Ash Wednesday gets its name from the western custom of putting ashes on our heads to mark the first day of the Easter-season
Ash Wednesday: Lent begins.
by K.W. Leslie, 22 February 2023
Giving… so it can be given you.
by K.W. Leslie, 17 February 2023
For certain Christians, whenever the topic of generosity comes up, this is the first bible quote which comes to mind. It’s part of
Luke 6.38 NIV - “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
And that is what they’re counting on. Give, and it’ll be given you. Give, and you’ll get. And not just
Mark 4.8 NIV - “Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”
A hundred times what you put in. Doesn’t that sound like the best reason to be generous? You only get that kind of return when you’re gambling. And this is no gamble! It’s on God. Jesus himself said there’d be some kind of hundredfold return on what gets put in.
Now yeah—Jesus only said there’d be a hundredfold return in this parable, and in it he was talking about sharing the word, namely God’s word; it produces a hundredfold return, but that’s a trait unique to God’s word.
’Cause I point out to you something which should be fairly obvious to those of us who practice basic reading comprehension: Jesus’s statement in the Sermon on the Plain does not say we’re getting back more than we put in. It says quite clearly, “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” You’re getting back the same. Jesus talks about his Father’s overabundant grace a lot, but here, in this particular favorite proof text, he’s actually describing reciprocity.
So what about the whole “good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over” bit? That presumes that’s what we gave. We gave others a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over. We were generous—
If we didn’t give abundantly? Well, “with the measure you use, it’ll be measured to you.” You gave stingily? Expect others to reciprocate stingily. If it looks pressed down, shaken together, and running over, it’s only covering up the fact everything below the top layer has weevils in it.
Or, because not every Christian is a covetous dick, someone actually practiced generosity towards you. Which is awesome. Now pay it forward.
But if your only motivation for generosity is because you think you’ll be in God’s karmic debt, and because he’s infinitely rich he’ll overdo it when he repays you, and you are banking on him falling for your clever money-making scheme… man are you missing the point.
St. Valentine’s Day.
by K.W. Leslie, 14 February 2023
As you should know,
In Roman Catholic thinking, this’d be the day the Christian actually became a saint, ’cause now there’s no chance whatsoever of them ever
So… how well might you hold up under persecution? Heck, in a country where Christians don’t even get persecuted (except in their own minds), how well might you hold up even when you’re simply suffering? ’Cause plenty of people seem to have a rather low breaking point. Parents die?—even though everybody’s parents die?—quit Jesus. Not cured of whatever ailment you really wanna be cured of?—quit Jesus. Don’t get that job you were convinced God was gonna grant you?—quit Jesus. One of the pastors quietly suggested next Sunday you might experiment with underarm deodorant?—quit Jesus. If these triggers are starting to sound stupid… well, some people get triggered by the pettiest things. “Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me”
But I digress, ’cause today I’m gonna write about the martyr St. Valentine.
Of course the tricky part is which one. There have been many Christians named Valentinus, and some of them lived and died for Jesus, and back in antiquity some bishop decided to give one of them his very own feast day. In the west, bishop Gelasius 1 of Rome fixed it on 14 February. But which Valentinus is this day about? Well, we don’t know.
Well we don’t. This is one of those facts that’s been lost in antiquity. We don’t know anything about St. Valentine. Jesus does, ’cause Valentinus is one of his. That, I suppose, is what counts most.
We know of five ancient Christian martyrs with the name Valentinus. Three in particular, but really any of the five—or in fact none of them—could be the guy with the feast day. There’s no saying for certain. I don’t care which historian you’ve read who claims, “Oh it’s definitely this Valentinus”—it’s not definite at all. We don’t know. Unless some archaeologist finally gets hold of a document in which some bishop first proclaims a St. Valentine’s Day, we’re not gonna know. Some things in the universe are just gonna remain unknowns. Deal with it.
The five Valentinuses are:
A presbyter who served in Rome, buried on the Flaminian Way in the late 200s. Orthodox Christians observe his feast day on 6 July.A bishop of Interamna (now Terni, in central Italy), killed during a trip to Rome in the year 269. The church of Terni claims this Valentinus died on 14 February, and he’s the St. Valentine… but of course they would. Orthodox Christians observe his feast day on 30 July.- A member of a missionary team to north Africa (today’s Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya), who were all killed at once, and that’s everything we know about him.
- A bishop of Passau, who later became a hermit in northern Italy, and died in 475.
- A bishop of Genoa, who died in 295.
St. Valentine’s Day was part of the official Roman calendar till 1955, when Pope Pius 12 decided to consolidate a bunch of saints. Of course by then it was already part of popular culture. Medieval Christians had decided St. Valentine, whoever he was, was the patron saint of romantic love, and invented a few legends about how he secretly performed Christian weddings for couples, enraging the emperor, who had him killed for that, not for Jesus. Greeting card manufacturers of course spread the story he used to cut heart-shaped pieces of parchment and give them to other persecuted Christians to remind them of God’s love; which is also likely bogus, but it gives schoolchildren something nice to write about in their St. Valentine’s Day essays.
God’s character.
by K.W. Leslie, 02 February 2023
No doubt you’ve heard of
Okay. What are these virtues in relation to God himself? Does he exhibit them? Is he loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, etc.? Or have we never made any such connection? Maybe doubt we even should make such a connection, ’cause we’d rather imagine God as offended at humanity’s sins, mournful over humanity’s sins, ready to smite people over their sins, absolutely fed up over people’s sins, eager to offend and outrage people back (after all, they offended him first!) and so forth? Do we figure these traits aren’t in any way practical, considering God needs to be super-duper vengeful right about now?
In other words, do we figure humanity’s sins have flipped God over 180 degrees, and made him
I’ll leave you to ponder that idea, and whether our ideas about the wrath of God haven’t somehow turned him into Zeus. But as you hopefully know already, if you wanna know what God is like; if you wanna identify God’s attitude and character traits, the best thing to do is look at Jesus the Nazarene. Does he exhibit the Spirit’s fruit? Or when you read the gospels, do you figure Jesus likewise is triggered and enraged and ready to call down fire because he has
If so, I don’t know what bible you have, or what sort of demented “Christian” movie you’ve been watching. Every bible translation I know of, reveals the Spirit’s fruit describes Jesus’s character. And
So this being the case… whenever we look at the L
…Unless of course
And if Jesus isn’t fully God, then it’s understandable—even okay—if Jesus and God are entirely different individuals. Not one in purpose, will, intent, attributes, and character; two distinct deities, like Zeus and Hades. Who are playing a cosmic game of “good cop bad cop” with humanity: God’s the bad cop, eager to roast us in hell, and Jesus is the good cop, trying to get us forgiven and saved—not from sin and death, but from God himself. ’Cause God’s super murdery, but Jesus is more about peace and love than Ringo Starr.
I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve heard fellow Christians express this demented idea. All sorts of Christians. Even people who went to seminary and studied way more theology than I have, and should know better! Christians who should know the apostles wholly meant it when they wrote in the scriptures how Jesus as the image of God,
But this twisted view of God is unbiblical and
Context? Who needs context?
by K.W. Leslie, 01 February 2023
- CONTEXT
'kɑn.tɛkst noun. Setting of an idea or event: The larger story they’re part of, the circumstances or history behind them, the people to whom they’re said. Without them, the idea is neither fully understood nor clear. - [Contextual
kən'tɛks.tʃ(əw).əl adjective.]
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be.”
It doesn’t come from bible, though from time to time someone will claim it totally does, and therefore it’s a divine command. But nope, it’s not scripture at all. Comes from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, act 1, scene 3. Shakespeare’s no slouch, but it’s still not bible.
Why do people quote it? Typically because they literally mean it: Don’t borrow! Don’t lend! Because if you never borrow money, chances are you’ll never go into debt or bankruptcy. If you never lend money, you won’t have to fret when your friends can’t repay you. Simple, prudent advice. Words people think we oughta live by.
Okay, so why’d Shakespeare write this line?
Well… actually we don’t care why he wrote it. We’re only interested in what we mean by it: Don’t borrow! Don’t lend! We presume Shakespeare meant the very same thing. It’s straightforward enough, isn’t it?
But a Shakespeare scholar, or anyone who’s stayed awake through Hamlet, will recall exactly where it came from. The wily King Claudius’s not-as-wily adviser, Polonius, is giving advice to his son Laertes before he sends him off to university. If they watched any halfway decent performance of Hamlet, they’ll remember Polonius was kind of an idiot. All his other advice in the play turns out to be wrong, bad, foolish, and fatal.
“Well okay, Shakespeare put it in the mouth of a dunce. But it’s still sound advice.”
Is it? Look at the life stories of certain billionaires, and you’ll notice nearly all of them, in order to start the company which made ’em a billion dollars, borrowed money. (The few who didn’t borrow money, already had money, or had wealthy relatives.) You’ll also notice nearly all of them lent money, and made a bunch of money that way too. As for lending, should I not buy treasury bills? Should I not put my money in long-term certificate of deposit accounts? Should I not invest in businesses and people I believe in?
Really, I find the only people who quote it are self-serving or
You see the problem. Context is important. We should care where our quotes come from. We might be giving bad advice. Or, when quoting the bible, we might make a divine command out of something which was never meant to be one.
Don’t believe in fake Messiahs and fake second comings.
by K.W. Leslie, 23 January 2023
Mk 13.21-23,
Mt 24.23-28,
Lk 17.22-24, 37.
The word
Thing is, hristós literally means “anointed one.” And you’re likely aware there are a lot of people nowadays who call themselves, or call their favorite gurus, Spirit-anointed leaders, or teachers, or prophets, or even politicians. People who follow those gurus as if they’re Jesus himself. People who worship those gurus, although they’d never, ever admit it: They claim they only worship Jesus, but y’notice how you’re never, ever allowed to dislike or criticize their gurus. Speak ill of them and their worshipers will call you
When I was a kid and read this passage, I noticed how Jesus said these people would “seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.”
But like Jesus himself said, “But take ye heed; behold, I have foretold you all things.”
Mark 13.21-23 KWL - 21 “Then when anyone tells you, ‘Look here; it’s Messiah!’
- ‘Look there!’—don’t believe it,
- 22 for fake Messiahs and fake prophets will be lifted up,
- and will present signs and wonders,
- to lead the chosen people astray, if doable.
- 23 You watch out.
- I have foretold you everything.”
Matthew 24.23-28 KWL - 23 “Then when anyone tells you, ‘Look here; it’s Messiah!’
- or ‘There!’—don’t believe it,
- 24 for fake Messiahs and fake prophets will be lifted up,
- and will present great signs and wonders
- in order to lead even chosen people astray, if doable.
- 25 Look, I have foretold you.
- 26 So when they tell you, ‘Look, he’s in the desert,’
- don’t go out!
- ‘Look, he’s in the private room,’
- don’t believe it!
- 27 For just as lightning comes out of the east
- and is visible all the way in the west,
- thus is the Son of Man’s second coming.
- 28 Wherever the corpse might be,
- there the eagles will gather.”
Luke 17.22-24, 37 KWL - 22 Jesus tells the students, “The days will come
- when you will long to see one of the Son of Man’s days,
- and will not see it,
- 23 and people will tell you, ‘Look there!’
- or ‘Look here!’
- Don’t go, nor follow.
- 24 For just as lightning flashes from the sky
- and gives light to all under the sky,
- thus is the Son of Man in his day.
- 37 In reply the students told him, “Where, Master?”
- Jesus told them, “Where the body is,
- there also the eagles will gather.”
Worse tribulation than they had ever known.
by K.W. Leslie, 16 January 2023
Mk 13.17-20,
Mt 24.19-22,
Lk 21.23-24.
Most American
But it’s not. And if you don’t believe me, ’cause your churches have been really successful at convincing you otherwise, I recommend you read today’s Luke passage more than once. Really read it. Let it sink in.
Mark 13.17-20 KWL - 17 “Woe to those who have babies in the womb,
- and those who are nursing, in these days!
- 18 Pray lest it happen in the rainy season.
- 19 For these days will be tribulation.
- Unlike what’s happened to what God creates,
- from the first creature until now,
- it may never yet be this bad.
- 20 If the Lord doesn’t shorten the days,
- not all flesh will survive—
- but because of the chosen whom he selected,
- he will shorten the days.”
Matthew 24.19-22 KWL - 19 “Woe to those who have babies in the womb,
- and those who are nursing, in these days!
- 20 Pray lest your flight happen in the rainy season,
- nor on Sabbath.
- 21 For then will be great tribulation.
- Unlike what’s happened
- from the beginning of the world until now,
- it may never be this bad.
- 22 If these days aren’t shortened,
- not all flesh will survive.
- Because of the chosen,
- these days will be shortened.”
Luke 21.23-24 KWL - 23 “Woe to those who have babies in the womb,
- and those who are nursing, in these days!
- It’ll be great calamity in the land,
- and wrath upon the people.
- 24 They will fall by the machete’s blade,
- and be put into captivity in every nation.
- Jerusalem will be trampled by gentiles
- until the gentile era might be full.”
’Cause according to
Even though Jesus is obviously talking about the events of the year 70.
Well… it’s obvious to people who know the history of
Luke 21.23 ESV - “Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people.”
True,
Or, bluntly, isn’t.
Don’t even go back to get your stuff.
by K.W. Leslie, 09 January 2023
Mk 13.15-16,
Mt 24.17-18,
Lk 17.31.
So in his Olivet Discourse, Jesus spoke about
When that happened, Jesus said, run for the hills.
Mark 13.15-16 KWL - 15 “One on the roof: Don’t come back in!
- Never go inside, to take up what’s in the house!
- 16 One who’s gone to the field: Don’t return to what’s behind,
- even to take up your clothing.”
Matthew 24.17-18 KWL - 17 “One on the roof: Don’t come back in
- to take up what’s in the house!
- 18 One in the field: Don’t come back
- to take up your clothing.”
Luke doesn’t include this warning in its version of the Olivet Discourse, but it does have this Jesus-saying elsewhere in the gospel… specifically when he’s talking about
Luke 17.31 KWL - “On that day, whoever’s on the roof
- and their stuff is in the house:
- Don’t come back in to take it up!
- And likewise one in the field:
- Don’t return to what’s behind!”
In the Olivet Discourse, the warning is to ignore your stuff and run from disaster. In Luke, the warning is to ignore your stuff and run to Jesus. In both cases, you’re not gonna need your stuff! But it’s for whole different reasons, and just because the verses are parallel doesn’t mean
Epiphany: When Jesus was revealed to the world.
by K.W. Leslie, 06 January 2023
6 January is
True, the Christmas stories depict that taking place on Christmas Day.
Well technically he was revealed to the world at his circumcision, and when
John 1.29-36 The Message - 29 The very next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and yelled out, 30 “Here he is, God’s Passover Lamb! He forgives the sins of the world! This is the man I’ve been talking about, ‘the One who comes after me but is really ahead of me.’ 31 I knew nothing about who he was—only this: that my task has been to get Israel ready to recognize him as the God-Revealer. That is why I came here baptizing with water, giving you a good bath and scrubbing sins from your life so you can get a fresh start with God.”
- 32 John clinched his witness with this: “I watched the Spirit, like a dove flying down out of the sky, making himself at home in him. 33 I repeat, I know nothing about him except this: The One who authorized me to baptize with water told me, ‘The One on whom you see the Spirit come down and stay, this One will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 That’s exactly what I saw happen, and I’m telling you, there’s no question about it: This is the Son of God.”
- 35 The next day John was back at his post with two disciples, who were watching. 36 He looked up, saw Jesus walking nearby, and said, “Here he is, God’s Passover Lamb.”
In eastern churches which still follow the Julian calendar, Epiphany’s gonna wind up on 19 January, and sometimes it’ll be called Theophany.
The third-century Christians began to celebrate Jesus’s baptism in January. Why January? Two theories. One is Jesus’s baptism had to take place when the Jordan was in flood, otherwise there wouldn’t’ve been enough water to immerse him. January’s a good bet.
The other theory is the early churches divided up the gospels into a year’s worth of readings—and if you begin with Mark, you get to the baptism story in the second week of January. So since that’s when they always read the baptism story, stands to reason that’s when they’d celebrate Jesus’s baptism. This theory’s much less plausible: The ancient civic year began on 25 March, not 1 January… and why start with Mark when historically Christians start the gospels with Matthew?
Regardless of why, ancient Christians picked 6 January to celebrate Jesus’s baptism. And since Jesus was also sorta revealed as
Yep, that’s how it happened. I know;
Nope, we still don’t know when Jesus was born, or baptized. Does it even matter? We just need a day or two to celebrate. Or 12. And for the longest time Epiphany also lasted several days. Usually eight.
Epiphany also marks the end of Christmastime. Bummer.
Ulterior motives for being religious.
by K.W. Leslie, 05 January 2023
In 2018 Trevin Wax wrote “Routine bible reading can change your life.” Another site changed the title to the clickbaity, “Why so many Christians start, but don’t finish a bible reading plan.” ’Cause that’s what it’s about: Why so many Christians start, yet don’t finish… you know.
Got my attention because at the turn of the year, I usually urge folks to start a bible reading plan.
Wax gave another reason Christians quit on these plans, and it’s quite insightful for a lot of reasons. I’ll quote him. (But yeah, I edited out
One reason may be that we have too high of an expectation of what we will feel every day when we read. We know this is God’s word and that he speaks to us through this book, and yet so many times, when we’re reading the assigned portion of scripture for the day, it all feels so, well, ordinary. We read a story, note a couple of interesting things, don’t see how it applies to our lives today, and then move on. By the time we near the end of the first books of the bible, we’ve gone through extensive instructions on how to build the tabernacle, or how the sacrificial system is to be implemented, or a book of Numbers that is aptly titled. We read the daily portion of scripture, put down our pencil or highlighter and wonder, “Why don’t I feel like my life is changing?”
I sympathize with Christians who feel this way. We’re right to approach the bible with anticipation, to expect to hear from God in a powerful and personal way. But the way the bible does its work on our hearts is often not through the lightning bolt, but through the gentle and quiet rhythms of daily submission, of opening up our lives before this open book and asking God to change us. Change doesn’t always happen overnight. Growth doesn’t happen in an instant. Instead, it happens over time, as we eat and drink and exercise. The same is true of scripture reading. Not every meal is at a steakhouse. Not every meal is memorable. Can you remember what you had for dinner, say, two weeks ago? Probably not. But that meal sustained you, didn’t it? In the same way, we come to feast on God’s word, recognizing that it’s the daily rhythm of submitting ourselves to God and bringing our plans and hopes and fears to him that makes the difference.
If you’re the “too long, didn’t read” sort… well first of all, what’re you doing on TXAB? I write yards of articles. But in summary, Wax correctly points out people read bible because we’re hoping it’ll transform us for the better. And it does! But we want it to change us now. Not gradually, not over the course of the year we take to read it, not as an effect of reading and following it for years: Right bloody now. And if we don’t see immediate results, we’re gonna ditch it like we did cardio. Seems the bible’s just another thing that’ll make us sweaty, tired, hungry, achey, and frustrated.
We already know Christians lack the
Probably expect to be glowing like Prince Adam… when he tranforms into a guy who looks exactly the same, only shirtless and more tan.
This is why too many Christians read bible: We want secrets. We want
Of course none of this is why we oughta read bible, and all of this betrays many of the reasons people think we need to follow Jesus. We’re not following him because we love him and want to grow closer to him. We’re following him because he’s rich and powerful, and whenever he throws us a bone, it’ll be a golden bone.