Parchment & Pen Blog

I’m sitting in a hotel room right now. A pastor friend of mine is asleep in the bed next to mine. Cars are whizzing by outside my room. My eyelids are starting to get pretty heavy. It’s about 1:30 in the morning. For the last two days I’ve been traveling, with 13 other people, to [...]

It has been almost five years since I started blogging. Here is what I have learned. 1. Loneliness because of the “Blog Lobe” This one is a joke with a bit of truth. My friends are sometimes scared to talk to me because they know that in the back of my mind there is a [...]

First, read this excerpt from a book review about a person who claimed to have a near-death experience. (Note: not from a real book review.) “I have never heard such a stupid claim. The author is not in the slightest bit informed on the subject of truth. There is not a single doubt in my mind [...]

Yes, it is time again to remind our audience of the way we do things here at Parchment and Pen. We do have rules of engagement and there is a proper way for people to conduct themselves. One thing that I want to make sure of is that the conversations here move in a meaningful [...]

When I first started teaching the Bible about fifteen years ago, I was given a Sunday School class at my church. It was a “college and career” class. I was inexperienced in teaching and was very nervous every Sunday, but I had such a strong desire to teach I was willing to endure the stress [...]

1. Do not use the blog to promote yourself, as your surrogate blog, or as an advertisement. I am sure you are interesting and have some really nice things to say, but you can get your own blog. 2. Do not call authors out for debate. You must count the cost (Lk. 14:31). You don’t [...]

In the last blog in this series, I talked about how to engage in theological conversation or controversy, especially on the internet. In this blog post I want to take this one step further in talking about our attitude. In my opinion, one cannot underestimate the importance of having the right attitude. Chuck Swindoll says [...]

I thought that I would continue with the blogging fun. Here are the top ten signs that you are taking this blogging thing TOO far.  10. You blog on blogs. 9. Your username on other blogs is one of the following: blogforhim, semperblogging, jediblogger, blogaphobia. 8. You send the XML of your own blogs to your [...]

Not really 101. My brief six months of blogging does not quite qualify me to teach this level of blogging education. Either way, I thought that I would give you some of my thoughts, colored with shades of green as they may be. I like blogging. I don’t really know why yet, but it is [...]