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Prayer and Church (And What An Agnostic, Progressive, Single, Childless Sociologist’s Book Says About Them)

Nicholas H Wolfinger Secular Sociologist Soul Mates Author

Nicholas H Wolfinger progressive sociologist and coauthor of the book Soul Mates

What An Agnostic, Progressive, Single, Childless Sociologist’s Book Says About Prayer And Church

I just read an article in Christianity Today about what an agnostic, progressive, single, and childless sociologist’s book says about prayer and church. Here’s a summary:

Research on the nation’s two largest minority groups, Latinos and African Americans, confirms that prayer and regular connection with a church community is of great benefit to marriages and families. (Later in the article we learn that this applies to the white demographic too.)

This research comes from the Oxford University Press book titled, Soul Mates: Religion, Sex, Love and Marriage among African Americans and Latinos. The agnostic progressive sociologist is Nicholas H. Wolfinger. To be fair, he coauthored the book with another sociologist, W. Bradford Wilcox, who is married, a catholic, conservative, and has children. When Christianity Today asked Wilcox why he chose to team up with someone holding a different worldview he said, Read More

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 Posted on May 5, 2016 by

 Marriage, Prayer, Seeker

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Thought Of You When I Read This Today

I thought of you when I read this today, you my readers, and a few of you in particular. These were the words I read:

“The boundless dimensions of the Lord of glory simply cannot be confined within any human interpretation of his perfection, and the longer one looks at him, the more one sees this to be the case. Yet recognizing this fact, there is no study more rewarding. Limited as our faculties of perception may be, we know that in the Master we have a perfect Teacher.” Robert E. Coleman

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 Posted on April 18, 2016 by

 Bible Commentary, Seeker

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When You Have Doubts (And Weak Faith In An Almighty God)

Firefighter on roof by LAFD-CCWhen You Have Weak Faith In An Almighty God

The Tale Of Two Firefighters

There were two firefighters on the roof of a burning building. Read More

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 Posted on March 19, 2016 by

 Bible Study, John, Seeker

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Albert Einstein And Chasing Light

“Albert Einstein was said to have spent his entire career chasing a ray of light. All of his research was really to get to know the properties of light… In all that study he never actually fully understood light, but in the process of pursuing it he made some of the most remarkable discoveries of his generation, and for generations to come.” -Sosamma Samuel Burnett

Read More

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 Posted on February 23, 2016 by

 Bible Study, Seeker

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God’s IQ

IQ Graffiti by walknboston - CC

“His name was William James Sidis, and his IQ was estimated at between 250 and 300. At eighteen months he could read The New York Times, at two he taught himself Latin, at three he learned Greek. By the time he was an adult…

Read More

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 Posted on January 2, 2016 by

 Bible Study, Seeker

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You Are Not Condemned

Hell

Last post on the book of John we saw how God so loved us, that He allowed His Son to suffer a horrible death, to pay the price for our sins, so we could be reconciled to Him in heaven. That’s the message of John 3:16. And then in John 3:17 we saw how God’s purpose isn’t to condemn anyone, but instead His purpose is exactly the opposite, His purpose is to rescue everyone from condemnation. (John 3:17, 2 Peter 3:9, See previous post For God So Loved You)

Today we’ll explore the next verse after John 3:16-17. Speaking of himself Jesus says,

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3:18)

Suffering, Evil, And Condemnation

You know, among atheists, the number one objection to the God of the Bible is Read More

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 Posted on December 12, 2015 by

 Bible Study, Seeker

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How God Responds To An Honest Seeker

Honest Seeker Jesus
Read John 3:1-16 Nicodemus Visits Jesus

An Honest Seeker Comes To Jesus

There was this man who was a Pharisee named Nicodemus. He was a teacher of the Jewish scriptures, and also a member of the Sanhedrin, one of the 71 Jewish men who ruled over Israel. I’ve heard the Sanhedrin described as a combination of our Supreme Court and our Senate, so the guy was a big deal in the Israeli community.

He shows up to Read More

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 Posted on November 21, 2015 by

 Bible Study, Is Jesus real, Seeker

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Mark Watney’s Connection From Mars (And what that has to do with our connection to Heaven): John 1:50-51

Jesus is the way to heaven

And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” John 1:51

The Martian And Mark Watney’s Connection

I just finished reading the book The Martian by Andy Weir. And if you’ve already read the book or seen the movie you know that Mark Watney, a mechanical engineer and botanist, is left stranded alone on mars–for a very very long time.

He’s alone but he’s alone in a way no one has been alone before. He’s the only living creature on the entire red sand desert, unbreathable atmosphered, super frigid temperatured planet. Mark Watney spends every day on that planet just trying to figure out how to survive. But there’s one place in the book where he talks about this great connection he has that makes all the difference. His connection is with a team of scientists in Houston. Watney says, Read More

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 Posted on October 31, 2015 by

 Bible Study, John, Seeker

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When Christians Are Wrong: John 1:44-49

When Christians Are Wrong Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”

Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?”

Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” (John 1:44-49)

How Philip Was Wrong (And Nathanael Was Right)

Have you ever considered Nathanael and Philip’s words in this passage? Philip gets it wrong on Read More

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 Posted on October 17, 2015 by

 Bible Study, Is Jesus real, John, Seeker

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“Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes”

See God

[Gym shoes image via 4BlueEyes Pete Williamson – Creative Commons]

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 Posted on September 8, 2015 by

 Seeker

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Everyone Just Believes What Their Family And Culture Believe: So Why Believe In Jesus?

My friend George sent me a direct message on Twitter with this question. My answer quickly became too long for that medium so I put it in a blog post. Props to George for asking such a great question.

George wrote: What do you think of this quote, I see a lot of truth to it…. “Isn’t it a remarkable coincidence almost everyone has the same religion as their parents? And it always just happens to be the right religion. Religions run in families. If we’d been brought up in ancient Greece we would all be worshiping Zeus and Apollo. If we had been born Vikings we would be worshiping Wotan and Thor. How does this come about? Through childhood indoctrination.” Richard Dawkins

It’s great to hear from you George! And that’s a really great question too. I’m not a scholar or a genius by any means, I’m just a regular guy who loves Jesus so all I have to offer are my own thoughts based on what I’ve learned over the last few years. The following is just the way I think about this question.

So for me it starts with Read More

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 Posted on September 3, 2015 by

 Bible Study, Seeker

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The 1 Way We Can Learn God’s Mind And Heart: John 1:1-3

know God's mindIn The Beginning Was The Word

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1:1-3

The Exact Representation of God’s Nature

In the beginning was the Word. The Word with a capital W. The Word is logos in the Greek and it means a thought. The capital W means the Word is divine. The Word is what John calls Jesus in the first verse of the gospel of John. In other words, Jesus The Word is the expression of God’s thoughts. Jesus is a living expression of God’s mind. Or as the writer of Hebrews tells us, Jesus is the exact representation of His nature. (Hebrews 1:3)

When Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus answered,“Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:8-21)

The God We Can’t Understand

And we’re so immensely blessed by Jesus’ incarnation. Think this through with me: If you believe Read More

 2 Comments

 Posted on June 27, 2015 by

 Bible Study, John, Seeker

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