Traveling in Asia with co-workers, have been reminded again of the value of persons, relationships, trust, and honesty. Have also seen how important it is to be able to honor together the values of truth and love without seeing ourselves as the measure of either. Even more impressed with the deepening impression of what, in […]
What makes something biblical? The easiest answer may be that, “If something is found in the Bible, it’s biblical.” But that means polygamy, slavery, and genocide all qualify. Another approach is to say that an idea or practice is biblical if it is consistent with the values and nature of the Bible. That’s probably a […]
Down through the years some of us have pointed out that God didn’t give Moses The Ten Suggestions. With similar conviction we rightly recognize the importance of being obedient to God. Many have also observed that the only real solution for the world will come in a day when God’s Messiah rules the world with […]
Am in the recording studio this week recording conversations with Alice Mathews and Haddon Robinson for our Discover the Word Radio series. We are currently working through the Sermon on the Mount and have gotten into “The Lord’s Prayer” (Matt 6:9-13). In the process, we have spent quite a bit of time thinking about the […]
A column in the Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy responded to the S & P’s downgrading of US Credit rating with an article called “How Debt Has Defined Human History”. Author, David Graeber, describes how ancient civilizations developed elaborate systems to manage credit and debt. He maintains that such systems depended on the insistence that there […]
Some of King David’s last words were a challenge to his son. To Solomon, who would inherit the throne, he said, “Take courage and be a man” (1 Kings 2:2 nlt). What was this father saying? What did his son hear? Just as importantly, what do we hear in those words? Thousands of years later, […]
Who can measure the importance of the statement: “The Word became flesh, and lived among us full of grace and truth” (John 1:14)? Think about the implications of a statement that does not simply say that “The Word was full of truth”, or that “The Word was full of grace.” Imagine what Jesus might have […]
The Bible answers the most important questions we can ask: Where did we come from? What matters? Who can we trust? Who is God? Is he good? Who is Jesus? Why did he die? Did his life end in failure? How can we be counted among his followers? How should we treat our enemy? Where […]
I recently heard a 2 and ½ minute conversation on NPR’s StoryCorps between Walter, a 73 year old father and his 36 year old son, Christopher. Walter, an author with almost 100 books to his name, grew up in Harlem, the son of a janitor. He recalls how at 14 he had already developed a […]
After surviving the horrors of Nazi concentration camps, Elie Wiesel wrote a novel titled The Trial of God. Reflecting Wiesel’s own crisis of faith, he created a character who accuses God of “hostility, cruelty, and indifference” for silently turning His back on His people in their time of need. In this plot, the only one […]
