The Difficulties of Genesis 1 (Part 1 of 2)

One of my last articles on UBFriends was a book review on Stewart and Fee’s How to Read the Bible for all its Worth. The authors, who are not only great scholars but also committed and Jesus-loving Christians, laid down some sensible ground rules that ought to be observed by everyone who approaches Scripture. In this article, I would like to put those rules into practice by applying them to Genesis chapter 1. The reasons why I want to look at Genesis 1 are plentiful.

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Counterfeit Gods and the Bible

Like The Prodigal God (blogged by Henoch), Counterfeit Gods – another great book by Tim Keller — taught me to see and study the Bible in a new light. For a long time, I had thought of the Bible as a book of instructions and commands to be obeyed and promises to be believed. For sure, the Bible has innumerable commands — the 10 Commandments (Exo 20:2-17), the Great Commandment (Matt 22:37), the Great Commission (Matt 28:19), etc.– as well as countless promises, such as Gen 12:2, Deut 4:29, Jer 29:13, and perhaps our perennial favorite, Matt 6:33. Surely biblical commands and promises are important. But are these commands and promises the main point of the Bible? Should biblical imperatives and promises be the focus of all our Bible studies and sermons? What does the Bible regard as of utmost importance about itself? In this reflection on Counterfeit Gods, I will attempt to address these questions.

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Uncommon Aspects of "Common Life"

He likes the Steelers; I could care less about the NFL. He likes “The Office” on NBC; I love the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” on Bravotv. He watches Conan O’Brien; I prefer Jay Leno. He went to a high school with only ONE Chinese student;I had about 300 Asians at my high school. He grew up in a small town in the Eastern United States; I come from a big city on the West Coast. It was clear from beginning, we have nothing in common.

Some of you may think I might be talking about my husband. Uh, actually, I’m referring to the roommate who has lived with us for the last five months.

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Questions For The Next General Director

A new General Director of UBF is going to be elected this year. If I had the opportunity to interview candidates ahead of time, these are some of the questions that I would ask.

These are genuine questions for which I do not yet have answers. I hope that these do not sound like leading questions. A leading question is a question that presupposes what the correct answer should be. Of course, I do have some opinions of my own about how I would answer them. But I am willing to keep an open mind, and I am ready to hear the opinions of others and be swayed by them. I do not think that any of these questions has a single, correct answer, and I don’t expect everyone to agree with one another or with me. But I believe that the leaders of an organization like ours ought to be willing to consider and discuss hard questions like these. Or at least let us know where they stand.

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