Posts by Tim Severance
Salvation Confusion
If you listen to one preacher give an invitation to “invite Jesus into your life,” he might lead you in a prayer. If you listen to another preacher prodding you to become a Christian, he might be telling you to be baptized. Yet another preacher might tell you to “Believe in your heart” and you will be saved. If these preachers are all Christian, Bible-believing men, then why the confusion? Why are they offering what appears to be conflicting invitations? I’m How COVID has affected us
Exploring ChatGPT from Openai for church
Today I received an article in my email inbox titled, “5 insanely practical ways for churches to use AI.” That is ironic because I was going to try to use the most popular AI, called ChatGPT to write this week’s E-News article. ChatGPT is self-defined as “an AI-powered language model developed by OpenAI, capable of generating human-like text based on context and past conversations.” ChatGPT can literally carry on a conversation with you, teach you a new language, write copy for advertising, summarize an article How COVID has affected us
How Old is the Earth?
This was the question I received to answer on a recent Basecamp panel. The men had been asked to write down questions on 3×5 cards and turn them in. I thought this is a good question to address here as well. If you would have asked a scientist in the 1800s how old the earth was, they would have said between 20 and 400 million years old. This is based on famous Irish physicist and mathematician Lord Calvin’s calculation of how long How COVID has affected us
Ecclesiastical Expectations: What Does the Bible Say?
This is the third article of three regarding church expectations. In my first article, I asked “What do you expect from the church?” In the second article, I wrote to answer the question, “What does your church expect from you?” Let’s look at what the Bible says in regard to church expectations. If you have heard of the phrase, “paradigm shift” then you’ll understand that this is nothing like what my first two posts talked about, but is rather a whole new way How COVID has affected us
Ecclesiastical Expectations – What Do You Expect From the Church?
This 3-part article deals with ecclesiastical expectations. It is a two-way relationship between you and your church. Here are the questions we will be focusing on: What do you expect from the church?What does your church expect from you? What does the Bible teach in regard to these expectations? This post will address the first question: What do you expect from the church? More specifically, What do you see is the purpose of the local church? Why do they exist? Most likely, you How COVID has affected us
Changing to the NEW
I enjoy new things, don’t you? New sweaters. New socks. New books. New family members. Every Christmas you probably receive something that is new to you. We recently passed into the new year 2023, so people are making resolutions to start something new. It could be losing weight, eating better, saving money, etc. It’s exciting and promising! Many times “New” comes with “Change.” And change is what is sometimes hard to do. I don’t like to CHANGE my phone even How COVID has affected us
DISTRACTIONS
Focus on the Team – Part 3 This month we are wrapping up “Focus on the Team” with part 3, Distractions. We’re going to be talking about distractions that occur in the Christian life. If you missed part 1 and part 2, you can read those on my blog, Writer’s Block. Just a little recap before we just into this month’s topic. Using a baseball comparison, Christians make up a team which is the church. Our coach is Jesus Christ and He is our How COVID has affected us
Focus on the Team – Part 2
Who Is Our “Team”? I wrote last month about Aaron Judge and his New York Yankees. Aaron was laser-focused on his role on the team and their goal to win baseball games. (Update: The Yankees made the post-season playoffs and are currently leading their best-of-seven series against the Cleveland Guardians by 1 game to none.) The New York Yankees, aka Bronx Bombers, are arguably one of the most successful sports teams in the United States. They have won 40 American How COVID has affected us
Focus on the Team – Part 1
On Monday, August 29, Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees hit his 50th home run of the season. He leads the MLB in home runs this year as the Yankees pursue the World Series pennant. The post-game interview went like this, “It’s just another number,” said Judge, who was intentionally walked twice Monday before going deep. “It’s great, but I’m kind of upset we lost. It’s a close game we could’ve won.”“I’m not downplaying it. I just don’t like How COVID has affected us
Loss to Life
Tears were shed. Suppressed sobs echoed throughout the room. The minister spoke words of comfort as family members and friends sat quietly ruminating on their loved one. A faithful father or mother, loving brother or sister, exiting this life into the next. The loss is palpable and long-lasting for those left behind. No amount of condolences nor homemade meals will take away the pain. It must be endured for months, even years to come. You may have endured the loss How COVID has affected us