MSI Press Blog

  A NEW YEAR “May it be done to me according to your word.” --Luke 1: 38     A new year begins. The transition between the past and the coming year invites reflection. We all look back and then forward. Commentators review the best and worst of everything, attempt to discern trends, and make predictions for the coming year. Will it be a  good or bad year--the best of times or the worst of times? Who really knows? Nevertheless, commentators make their prognostications, sometimes with great confidence. Of course, their opinions vary. Many are diametrically opposed, as if they are looking at different universes. I suspect their imagined futures are really a projection of their own idiosyncratic views of themselves and the world. After all, we see others as we are.  As we begin a new year, of course, we take a personal look at our lives. We look back at our regrets and celebrations. Inevitably, our lives have been a mixed bag. We then look to the next year and entertain expectations about

  winter solstice at Old Mission San Juan Bautista Thanks to Arthur Yavelberg, author of A Theology for the Rest of Us , for this post: Religion has a bad rap these days for all kinds of reasons--many of which are more than fair. Unfortunately, what often gets lost in these issues is the basic nature of true faith and spirituality--hope.   After all, the alternative is bleak--an uncaring, arbitrary universe in which everything has arisen by accident and will eventually dissolve just as randomly.  As the Psalmist writes, our lives are as so many blades of grass and, once we are gone, our footsteps will disappear and it will be as if we never were. Compare that with the fundamental message of the spirit: there is not only design in our universe, but a divine purpose that, while perhaps mysterious, exists nevertheless.  Our lives may be limited, but we can sense the infinite--both in terms of time and the love and compassion that are the essence of what it means to be human. From this per

  Sharing a new book trailer -- for A Theology for the Rest of Us (Yavelberg). 'Nuff said, just watch the trailer now -- short and worth the minute or so it takes! BEST INDIE BOOK AWARD SILVER AWARD, LITERARY TITAN For trailers for other books, click here . For other posts by and about Arthur and his book, click here.   Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author-signed copy  of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com. 

  Excerpt: The Three Cornerstone [of Joshuanism] Humans have become isolated creatures. They spend most of their time alone, behind windshields and computer screens. Christians are not immune to this increasing isolation. Even when they come together for small groups or Bible studies, there is still a very private element to the way they communicate with one another. How many people actually tell the truth about what is really going on in their lives or their minds? How many people really admit how messed up their world is? How many people divulge their needs of the moment? Very few. Why is it only a few? Because no one wants anyone else to know that his life is not the picture perfect scene that it appears to be on the surface. Christian churches are just as isolated as the people in them. Most of them sequester themselves away from other churches just a few blocks down the street. Why? Because one church does things one way, and another church does things a different way. God forbid

  Excerpt: THE WOMAN WHO TOUCHED JESUS (Gospel account in Matthew 9:20-22; Mark 5:24-34: Luke 9:43-48)   A large crowd was following Jesus, pressing around him. A woman crept up quietly, trying to touch him. This dear lady had an internal bleeding disorder. For twelve years, she’d suffered under the care of many doctors and spent all her money to pay them. But, instead of getting better, she grew worse. She’d heard of Jesus. So, she pressed through the crowd and slipped up behind him, thinking, “If I only touch his clothes, I’ll be healed.” As soon as she touched his cloak, she felt the bleeding stop. Background This brave lady risked public humiliation by approaching Jesus unbidden. Women of her day were often not treated with dignity. She knew she would likely be ridiculed, but she was enough desperate to choose to face the consequences. The disciples would not be sympathetic. They fancied themselves to be Jesus’ palace guards, shooing the riffraff away, especially women and childre

  Excerpt from How to Argue with an Atheist available online and from msipress.com/shop INTRODUCTION: Arguing in Circles               It is not how long the book is, but how long the book sticks in the mind of the reader.  My contention is sure to be controversial: atheism is an addiction. According to the national opinion polls, between two and twenty percent of American adults identify themselves as atheists (depending upon how the question is phrased). The fact that there are so many millions of atheists (or so few, if you look at it proportionately) says nothing about the existence of God, but only about human nature.               I am going to suggest a broader, more sweeping definition of atheism: behaving as if God does not exist . Since the time of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, all of us have, at least on occasion, behaved in this way. In that sense, we are all recovering atheists.               One afternoon at the beginning of the semester, a student came by my offic