Conversations at the Ranch with Dudley Hall

I am dizzy! Just trying to figure out what has happened and how fast it has occurred is a disorienting experience. Just a few years ago, we were celebrating diversity of opinion. We were boasting that open discussion and debate were privileges in a nation where liberty is prized. Now, there is an atmosphere of shock. There is a host of sincere morality-loving citizens who are in a quandary as to h...

Someone has said that we have not truly believed truth until it affects our muscles. That is another way of affirming that theoretical truth is not transforming. Only when we have so embraced truth that it determines what we think, affects how we feel, and influences how we choose can we be called believers. There are many who know the grand story of the gospel but have never entered the story. It...

2 Corinthians 5:19-21 - With all the anger being exposed in recent months toward what is happening in the world as well as in our own country, many so-called spokesmen for God are declaring that his anger has been stoked to an all-time high. According to them, God has had just about enough of our shenanigans. God’s wrath is bubbling hot in the cauldron of justice and will soon be poured out in pro...

Romans 7:13-20 - The seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans is famous for describing the struggle Paul has with sin (or, for that matter, the struggle of anyone who wants to live righteously). Paul confesses he knows what is right but doesn’t do it, and he is not ignorant of what is evil, yet he practices it. He concludes that the culprit is neither the Law, which points out sinful behavior,...

1 Timothy 1:12-16 - The kingdom of God exploded in the first century A.D. owing in large part to God’s work through a converted terrorist. It should encourage us that people and circumstances don’t have to be good in order for the kingdom to progress. God’s purpose is being accomplished because his grace triumphs over evil.

MATTHEW 16:13-20 - Polling is a good way to discover what people are thinking, but not a good way to determine the truth. Sadly, leaders today often make their decisions based on polling the populace rather than hearing what the Father says about reality. Observation is good, but revelation is essential if we are to live in the truth. We are notoriously bad at interpreting what is happening, since...

2 CORINTHIANS 8:3–4; 9:6–10 - I’m confessing: I love the Christmas season. I know it has been commercialized and materialism runs rampant, but I love the excitement and joyous spirit that seems to grip most of us. Who doesn’t enjoy little ones running toward Santa, thinking of flying reindeer, waiting for the big day? I know; I should be offended at all this hype when the real issues are the birth...

PSALM 2:1–6 - It seems that our society is becoming increasingly vitriolic. Instead of listening and responding, we resort to talking over each other and demonizing our opponents. I suppose that is what can be expected when we deny the possibility of spiritual warfare and thereby conclude that our enemy is solely flesh and blood. In a purely secular society, where demons, angels, and God are mocke...

Deuteronomy 8:2-3 - The life of victory does not consist of temptation-free living. It is all about revealing the glory of one who daily offers his grace to overcome as we learn to live by the words that come from the cross. “It is finished,” he said. All that is needed for mankind to live and work in the presence of God has been done. We now get to apply that to the many trials and temptations th...

Luke 4:5-7 - Satan confronted Eve and Adam in the Garden. He engaged Israel in the wilderness. He even tried to cut a deal with Jesus in the desert. According to the apostle Peter, he is still stalking around looking for someone who will deal. Has he found a taker in the modern American church?

Ephesians 3:14-19 - Recently a poll asked young people what they wanted to be when they grew up. The most popular answer: famous. Of course, that begs other questions, such as, with whom? Or for what? One could aspire to be famous among the most evil people who have lived, but I can’t imagine hell providing much honor. The honor that our soul craves cannot be found in the fame that this earth offe...

Revelation 21:23-24 - I’ve been surprised to see how surprised many were by the decision handed down by the Supreme Court of the United States regarding same-sex marriage. Did we think that American democracy was equivalent to the Kingdom of God? Have we shifted our hope of justice and peace totally to the structures of the state? Have we not seen the shift toward magnifying human dignity while ig...

Psalm 139-22-23 - If you are tired of being tormented by the enemy within, venture the request for God to search your heart. Every deficit he exposes will be an opportunity to embrace his grace, which he has been storing up since before the world began. He only wants to give what you desperately need, but cannot afford.

FIGHT, ADAPT, RECLAIM, OR WITHDRAW? -- The word “Christian” is overused as an adjective these days. We hear about Chris- tian music, Christian ethics, Christian education, and Christian culture. It is not uncommon to hear some pundit speak of the “Christian response” to a given social or political issue. However, if you listen to Christians, you will hear all kinds of answers to the questions rela...

John 13-16, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 - Just before his betrayal and the events surrounding his death, Jesus met with his disciples to celebrate the Passover meal, inaugurating a whole new era. As they gathered, he did something that none of them fully understood at the time. He washed their feet. As an act of humility it could stand alone as a model for their future, but there was more to it than that...

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 - The Christian gospel is truly good news. It declares that sin and Satan have not won the battle for the ones God created in honor. God offers his own life to those who want to be a new kind of human. The problem never has been primarily sexual- ity. It has always been idolatry. When that problem is fixed, all other issues are aligned. When we live for his honor, our dignity...

1 Timothy 2:1-6 - Christians have the challenge of being citizens of two nations. We are sons and subjects in the Kingdom of God, and we are also part of the nation on earth in which we hold citizenship. Paul wrote to Timothy, who was leading the citizens of the Kingdom in their responsibility as citizens of their earthly society.

The TV screen was filled with the red-faced spokesman for his cause drumming up followers who would agree that this was the defining issue of the times. Of course, the very next story featured another upset victim of society, declaring that all who didn’t march with her were unconcerned about justice. It seems that there is conflict everywhere. Sometimes we get confused as to where the battlefie...

Matthew 6:5-11 - What difference does the arrival of the Kingdom of God in Jesus Christ make in mankind’s praying? All men pray. Prayer is endemic to the human race. If not universal, it is global. Men everywhere pray. Even a large percentage of professed atheists admit to praying. The concepts of God may change, but there is something inside that prompts all people at some point to pray. But how...

Galatians 2:20 - In Paul’s farewell address to the elders of the church at Ephesus, he quotes Jesus saying, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). More than once I have heard this quote being used to exhort people to give—but adding that the reason it is more blessed is that you will receive more. Isn’t that saying the blessing is in the receiving? Actually, in most contempora...

JEREMIAH 9:23–24 - We are experiencing a collective angst regarding the perceived loss of a previous moral culture that we remember as being better than today. In any culture, the morality standards are set by the values that the particular society celebrates. So, technically, we have a moral culture, but we are not satisfied that it is a GOOD moral culture. What does a good moral culture look lik...

1 Corinthians 15:1-10 - The debate continues. What part do the choices of mankind play in the purposes of God? Is salvation a work of God or a choice of man? Is there a difference in God’s role in initial salvation and the part he plays in our lives lived as rescued people? Is it a work of God and mankind? Is it a work of God through mankind? What has been done, and what remains to be done? 

Isaiah 39:8 Can you remember the days when social politeness deemed it proper to comment on others in a group picture before you mentioned yourself? It's not a secret that all of us quickly look to find ourselves in the picture and usually wish we had postured differently or smiled bigger. Now, however we are taking pictures of ourselves and sending them out to everyone connected to social me...

Matthew 12:43-45 Reform is dangerous! When things aren't working, we clamor for change. Often we are willing to accept change--in any direction--to escape the tentacles of bandage the current state offers. If the pain of the present is great enough, passions get riled and people are ready to fight for quick and radical change. But the answer is not as simple as voting out the present administ...

Mark 1:15 - Much to the chagrin of many who have grown up in a culture that was basically friendly to the values and language of Christianity, we now must face the fact that Christendom in America is dead. The culture that grew up around the mixture of Christian language, biblical values, and American civil religion is breathing its last gasping breath. The grief is taking its usual forms. Some ar...