Terry Pruitt's Blog

The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” --Genesis 4:6,7 (ESV) Breaking It Down Cain's sin is iconic in that it is the first sibling rivalry, the first murder, and caused the first exile. He not only hated his brother with jealousy, but his hate gave rise to the shedding of blood. What is an amazing component of the story is that God gave a warning to Cain regarding his temptation to sin. God asked him the question, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?” The question is a use of parallelism. The first phrase “why are you angry” points to the emotional response in Cain that he feels an injustice has been committed against him. The second part of the question is basically a repetition of the idea with a little extra twist to draw attention to the fact that Cain is not only angry, b...

The Idea of Hebrew Poetry By Terry L. Pruitt Introduction Americans dislike poetry, or at least claim that it is inaccessible. However, most parents do recite nursery rhymes to their children. Most children and parents seem to enjoy this ritual. While some of the words are crazy, like a cow jumping over the moon, few people find them inaccessible. Poets are not generally known to make a lot of money, however, when poetry is set to music it becomes a multi-billion dollar industry. Poetry is involved in the stables of these sections of the music industry: sheet music, radio stations, music recording CDs, DVDs of music videos, digital music such as iTunes and live concerts. The American culture does not care much about poetry for poetry sake but embraces poetry with outstretched arms and open wallets when presented with the right social context. In discussing poetry in the Bible, we may find ourselves lacking the right context to use as an excuse for embracing the literary form. ...

My internship with the presbytery was completed last Saturday. The feeling is happiness. I don't see it as an achievement so much as I got through it. I'm free of the nagging thought that I need to get more done. I have learned about my own limitations, and some strengths that I did not know I had. Coming face to face with these has not been pleasant since my weaknesses loom larger than my strengths in my thoughts and feelings. Some of the information that I needed to hear, I think I was not ready to hear so it took time. That is why God waited to let me know. Perhaps he was telling me all a long but I just was not hearing it. "But we know that God works all things for good to those who love God, to those called according to his purpose."

The problem of evil is not one that is easily solved by the Christian apologist. The blog post is intended to spur on further thinking but does not pretend to solve the problem. Posing the "problem of evil" is not mortal wound to Christian faith, but is a common element that contributes to individual Christians to lose their faith. Rather than hide our heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich, Christians should deal with the issue forthright. In some sense the question is really not about simply the "question of evil" but how does one define evil and describe suffering as it corresponds with our world. What is Evil and What is the Nature of Suffering? It is somewhat amusing that Christians from the suburbs who live a relatively safe and prosperous life are the same ones who are bothered the most by the "question of evil". There is an expectation that God of the Bible is also the one who should promise the good life. Christians from these suburb...

Anger: Handling a Powerful Emotion in a Healthy Way by Gary Chapman is a must read for everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike, even though it comes at the issue from a Christian perspective. If you have ever hear some of the anger management type psychology stuff going on out there (or seen the movie Anger Management ) you may not see the value in examining the topic. Chapman however does do a good job of talking about real situations, and is realistic about solutions. (He does not expect that rephrasing the problem in trendy psychological terms to abolish ones anger issues.) Probably the most two surprising things he says in the book is that anger by itself is not sin and that if someone does not apologize, one need not forgive the offender. Both he backs up as a Christian point of view. There is more to it than that, but I will allow your curiosity bother you a bit so you read the whole book. It is worth the read. The strength in the book is in the pragmatic explanation...

On my trek through the Bible, I'm in the book of Job once again. Most evangelicals feel that the message of Job is simply that there are unseen issues happening in heaven so we can not understand suffering. However, we have a lot of chapters in Job (41) for that simple message. That's right, people who wrestle with the idea of suffering know nothing. The thinking is that all these orators and thinkers in the book of Job got it wrong and God has it right. Could we not have done as well by a poignant proverb in the book of Proverbs if that is the long and short of it? "Suffering is not understandable; quit trying to figure it out unless someone mistakenly think that you communicate with the transcendent one and understand the meaning of your life." III Evangel-Christian Chapter1, Verse 13 A part of our evangelical philosophy of life is mistaken by thinking that things like beauty, meaning, and righteousness are somehow less true than things that are provable via ...

The CBS Numb3rs episode which aired last Friday night, called “ Atomic No. 33”*, made me start thinking about the use of the word “cult”. They used the word in Numb3rs to say that the FBI has a list of cults that they watch for violations of the law. I'm wondering if the FBI really does have such a list. If they do, should it really be called a cult list? It really does not matter if the organization claims if it is religious or not. It also does not matter if an organization is deemed by others to be religious or not. What does matter is if the group is breaking the law. However, if a law enforcement group such as the FBI does maintain a list of cults, then what is the criteria? I would suspect the criteria would be abnormal control of the members, abuse of members and/or illegal practices. What do I mean by abnormal control? I mean draconian methods of control such as pressuring members to giving up of all possession, requiring fasting and causing sleep deprivation....

I was given the privilege to preach a couple of weeks ago. I preached on the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:1-23. While it is not really a sermon about time management, I used that type of thinking to help people evaluate whether their heart corresponded to one of the soil types. So the title of the sermon is " Are You Wasting You Time in the Word of God? " Sermon Cloud is a great resource. It has a lot of other sermons on it besides mine.

Christianity Today has a Question and Answer article with Obama. In it he declares his faith and he takes a position on abortion. Click here for the full article at CT. From Christianity Today's website You've talked about your experience walking down the aisle at Trinity United Church of Christ, and kneeling beneath the cross, having your sins redeemed, and submitting to God's will. Would you describe that as a conversion? Do you consider yourself born again? I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life. But most importantly, I believe in the example that Jesus set by feeding the hungry and healing the sick and always prioritizing the least of these over the powerful. I didn't 'fall out in church' as they say, but there was a very strong awakening in me of the importance of these issues in my life. I didn...

I have had a variety of experiences with different churches. The alter call is not a single thing to a single church. I have found in fact they are quite varied. So here is a little of my journey via the alter call and then a little bit of what I think it ought to be. Cherry Street Baptist – A place to get SAVED! When I attended Cherry Street Baptist church in Springfield, MO the alter was a place to go forward to accept Christ. They had young men who were studying for the ministry at Baptist Bible College (BBC) who were recruiting a constant stream of new people into the church. These young ministerial students also were active in bus ministry, teaching Sunday School and developing things like “Friend Sunday” where everyone was supposed to bring a friend. But those other fellows were there at the alter ready to show you what salvation meant from the Bible and pray the sinner's prayer with you. There was probably 20 or 30 people who went forward for salvation or rededicati...

We were studying Acts 14 where Paul and Barnabas are stoned by the people in Iconium and greatly misunderstood in Derbe. Never the less the two messengers rejoiced that they were able to give the good news of Jesus Christ to others. What follows is my outline of thoughts on the chapter. Benefits of Suffering for Christ We participate in the sufferings of Christ. (Colosians 1:24) The suffering becomes non-verbal preaching It is a pragmatic way to take up our cross daily and follow Christ (Matthew 16:24) Benefits of Preaching in a Hostile Environment Your message is tested for the audience Is the gospel true? Are you motivated by pure motives? You as the messenger must rely on power from above The struggles heightens the importance of the message for the hearers Benefits of Preaching in an Environmental Context that Distorts the Message of the Gospel It forces the messenger to discern what is timeless and abandon those things that are temporal and fleeting It forces the messenger to s...

The Christian Science Monitor has a series of articles on military chaplains . I have not read all the articles, there are several, but I'm working my way through them. The articles open up some interesting questions. What is the job of a Christian Chaplain? How does one express his or her faith while dealing with religious pluralism? How does one minister to those not of your own faith? How does one relate to Muslim chaplains from other countries?

Exercise is a part of my daily routines. Partially because I need it to control stress and weight, and partially I like it. It's a hobby. Those whose job it is to sell gym memberships and exercise videos are always looking for a way to gain from the latest exercise trend. One that has seemed to be a bit of a stretch for me to embrace, pun intended, is yoga because it has religious implications if not religious doctrine included. I have no issue with the whole idea of stretching to gain a sense of well-being. There is an interesting article at Pulpit on yoga, a transcript of John MacArthur and Doug Paige discussing Christians and yoga .

Not long ago I started seeing blogs with political cartoons that suggest that Barak Obama is Muslim. I would think this would be discussed in the mainstream media as well in the blogosphere so it bore checking out. According to the The Caucus, a NY Times political blog, Obama is a Christian and attends Trinity United Church of Christ, 400 West 95th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60628 . Their worship center is the photo above. I'm not saying that Obama and I would agree on everything doctrinally, but if he claims the name of Christ, I will take him at his word that he is a Christian. Then dialog starts with agreement that Christ is God incarnate, that God is three in one, that sin is our most fundamental problem and the atoning sacrifice of Christ is the solution. It seems less than generous to label Obama a Muslim because his father was a Muslim. It appears to be a ploy to discourage voter enthusiasm for Obama given that Islam is not the mainstream religio...

Psalms have been something that I have for years thought was a balance in Scripture. Paul's letters reach the mind and makes you wonder, but certainly when the Lord told us the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and might, he meant to include that we should love the Lord with our emotional aspects of our being. So the Psalms seemed to be a solution or balance with those who might make Christian religion an egg head, mind centric sort of thing. But I recently read through the Psalms with refreshing insights. For the first time I saw the Psalms as theological. Take for instance, Psalm 65:2 tells us that, "When iniquities prevail against me, you (God) atone for our transgressions." In this we see substitutionary sacrifice for sin. It points to God being the source of the atonement, not man. Another Psalm with theological insights is Psalm 82:8 where it says, "Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the n...

I have been in class the past few months with Will Pavone, but now I'm spending time on my i-pod with Will. He is a pastor and music leader of his church in northern Virginia. I would encourage you to sample and check out his music at his website.

" Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." --Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV) When it comes to trying to obey the great commission, there certain actions that we must take as essential in fulfilling it. For instance the main verb that is in the imperative is "make disciples", however there word "go" is a participle which derives its sense of meaning in relation to the main verb. We can not make disciples of "all nations" without going. The two things we need to do to make disciples is to baptize them and teach them to obey. As we look at ways to fulfill the great commission, we have different ways to attempt to carry this out, all of them must involv...

Check out this blog on health care missions called The Lord is the Healer . This is a sister in our church who spends a whole lot of her own time and her resources to minister to others. She could be raking in the bucks but she has a desire to serve the Lord in very practical ways. Please surf on over to her blog and leave an encouraging word or two regarding the work she is doing.

There is an excellent article in Leadership magazine entitled Curing Souls: the Forgotten Art by Eugene Peterson. Peterson, faimed for his paraphrase of the Bible called The Message, contrasts the institutional CEO mentality of ministry with one that is curing the soul. Probably the best insight is that if I count my job is to solve organizational and personal problems then there is no end to doing that. When do we take the time to seek God during the trying parts of life if we are continually fixing it ourselves? Growing up in rural Missouri, Theron McCloud was our minister of the gospel. He spent a lot of time visiting the sick and shut-ins in the community. He was not a CEO. Our people could not relate to a CEO since most of the people were farmers, farmer's wives, people who worked with hands but lived in town. Yes there were some business owners and such in the congregation, but sophisticated organizational structures and programs would have been smaltzy. Instead Th...