I’ve written before on context and prooftext, and have quoted the adage, “A text out of context becomes a pretext for a prooftext.” And as a reminder, a prooftext is when we misread or misinterpret a text so as to take away the wrong meaning. I come across these on occasion when transitioning from …
Author Archives: joslund1
To Prooftext or Not to Prooftext
A prooftext is when we misread or misinterpret a text so as to take away the wrong meaning. “Well then why on earth would anyone do that?” you might ask. Simply put, we usually do this sub-consciously. Our brains are hard-wired for efficiency, which is wonderful in many regards. We develop neurological “short cuts” …
New Year
A lot of people like the idea of fresh beginnings that come with a new year. Last year may have been this, that or the other, but THIS year all of that is going to change. And of course a lot of other people think it’s silly to place significance on any particular day or …
The Gospel is Good News
“In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; …
The Voice of God
I recently had a conversation that was all about prayer. Most of us hold at least a general intellectual ascent to the idea of defining prayer as our conversations with God, and as most of us would agree, healthy conversations are often dialogues – they involve both speaking/communicating and listening/receiving. The speaking/communicating part comes fairly …
Adjusting our Perspective
Perspective is the manner in which objects appear to the eye in respect to their relative positions and distance. The same is true when we apply this metaphysically to our emotional, intellectual and spiritual view points. The key word when it comes to perspective is the word “relative.” We often use metaphors of rose-colored …
The Idol of Worry
“And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life’s span? If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters?” (Luke 12:25,26) Despite what we have been told, Jesus actually spoke very little about money or matters of the law. While these were …
Worried and Bothered
“Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary…” (Luke 10:41,42a) Economic recession, inflation, global pandemic, wars, rumors of wars, racism, political and social tensions, gun violence and natural disasters. News media makes a living by exposing us to the worst of the worst events in …
The Real Face of Sin
We’ve been deceived, misled, duped into believing a lie from the enemy. The social, philosophic and religious traditions continue to spread the hoax that sin is fun, enjoyable, pleasurable and really only bad if we get caught, or if we hurt someone in the process – although nobody seems willing to agree on what classifies …
Imperfect Heaven
Some bright morning when this life is over, I’ll fly away. To that home on God’s celestial shore, I’ll fly away. Despite the myriad of teaching and instruction on the nature of heaven both in Scripture and early church literature, there persists much confusion about it. Even among many professing christians today, the dreadfully …
Just for a Closer Walk 