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How to Engage the Bible: Between Scanning and Scholarship

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Bible Reading Check-List Protestant Christians are often encouraged by their pastors to get into God's Word. For some, this is more than an encouragement, it is a requirement. "If you seek identity in Christ," the preacher says, "you must be in Scripture on a regular basis." Joshua 1:8 is often cited as proof of this admonishment. For other Christians, a pastoral encouragement to read the Bible may come only infrequently and as a mild suggestion. Whatever the level of prompting, for those who decide to open the Word of God, there arises a question about how to engage with Scripture. Should the individual set a strict reading plan to read through the Bible in a year? If so, the goal would apparently be to read a certain number of verses each day and to check the box when each selection is completed. While well-intended, a disciplined reading plan can be done with little comprehension or retention. One can simply scan one's eyes across the page from verse 1 ...
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Surprising Responses AI Provides about Easter and Jesus' Resurrection

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In most of the world, Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox (the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere). This means that Easter can range between March 22 and April 25. That's more than a month of date possibilities. In 2023, Easter will be celebrated on April 9. But what exactly is Easter celebrating? With the recent excitement surrounding the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), I decided to get some feedback from two of the most popular AI chatbots . First, I asked Google's application Bard . Having been granted early access to the interface, I was curious to ask Bard what Easter is a celebration of. Its responses were a bit disappointing. See screen capture below: That's a pretty disappointing response, or should I say nonresponse? But perhaps Bard was just not working correctly when I made my inquiry. So I decided to give the other major AI chatbot an opportunity to answer the question. When I asked ...
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A Life Purpose Lesson from Saint Patrick

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When most Americans think about Saint Patrick's Day, the following things often come to mind: green, shamrocks, Ireland, and drinking. Americans have little understanding of who St. Patrick was or when he lived in Ireland. (It was during the 5th Century.) And most of us don't know that he wasn't born Irish, he was a Christian missionary who traveled to that country. While St. Patrick's activities are somewhat lost to history, there are a few details of his life that are presented in his short autobiographical manuscript, Confessio . St. Patrick was kidnapped from his home in Britain when he was about 16 years old. He was carried off to Ireland where he was enslaved as a sheepherder for about 6 years. As a result of a dream, St. Patrick decided to escape to a ship on the coast. His journey to freedom, back to his family in Britain, was a difficult one. He made it home. Yet ironically, God put it on his heart to return to Ireland to minister to the people there, even to t...
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Curiosity Kills Kindness

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  We live in a broken world. If suffering doesn't strike us personally, it invariably hits our friends and coworkers. Too often we forget to show them love and instead we ask questions that don't help. For example, the next time someone tells you that their elderly parent or grandparent is in the hospital don't ask them how old their parent or grandparent is. While we may simply be curious, the message that we are indirectly sending is, "Haven't they lived a long life already? Should we really be that upset; aren't they going to die soon anyway?" Instead of a cold, quantitative inquiry, it would be better to offer a warm, compassionate show of support.  For example, we could respond by saying, "I'm so sorry to hear that your grandmother is in the hospital. How are you holding up during this difficult time?"   Notice that this question is not trying to get data about the elderly person in the hospital. In these types of conversations, we need ...
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