By Randy Cooper

• Giving Jesus a Makeover by Randy Cooper (11/12/2008)
  ...>Many years ago a dear Christian sister told me she was convinced that if Jesus appeared in our day, he would surely be a fire and brimstone Baptist preacher. As you might imagine, she admired Baptist preachers who preached hell and judgment. She made Jesus over into an image that suited her own faith and worldview. She isn’t the first. Human beings were made in the image of God. Yet ever since...
• What God Intends by Randy Cooper (10/21/2008)
  ...th” phones fitted to our ears when we were born. And I find myself thinking this way when it comes to oil and coal. I figure that if God intended us to put carbon into the air, then God surely would not have taken so long and worked so hard to fold these materials deep into the earth. I wonder if God really wants them to be taken from the bowels of the earth and used as we use them. There I go,...
• Obama and His Preacher by Randy Cooper (8/1/2008)
  ... of the gospel is far more mature than theirs. Indeed, these “experts” cannot fathom the integrity that Obama has shown. Thus far at least, Obama’s actions and words witness to an understanding of the church that is orthodox and biblical. In the tradition of Christian faith, Obama seems to understand that we do not “choose” our church, nor does the church exist to please us and to meet our need...
• Fools For Christ by Randy Cooper (8/1/2008)
  ...sons whose walk in life is different from theirs. By placing themselves in such a community, they are availing themselves of God’s Holy Spirit to love the neighbors given to them by God. Only God knows what may happen with “crazy” Christians like Van and Kristin. <span class="fullpost"> </span> And I’m thinking this morning about Duke University. The largest number of Duke graduates in 2007 d...
• Telephones and What is Good for Us by Randy Cooper (8/1/2008)
  ...e up about whether David Kline’s community would use telephones. Everyone in the church—the community—met and discussed it a number of times. It took all summer for them to decide whether they would have phones. They finally decided against it. And they had two reasons.<!--more--> First, they knew that if they began to use telephones, they would carry out conversations less and less in a face t...