Sure the Web is great, but books are . . . great too!
Introducing Volume 2 of articles reprinted from Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life:
(Yes, I started with Volume 2, not Volume 1, of a planned five volume set. Sue me! 😛 )
This 450 page book offers a selection of 51 articles organized into six parts:
- Part 1: Understanding the Bible
- Part 2: Human Beginnings
- Part 3: The Narrative of Israel
- Part 4: Prophecy and Controversy
- Part 5: The Lord’s First Coming
- Part 6: The Lord’s Second Coming
To preview or purchase the paperback edition on Amazon, click here.
To preview or purchase the Kindle edition on Amazon, click here.
Enjoy!
Volumes in this series:
- God and Creation
- The Bible and its Stories
- Spiritual Rebirth (not yet published)
- The Afterlife (not yet published)
- Sex, Marriage, and Relationships (not yet published)
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Lee Woofenden is an ordained minister, writer, editor, translator, and teacher. He enjoys taking spiritual insights from the Bible and the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg and putting them into plain English as guides for everyday life.
Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life 
i’d be interested to know how you respond to bible quotes like
Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works – 2 John 1:9-11
it is full of prejudice and if traditional christians always bring their jesus is the the way, the truth gospel and we bring our more universalist themed quotes of not everyone who says to me lord lord will enter the kingdom but those who did the will of my father than are we just choosing bits of the bible based on our personal beliefs and rejecting the rest and saying we follow the bible when thats not the truth as a lot of it is rejected by people which begs the question what to believe and what not to.
snakes can’t talk, neither can burning bushes, virgins can’t get pregnant but as a person of faith like i am to a certain extent with a belief in god and a higher power believe in the unimaginable and believe in it or use it as an interpretation and if we doubt do you think god looks down on us for doing that
Hi Annie,
Thanks for your thoughts and your question.
In reading the Bible as in reading any other book, it’s important to read and pay attention to the whole context, and not take quotes out of context. Just before the two verses you quote, John said:
He’s not talking about people who are just mistaken, but about deceivers, meaning people who are intentionally misleading people, usually for their own gain.
It may sound harsh, but John is zealous for the truth that he himself has experienced: Jesus Christ coming “in the flesh,” as a real human being who is also God and Lord. He wants to warn believers away from people who would come along and say something different, sowing confusion and error among the body of believers. There were many such people then just as there are now. But since Christianity was still in its fledgling phase, it was especially important not to allow pretenders and charlatans who had not experienced Jesus Christ and his life and teachings for themselves, as John had, from causing the new faith to veer off course before it even got started.