Author: kevingdrendel

I am sixtiesh, an English Literature major in college and an attorney by profession. Faith informs my life, and this blog is about my faith journey.

Relevant to What?

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SONY DSC

I read a thought provoking article by Patrick Schatzline on the danger of the Church being “relevant”. Take this quotation from a mentor to the author:

‘Relevant means ‘connection with the subject at issue.’ If the subject at issue is the Great Commission, given by Jesus to His church, and the church is connected to that subject, then relevant is still in and will be until He returns. When the church loses the connection to that issue, then the church becomes irrelevant.

Zing! Right between the eyes! Are we so relevant to the world that we are virtually indistinguishable from it? Continue reading “Relevant to What?” →

Stereotyping and the Church

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DIverse People Holding Text Church

One thing that is a constant theme for me, something that is always just beneath the surface of my thinking, one that is continually rising to the top, is the truth that people are not stereotypes.

I am probably as guilty as anyone of stereotyping. Sometimes stereotyping is useful, but we must never forget that people are not stereotypes. Stereotyping people into groups, and stereotyping groups themselves, can be an impediment to truth and an impediment to real dialogue, effective communication and understanding. Continue reading “Stereotyping and the Church” →

Jesus Is

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Jesus st sunset

I have heard it said that Jesus never actually called Himself God. Even if the Gospels recorded those exact words in Jesus’s mouth, I believe many would find ways of discounting what He said. It was no different in Jesus’s day.

Jesus did not say, “I am God” in those exact words, but what he did say could not have been misunderstood by his audience. Jesus made many statements, but one in particular strikes me as the most significant. Before I get to that one statement, a little background is helpful. Continue reading “Jesus Is” →

The Talents You Do Not Have

For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Matt.14:29

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Niño asombrado mirando a la derecha

God will not reward you based on the talent you have or the talent you do not have, but He will reward you based upon what you did with what He gave you. I am not talking about works. We are saved by grace, not by anything that we have done.

I am talking about stewardship. Continue reading “The Talents You Do Not Have” →

Israel, the Promised Land

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Panorama of Jerusalem, Israel

Israel is the only nation in the world that is living under the same name, speaking the same language, observing the same religion and located in the same place that they were 4000 years ago.

After a lapse of nearly 2000 years during which the Israeli people were scattered and often persecuted in the various places to which they were dispersed, the UN declared the reestablishment of the nation of Israel on May 5, 1948. The nation of Israel was ousted from their native land in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, 1878 years earlier. That UN decree brought 3.6 million Jews back to the historic land of Jews from over 90 nations in 1948, an unprecedented event.

This history is as remarkable as it is unprecedented.  Continue reading “Israel, the Promised Land” →