Dr Paul Allen

How do atheists observe Thanksgiving? I can easily understand what an atheist or agnostic would think of fellow human beings and feel led to express thankfulness and gratitude to all those who, both directly and indirectly, have contributed to their lives. But what about the blessings that cannot be ascribed to human agency? Those are both more numerous and more significant, ranging from the universe we experience to the gift of life itself. Can one really be thankful without being thankful to someone? It makes no sense to express thankfulness to a purely naturalistic system. The late Stephen Jay Gould, an atheist and one of the foremost paleontologists and evolutionists of his day, described human life as “but a tiny, late-arising twig on life’s enormously arborescent bush.” Gould was a clear-headed evolutionist who took the theory of evolution to its ultimate conclusion — human life is merely an accident, though a very happy accident for us. Within that worldview, how does than...

“Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds.” ( Colossians 4:2-3 ) This strong command is composed of two very similar Greek terms—gregoreuo, meaning “vigilant” or “alert,” and agrupneo, meaning “be awake.” A similar emphasis is at the end of the classic passage identifying the armor of God: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints” ( Ephesians 6:18 ). Our watching must also be with a conscious attitude of thanksgiving during “every remembrance” of each other ( Philippians 1:3 ), particularly since the intercessory request should be focused on asking our Lord Jesus to provide an open door ( Revelation 3:8 ). The Lord is indeed the One who opens the door, but the process for obtaining His action is recorded in Luke 11:9-11 . We ...

The word “eucharist” means “thanksgiving” and was an early Christian way of referring to the celebration of the Lord’s Table. Believers in the early centuries of church history regularly celebrated the Lord’s Table as a way to commemorate the death of Christ. The Lord Himself commanded this observance on the night before His death. As the apostle Paul recorded in 1 Corinthians  11:23 –26: For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. In discussing the Lord’s Table from the perspective of church history, at least ...

Image via Wikipedia It’s pretty self-explanatory and I don’t want to belabor the point, but in the spirit of Thanksgiving I thought I’d take a minute to quickly encourage all of you who currently serve in ministry on a church staff to take a minute to pause and be thankful. Ministry is tough work. After serving on church teams for over 10 years, I know that being in ministry is some of the most fulfilling and draining work at the same time. Serving on a church leadership team is both an incredible opportunity and sometimes a burden. You can witness all sides of church life: good, bad, and ugly. You can see the influence of “church politics” and wince at how leaders can be swayed by people’s opinions. And, at the same time, you can rejoice over life transformation. You can see the work of God , despite yourself and the behind-the-scenes things that go in church office life. You can see marriages and lives restored, can see hope instilled into hopeless situations and see the redeeming...

Image via Wikipedia Biblical prayer is one-way communication made available to man by the grace of God in order that man may communicate with God. While today God primarily speaks to man through His written Word (the Bible ), He encourages man to speak to Him through prayer. Prayer is not complicated or difficult.  In a nutshell, it is simply talking to God . Prayer is a grace-gift from God to man, that is, man does not deserve such a privilege and can never, by his own works, merit it.  The Bible’s first clear reference to prayer, i.e., talking with God, is found in  Genesis 3:10 , when Adam replies to God in the Garden of Eden ; although it is assumed that Adam had many conversations with God prior to this time.  From that point (fall of man) on God and man continued to talk, even outside the Garden of Eden ( Genesis 4 ), but it was not until  Genesis 4:26  that … men began to call on the name of the LORD .  The word “call” in this contex...

Image via Wikipedia This year I started doing something I’ve never done before.  As I went through and looked at the major themes and ideas, I put a “+” or “-” symbol next to each one, indicating which of those seemed to have had an overall  negative  or  positive  impact on my soul  at the time .  ( Ultimately, there is no real way to judge this since over time we often end up seeing negatives as positives and vice versa…  But it does help me see and understand why there may have been seasons I felt depleted, depressed, or discouraged….or others where I felt energized and strengthened.  Identifying patterns or rhythms is important! ) GRATITUDE  – Through this process, there almost always comes a point where my heart swells with an immense amount of gratitude and thanksgiving for what God has done in my life and in the lives of those I love and lead.  So I take time in the midst of this reflection to offer thanksgiving and gratitud...

Image via Wikipedia This year I started doing something I’ve never done before.  As I went through and looked at the major themes and ideas, I put a “+” or “-” symbol next to each one, indicating which of those seemed to have had an overall  negative  or  positive  impact on my soul  at the time .  ( Ultimately, there is no real way to judge this since over time we often end up seeing negatives as positives and vice versa…  But it does help me see and understand why there may have been seasons I felt depleted, depressed, or discouraged….or others where I felt energized and strengthened.  Identifying patterns or rhythms is important! ) GRATITUDE  – Through this process, there almost always comes a point where my heart swells with an immense amount of gratitude and thanksgiving for what God has done in my life and in the lives of those I love and lead.  So I take time in the midst of this reflection to offer thanksgiving and gratitud...

Image via Wikipedia All of us, I presume, change our minds from time to time. We know that we err, and we know that we grow in grace. At least part of that growth happens when we no longer believe the errors we once believed. Sometimes we add new information to what we believe. Sometimes we jettison old information. And sometimes we do both.  Paul commands that elders be sober-minded. I suspect that many of us give precious little thought to this command. Too many of us dismiss all of Paul’s qualifications. However, even if we try to apply them we often slide right over this one. We may assume “sober-minded” means the same thing as “not given to much wine.”  To be sober-minded, however, is to treat truth seriously and to have a healthy doubt as to our own understanding of truth.  A sober-minded person should think through the challenges of the incarnation. A sober-minded person ought to contemplate the law of God. But there are two things a sober-minded person d...

Image via Wikipedia 2 Corinthians 4:13-14 features a piece of Paul's own commentary on his apostolic ministry. After highlighting the sufferings wrapped up in his ministry (2 Corinthians 4:8-10), he quotes a portion of Psalm 116 and identifies himself as having the same "spirit of faith." This "spirit of faith" is explained by Paul in verse 14 as hope in the resurrection and is confirmed in the context of Psalm 116—which also includes suffering (Psalm 116:3-4) and psalter-fashioned resurrection language (Psalm 116:8-9). A paraphrase of Paul's thought would be something like: Yes, a great deal of hardship accompanies our ministry to you. But our ministry is in the same spirit as Psalm 116. In the midst of his suffering, the psalmist hoped in the resurrection and so do we. We know that just as God raised up Jesus from the dead he will raise us up, too, and he will bring us together into his presence. This all leads to 2 Corinthians 4:15. Verse 15 begins as...