Posts from June 2023

Not so long ago, a person’s neighbor lived next door. Porches served as meeting places for friends. And fences were shorter, allowing neighbors to share news from one backyard to the next. At that time whole neighborhoods came together for barbecues and yard sales. Those days have gone the way of duck tails and poodle skirts. Today, a person’s closest friends may live a hundred miles away, and climate-controlled homes have moved families off the porch and onto the couch.…

Among early church fathers, Irenaeus of Lyons was one of the foremost champions of “orthodoxy” during the second century. His work and writings helped defend the life and person of Jesus against the divisive and dismissive doctrines of the Gnostics. The exact year of Irenaeus’s birth is unknown, most modern scholars agree on 130 CE. He grew up in Smyrna and learned about Jesus from the martyr Polycarp, a student of the apostle John. Irenaeus called Polycarp a “powerful and…

I admit it: VBS strikes a little fear in my heart. The time commitment, the energy to prepare, the trips to Lowe’s, (among other things) make me anxious about VBS. Then add the words “in the park,” and my anxiety rockets. Doesn’t Jason Carroll know we live in Texas and it’s June? We might as well have VBS on the surface of the sun. I was praying for some kind of divine intervention. That was my idea leading up to…

Someone recently asked, “What is the status of a person’s salvation if they disagree with the ‘Church of Christ’s interpretation’ of scripture?” He went on to explain, “I ask because I am a member and still struggle with interpretation. I know some people at the ‘CoC’ who don’t agree with everything that is taught. I go to the ‘CoC’ because I believe they follow God’s word more closely than other churches.” We appreciate the sincerity of this person to ask…