I’ve heard more bad arguments in regards to the college football playoff this week then I heard from people during the election cycle earlier this year.
Tomorrow, the four playoff teams will be named. It looks quite likely that Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, and Washington will be those four teams. (more…)
In his book “Above the Line,” Ohio State’s football coach Urban Meyer talks about his coaching philosophy. One of the things Meyer talks about in his book is what he calls “the R factor.”
And by the R factor, Meyer is talking about the Response Factor. In the book, Meyer says: “We don’t control the events in life, and we don’t directly control the outcomes. But we always have control over how we choose to respond.”
While this is certainly true on the football field, Meyer goes on to talk about how this is also true in life. (more…)
Courtesy of Flickr Creative commonsWhen I was in seminary, I had a professor who was one of the best New Testament scholars in the world (D.A. Carson). He would give us these Bible quizzes that were RIDICULOUS. He’d ask totally obscure questions. Most people hated them. Dr. Carson wasn’t empathetic when one day he said “life is hard and then you die, get used to it.” (more…)
In Randy Alcorn’s wonderful book, “Heaven,” he tells a story of an English minister who was asked by a colleague what he expected after death. The man replied: “Well, if it comes to that, I suppose I shall enter into eternal bliss, but I really wish you wouldn’t bring up such depressing subjects.”
Our views of heaven are too lowly. In life, things often times leave us disappointed.
A movie looks hilarious in the previews….and then you see the movie and realize every funny scene was basically shown in the preview. People rave about a restaurant, and you think it’s just ok. We vote for a politician who we think will fix things, and they disappoint. (more…)
In his book the Problem of Pain, CS Lewis sums up what I think many would agree with: “There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and, specially, of our Lord’s own words; it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the support of reason.”
We’re fine with the idea of a loving God, but we’re less accepting of a God who judges.
With the idea of hell, It can seem unfair. We can feel tempted to justify why hell doesn’t exist. Or maybe we think that hell is really just for people who are really, really bad. (more…)