1 Samuel 8 tells us when the Israelite’s asked for a good king it displeased Samuel and God. God’s advised Samuel how to respond: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have…
Tag: authority
Prophets and Prayer: Believing God Interacts with His World
Our contemporary mindset has a hard time conceptualizing and relating to “prophets” or to the”prophetic” gift. Recently I was reading two individuals who studied Ellen White’s prophetic gift for their dissertations. One used psychological research, specifically psychotherapy, and saw many…
American Beastly Leadership (4 of 5)-#16 in Series
This series has contrasted servant and beastly leadership. The last 3 posts brought Adventism and America into this contrast. The prognosis of Revelation 13 is that America could abandon its role as servant leader. How? Here, I explore four ways…
American Beastly Leadership (1 of 5)– #13 in Series
The last 12 posts contrasted beastly and servant leadership, using scripture illustrations to show a great war wages for our allegiance. One side pulls individuals and nations toward evil and beastly leadership, characterized by lots of speaking, limited or poor…
Brides–Shining from His Light
We should anticipate that the “spouse” of the Lamb and the “spouse” of the Beast to reflect the approach of each of their spouses. And for the most part, they do. The Bride of the Lamb reflects the light of…
John and Beastly Powers
The Apostle John knew something about the contrast between service and lordship, love and hate, divine leadership and beastly powers. He intimately experienced both styles of leadership. First, his family of origin had “beastly” ways of relating. He and his…
Authority in Ethics 4: Satan’s Power, Jesus’ Incarnation
We are in the middle of a 7 part series on power and authority in Christian Adventist Ethics. I first introduced power as the ability to influence and move people or things and authority as legitimate power. I argued authority…
Authority & Ethics 3: Jesus’ Baptism
This 7 part series is looking at authority in Christian ethics. My first post reviewed power, authority, and the disdain for both and the how ethics needs authority to makes its claims. Second, I used select passages in Matthew to…
Authority in Ethics (2): Matthew’s Better King
This second post in our 7 part series on Authority in Ethics uses Matthew’s gospel to discuss Jesus’ authority, the main authority in Christian ethics. The last post discussed power (ability to influence something or someone) and authority (legitimate power)…
Authority in Ethics–Introduction (1)
The word “authority” does not usually breed warm feelings. People picture a prickly boss or government official rigidly applying a law or abusing power. Most fear freedoms will be taken away and rights violated when the “trump” card of authority…
The Prodigal Son’s Father has Love….and Food
The story of the family with a Prodigal Son and Elder Brother (Luke 15:11-32 ) is a favorite parable. It continues to dazzle our understandings about God, ourselves and the human race. It teaches us a lot about moral living.…
Jeremiah Ethics 3: Can Adventists Run with Horses?
I run 5k races and once I ran a 10k with my daughters (only because there was no 5k event). I don’t run long races. I can’t handle it. As such, God’s question to Jeremiah hits a sensitive spot: “So,…
Jeremiah Ethics 1: Moral Irritation
Living moral truth often means going against the status quo. It means “standing up for the right though the heavens fall” (White, 1903, Education, p. 57). It is evident when a person seeks sexual purity or promotes heterosexual marriage when…
Angry Leaders
As we noted in the last several blogs, anger can be good as it initiates reaction to injustice’s two forms: apathy and abuse. Anger can rally our emotions and juice up our soul to make us aware that something is…
Anger, Protests, and Riots
It is November 25, 2014 (I updated this November 26, 2014. Updates in parentheses) In the middle of a three part series on anger, it seems appropriate to take a moment to discuss the recent demonstrations and riots in Ferguson,…
Authority and Power: Exercised and Ascribed
It was a key theme throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry, especially in the final weeks leading up to His crucifixion and death. It has been a key theme in Jesus’ heavenly ministry, as High Priest, especially in the closing work of…
The Sabbath as Moral Healing and Training
In his controversial book, The Righteous Mind, and on several YouTube videos Jonathan Haidt talks about the six main moral values that help frame people’s sense of right and wrong. He notes that liberals tend to focus on the first…
Metaphors of Progress and Reform–be careful when you are right
We all work from metaphors or operating “paradigms” about what we think is happening around us. We take the data we see and try to clump things together. Like making a mud ball or snow ball (pick the climate that…