Parchment & Pen Blog

There have been so many times in my life when God has not shown up. So many times when I am at my wits end, when it is forth and long, ninth inning, I put up a last hope three pointer and the ball hits the tape and falls gently on my side of the [...]

Telos: Gk. end, goal, purpose While working behind the bar of the Credo House the other day (yes, I do make coffees!), a man came to talk to me about something that had been weighing on his heart. “Michael,” he said, “how do you know what God is trying to accomplish through the suffering that [...]

“Bang!!” The gun went off. My ears were ringing, my constitution shaken, and I, for a brief moment, felt as if I were in a dream. However, my heart did not stop, nor did I lose control of any bodily functions. I was quite surprised to see how composed I was. You see, before this event [...]

The problem of evil is certainly one of the greatest apologetic issues that Christians face today. In a postmodern world, people’s questions, objections, and problems with the Christian worldview are usually connected to the reality of evil in the world, and their attempts to harmonize this reality with the seemingly contradictory notion of an all-powerful, all-good God. [...]

(Lisa Robinson) Warning:  You will be leaving the world of Pollyanna Christianity and entering real life. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. (Romans 12:15).  Simple, right?  Well, I find it is when we can relate to what someone else is going through, whether it be pleasure or pain.  The test [...]

Topics Include: Session 1: Bible Session 2: Mankind Session 3: Trinity Session 4: Jesus Session 5: Faith Session 6: Living w/God Session 7: Living w/God’s Word Session 8: Living w/God’s People Session 9: Living w/Pain Session 10: Living as Lights Learn More about The Discipleship Program  

I was just diagnosed with “severe degenerative disc disease.” This is a lower back issue. For the last five years, the pain has been tremendous, keeping me from doing many things including my work-out routine and playing basketball. There is a constant pain that goes down into my left hip from a nerve that is [...]

My friend was not a Christian, but he was seriously considering it. He was one of my wild friends that I hung with in my crazy days. I reconnected with him a few years ago. I remember the days of driving around from bar to bar (what we called “bar hopping”) looking for nothing but trouble. [...]

Here are some notes from what I taught at The Discipleship Program last night on Suffering and Evil. I think it is very important that we give Christians a solid induction into this subject immediately. In other words, this is not a “closet doctrine.” There are too many destructive ways for people to go wrong [...]

I like second service Christians. Wait. Let me rephrase. I like second service Christians better than first service Christians. There. I said it. I remember when a church I was attending switched from one service to two. It was not pretty. Most certainly the church needed it. It was packed. The general rule is when [...]

I am different than a lot of people. When things are consistently falling apart in my life, I don’t only like to hear from others that are having train wrecks in their own life, but from those who are actually making it. Though I have become increasingly skeptical of people’s own interpretations of how things [...]

I think one of the toughest challenges that Christians struggle with is the issue of unanswered prayer.  It raises doubts.  It leaves us wondering if there was something we could have done differently to change the outcomes.  Did we pray right?  Why does God not want to answer that prayer?  We pull out all the [...]