How do you understand Jesus' teaching to the Rich Young Ruler?

Ed Vasicek

I believe some of Jesus’ teachings about discipleship come from I Kings 19:19-21. The rabbis viewed the relationship of Elisha to Elijah as a role model for a disciple. Here are the verses:

19 Elijah left there and found Elisha son of Shaphat as he was plowing. Twelve teams of oxen were in front of him, and he was with the twelfth team. Elijah walked by him and threw his mantle over him. 20 Elisha left the oxen, ran to follow Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and mother, and then I will follow you.”

Discussion

The “Oppressed” versus Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

SI Filings

“…whenever I’m discouraged in my work, I pick up one of his books again and his life inspires me to continue. They’re not easy reads, but what he went through to bring them to us was remarkable, and it will change your perspective on ‘oppression’ forever.” - Phil Cooke

Discussion

On Divine Down Payment

SI Filings

“God has given us a down payment of his very person in the Holy Spirit. He’s really serious about his relationship with us. Let us embrace him and anticipate all that is to come.” - Olinger

Discussion

How the News Disrupts Our Belonging

SI Filings

“Today the Soviet Union is gone but newspeak and a thousand forms of disinformation thrive. I can do frontline reporting … and a reader will email to say I didn’t see what I saw because it doesn’t conform to a political narrative. She and the rest of us can fall prey to platform algorithms and manipulated content disgorged from a news cycle that never sleeps.

Discussion

Meaning of “one flesh”

Dan Miller

What does it mean to be “one flesh”?

— Here’s a few questions to get into specifics:

Does ‘one flesh’ happen when you get married?

Does it happen with sex? Does first base count? Second? Third?

Something else?

Is it a continuing process that builds slowly or is it more of an on-off status that happens at a moment in time?

Is it undoable?

Is it possible to be one flesh with many partners?

— What are some interesting reads? I’m looking for both reliable and otherwise.

Discussion

“A Thousand to None”: What Did Solomon Mean?

Ed Vasicek

Ecclesiastes 7:27-28 in the ESV reads:

27 Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things— 28 which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found.

Discussion