A Glimpse of the Kingdom by David W. Pendergrass, Ph.D.

This is a re-posting of a blog from a few years ago. A couple years ago my family visited Disney World. Visiting Disney World is such an experience. It certainly gives me plenty of things to ponder. I’ll reflect here on a few: 1)      We adults need time to act like children. It’s amazing how easy it can be to let your inner Child come out and play when it’s socially acceptable to do so. At Disney, no one cares at all if an adult runs down the street to hug Mickey. It’s expected that everyone can act like a child. If only our churches could learn this lesson. Imagine a family of believers where it was perfectly acceptable to respond to God’s deliverance with shouts of praise or cries of desperation. It’s not that difficult to imagine: find like-minded people and you’ll see how easy it is when people don’t feel scared to respond to God. Of course, the best way to do that is to start being  that  kind of person right now, wherever you are. If others don’t like it, so what. You’

Here is a recent article concerning excavations in Myra, Turkey, the original locale of St. Nicholas. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/science/under-turkish-mud-well-preserved-byzantine-chapel.html?_r=3&

This one hour radio show is an excellent example of scholarship vs. "I can think whatever I want to think and still be called a devout Christian." Ben Witherington, III, the NT scholar who opposes this other guy, is a well-respected scholar. He is utterly accurate in his input and analysis. The other guy is just terribly confused and misdirected. It's a great example of someone who is convinced s/he's right, yet so badly wrong. Just click this link: http://media.premier.org.uk/unbelievable/2fea689e-f79c-4437-a299-17c73d495b33.mp3

A few years ago, my wife was listening to the local Christian station (KSBJ) and heard a 90-second sound bite from Dennis Rainey. The transcript was here: http://www.familylife.com/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=dnJHKLNnFoG&b=3794787&ct=4923145 Well, Elaine heard it and was fired up furious. She wrote to “Real Family Life” people and got a response from Glenda. For fun, I wrote a response to Glenda (I never received a response). Here is that exchange from a few years ago. I'm sure that Dennis Rainey's ministry has done much for the kingdom of God, and for that I am truly grateful.  My point here is not to slam that ministry. I have one and only one point in this blog post: to demonstrate the profound misreading of a biblical text when you do not read it in historical and literary context. Here is the correspondence: Elaine’s email: QUESTION: My name is Elaine Pendergrass, and I am a Children’s and Preschool Minister, as well as a wife and mother of 2 youn

Since we are still in Christmas Season (until Jan 6), I thought I'd write something regarding Christmas. Luke 2:1-7                                                        Do you ever “name drop”? Ever mention people you think are important to someone in order to impress them? Of course, we don’t always mention a person’s name to impress them. Sometimes we mention famous people to set the context. “When George W. Bush was President, the Twin Towers were attacked.” “When Nolan Ryan was pitching for the Houston Astros, I visited my first game.” Big names set the stage sometimes. They give us context. They evoke images of power or fear, prestige or failure.    Luke mentions several big names in this text. And it’s crucial for us to know why these three names are mentioned. He could have mentioned any person in the ancient world, but Luke mentioned these three on purpose: Caesar Augustus, Quirinius, and David. All three are political authority figures.     On the one hand, Luk

Are you afraid to fail? Don’t be. The whole world isn’t actually on your shoulders; it’s on God’s. You don’t actually have THAT much control of your situation; God does. You can’t actually mess things up THAT badly; God doesn’t need you to do things flawlessly for His will to be accomplished. Don’t be afraid to fail. Give up trying. Take that yoke off of your neck. Let go of that anxiety. Breathe. Trust God. Tell God that at least for one day (or one hour or one minute), you are deciding not to rely on your ability to say everything “just right” or act “just right” or be “just right.” Only God is “just right.” Rest in Him. Trust that no matter what mistakes you make, God can clean up any situation. Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t let your mind even go there. Stop trying. You’ll never be funny enough. You’ll never be pretty or handsome enough. You’ll never be smart enough. You’ll never practice boundaries perfectly. God doesn’t need perfection. He needs you. He just needs y