Allen's Blog

2nd in a series on how men and women in the Bible deal with waiting, disappointment and unemployment   Cain and Abel: Right Product/Wrong Time In 1940,  Henry Ford  famously predicted: "Mark my word: a combination airplane and motorcar is coming. You may smile, but it will come.”   In 1957,  Popular Mechanics  reported that  Hiller Helicopters  was developing a ducted-fan aircraft that would be easier to fly than helicopters, and should cost a lot less. Hiller engineers expected that this type of an aircraft would become the basis for a whole family of special-purpose aircraft.  And 60 years later, we’re still waiting.   Maybe it is the car of the future but the timing has to be right doesn’t it?   Well, let’s go back 6000 years, a time way before automation, before infomercials to the first market economy, two competitors: Cain and Abel.   Two sons who had legitimate occupations marketing legitimat...

1st in a series on how men and women in the Bible deal with waiting, disappointment and unemployment Adam and Eve Get Fired Whenever we read the Bible we study it while wearing a particular lens.   If anyone ever tells you that they have an objective view of the Bible or of history, keep your distance…because they are deceived.   We come at everything with an agenda.   I hear your compliments and criticisms through the lens of my emotional security.   I read the newspaper looking for views that support my own.   And I usually like to surround myself with people who regard my particular views as sound and noteworthy.   My only hope is that, as I read, I remain open to other interpretations and primarily to the influence of the Holy Spirit. With that in mind, I have just begun viewing the Bible from the perspective of what it means to wait.   It seems like there’s a lot of waiting in the Bible.   Also, how do men and women...

What I Learned This Summer Remember when you returned from summer break and your first assignment was to write about what you did over the summer?   I remember when my summers disappeared.   My first job out of college was as a management trainee at Moore’s Building Supply in Roanoke, VA.   The spring slipped into summer and I hardly noticed.   Being off the academic year was a jolt and a huge disappointment.   I had to choose carefully how I would spend my two weeks of vacation a year.   If not for my involvement in Young Life I would not have had much of an excursion at all.   So, one week at camp and I can’t remember the other week. Fast forward…..a few years….this past summer I was involved with an inner city ministry and we offered a five week program for the youth.   This was right up my alley.   I had done youth ministry for years.   I loved kids….of all ages.   And I had been affirmed that I was pretty...

Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? What’s the big deal?   Why is there such disagreement between those who call themselves Christians?   Is there a baseline to which all should refer?   Or are we free to follow our hearts and worship in a way that brings us the most satisfaction?   Recently I attended a church service in which all the elements appeared very religious.   Pastors and choirs in robes, a church building, pews, hymns, a baptism, the reading of the Bible and prayer.   According to most it fit the definition of a ‘worship service’.   In many ways, I wish I could just leave it well-enough-alone.   But my understanding of Scripture and the nature of God does not allow me to keep silent.   Whether God needs defending or not, I feel I must offer some critique and see if I can do so in an effort to pursue Truth in an attitude of love. It’s amazing all that can happen in a one hour service, but my thoughts in ...

What Do I Believe? I recently have had conversations with people who in a self-deterministic, take charge manner have declared what they believe about God, the state of the world and how they will live out their lives.   Each person is sincere and, for whatever reason, is fed up with ‘organized religion’.   Good questions are brought up: “How can there be only one way of salvation for everyone unless everyone has a chance to hear the same information?” “What about Hell?   How can a good God allow people to go or send people to a place of torment?”   GREAT QUESTIONS!   Usually what comes along with questions is an attitude of defiance and even arrogance.   Unfortunately, I rarely meet a true questioner.   People have already made up their minds and there’s nothing you can do to change it?   First observation:   We are always in danger of going down a wrong path when our philosophy begins with ME.   If I am the st...

What's New? Uber, Bitcoin, Tesla, Millennials, Dreamers, Drone, AI, Virtual Reality and dozens of other terms that we may have heard of but we may not know what they mean.  Or we may be very familiar with them but we think they really have nothing to do with us.  A missionary spoke to a group of us when I was in seminary and he told us, “As ministers of the gospel you should know a little bit about everything.”   He meant that in order to earn the right to be heard as preachers of the gospel, you need to demonstrate that you know something of the world of your hearers.  Karl Barth, a Swiss Reformed theologian said, “Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.” I have always been interested in many things but this week I have stepped up my game a bit.  It’s not unusual on any given day to travel several 20 to 30 minute segments in my car.  The news on the radio leaves much to be desired so I’...

The Presbyterian Church has ten confessions which are essentially commentaries on the Bible.  I have been reading an article in Theology Matters by Richard Burnett who states, “Confessions arise as a result of a crisis in the church that requires a decision to be made.”  One of our Confessions is The Second Helvetic Confession .  Did you ever wonder what happened to the first?  I learned that there never was a confession called “First”, but the first confession in the 1500’s was The Heidelberg Confession .  This confession was considered by Lutherans to be too reformed in spirit and demanded that the writer be convicted of heresy.  Heinrich Bullinger wrote The Second Helvetic Confession in 1561 as a defense of the Heidelberg and it exonerated the author. Of course, confessions go back the creation of the Apostle’s and Nicene Creeds .  These were written by the early church fathers in 2nd and 4th centuries respectively, to combat heretical ...