our earliest surviving Christian author of any kind... Paul was writing some years  before the Gospels. His first letter (1 Thessalonians) is usually dated to 49 AD [which is just sixteen short years after Jesus' death on the cross in 33 AD]... Paul understood Jesus to be a historical figure, a Jew who lived, taught, and was crucified at the instigation of Jewish opposition." [1]  What Bart Ehrman is saying, then, is that Paul is one of our earliest witnesses to the life of Jesus Christ - one who should be taken seriously. WHY IS PAUL A TRUSTWORTHY SOURCE? How do we know that Paul actually wrote letters about Jesus shortly after Christ's death on the cross? (We'll leave the resurrection part out just for now.) Maybe some later Christian made up the persona of Paul, pretended to be him, and wrote ...