New Mexico is going out on a limb and declaring something that not every state declares: a state aroma. New Mexico is considering declaring “roasting chile peppers” as their state aroma. If you’ve ever been to New Mexico, you have probably been by one of the many places that were serving up roasted chile peppers…
A Jesus Centered Community of Scripture, Faith, and Grace
Church Blog (Page 11)
Five times a day my phone sends me a notification that most people would not say they want to get: You’re going to die. The notification comes from an app with the cynical name “We Croak.” It’s a simple app that does one thing – it sends you a notification that you are going to…
I don’t know if you’ve heard of ChatGPT yet. It is an Artificial Intelligence bot that you can get access to (just google it) and you can ask it to do things for you. For example, I was having a little bit of mid-afternoon writers block as I was trying to come up with this…
It is illegal to dance in a bar in Sweden. That is, unless that bar has a permit to allow for dancing. This isn’t exotic dance of any kind. Just regular old dancing. Square dancing and waltzes and such. This is the case in Sweden unless a bill moving through parliament takes hold. If so, the…
If you live in Tallahassee, you have had a little while of witnessing the destruction caused to vegetation by the 20 degree temperatures that visited around Christmastime. Walking around campus last week, you could see the grounds crews working to take out dead plants. In my own backyard, we’re hoping that the frost-bitten citrus leaves…
Today is the final day of Christmas, the 12 days end tonight at midnight and the season of Epiphany begins with the celebration of the feast of Epiphany on January 6th. In places across the world, people celebrate the 12th day by having “12th night” parties that signal the end of the Christmas season, and…
On September 23, 2022, St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols hit his 700th homerun into the stands at Dodgers Stadium. This home run made him the 4th Major League Baseball player to hit 700 or more homeruns in their career, joining great names like Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, and Babe Ruth. A fan named Marlowe…
The Arizona Department of Public Safety recently released news that a Phoenix motorist was given a citation for illegally using the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane. The HOV lane requires at least one passenger besides the driver to be able to use the lane. The motorist in question, however, wasn’t riding with a real passenger but…
We spend this Bible Study time before Christmas looking at the four “Theological Disciplines” of Exegetical Theology (reading the Bible and deriving meaning), Systematic Theology (categorizing the information from the Bible), Historical Theology (understanding the history of the Church and how the Bible has been interpreted), and Practical Theology (what we do with the message…
I remember meeting someone once for the first time who cut the tension of the first time meeting with a question: “So, Jay, what do you like to talk about?” The question put me on my heels and made me think, but I also marveled at how brave and kind the question was. Of course…