Gary Shogren's Blog
"My pastor doesn’t tell us how to vote! What he does is give out a score card that describes what the issues are [remember that phrase!] and then shows what each candidate stands for. But then he tells us to make up our own minds!" Anyway, that's the word on the street. The election is coming... Continue Reading →
They have just published a pair if my essays in Strangers to Fire: When Tradition Trumps Scripture. It's now available on Amazon. You might recognize the title as a response to John MacArthur's book, Strange Fire: The Danger of Offending the Holy Spirit with Counterfeit Worship. The contributors of these 35 essays are not the sort... Continue Reading →
So basically, we can offer you two plans. Plan A. The spiritual produce wagon arrives every day, full to overflowing for those who wish to ask the Father. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and that’s not the complete list; it’s only a summary. They are miracle gifts, planted, watered, grown, harvested,... Continue Reading →
Shogren_1 Cor 13 Perfect in Patristic Exegesis This article is a technical study of how the Church Fathers interpreted Paul´s prediction that tongues, prophecy, and knowledge would pass away when "the perfect" comes. My conclusion is that nearly all orthodox fathers believed it referred to the age to come, whereas Marcion, Mani, the Gnostics and... Continue Reading →
This morning I attended a service in Costa Rica. It’s not our church, but one I sometimes visit. The congregation is English-speaking, Afro-Caribbean. They have a strong island accent. I was one of a few white people in the congregation.As usual, they greeted me warmly.Our home church is Latin American and Spanish-speaking. We go to... Continue Reading →
There are two main approaches to the Lord’s Prayer (LP). The Lord’s Prayer was meant to be prayed verbatim. The Lord’s Prayer was not meant to be prayed verbatim, but rather serves as a model prayer. Most of the church for 2000 years has opted for the first, while also affirming that it is also a... Continue Reading →
Should you pray for the lost? I mean, as if it’s crushing you like a huge weight? Let’s step back 2000 years. You and Paul are walking past the synagogue of Corinth, a building where he is unwelcome and could be beaten for trying to attend the Sabbath service. He sees dozens of men inside,... Continue Reading →
“Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.” (Prov. 31:10 KJV) Is it ever safe – or sane? – for a man to meddle in a passage beloved by Christian women? Am I grabbing hold of a live wire? For I hear a lot of sisters referring to Proverbs 31:10-31... Continue Reading →
NASA proved the Lost Day of Joshua, using a supercomputer! This story surfaces once in a while, and the internet only serves to give it more “credibility” by making it come at the reader from a hundred directions: So, what happened is, NASA scientists fed all the data of history into a big computer program, and... Continue Reading →
A word to my fellow-teachers: It's time to correct essays and exams. It tops the "Favorite Things to Do" list for very few people. I tell my students, "Don't slide your paper in the bottom of the pile, because I'll probably have an attitude by the time I work my way down to it." I'm... Continue Reading →
Open Our Eyes, Lord! 