A friend recently called my attention to a book titled “Testaments of Love, a study of love in the Bible.” It was published in 1981 and written by well-known Australian author, Leon Morris. Even though the book is heavily footnoted I am impressed not only with its clarity— but also that it may be the book I didn’t […]
Am thinking it might be important to have another conversation about issues of authority and obedience. Many of us have been taught to net out our relationship with God in two words— trust and obey. Trust God. Do what he says. Could anything make more sense than the thought that our Creator God deserves our trust and obedience? […]
A friend put me on to reading some 19th century novels by George MacDonald who, according to Wikipedia, had an influence on such other writers as Oswald Chambers, CS Lewis, GK Chesterton, Lewis Carroll, WH Auden, and JRR Tolkien. Even though the 19th century vocabulary and style are not always easy to push through, I’ve […]
Some of us might find it difficult to be around those who use whatever occasion or means they can to call attention to their own successes. Yet at the same time we can be blind to the endless, subtle, and ironic means by which we ourselves seek attention, affirmation, and praise. Maybe it is because […]
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 […]
Paul prayed for it. He longed for the faith and actions of his readers to be rooted and grounded in it. He wrote as if it is an immeasurable ocean with which God wants to fill us– in the face of all that we fear and hate (Eph 3:14-21). He saw Christ as its source […]
Memories can haunt us. I was listening to a story on NPR’s StoryCorp recently and heard a tender conversation between an aged father who told his adult son that, all of his life, he regretted a moment when he had abusively beaten him in a moment of frustration. The son was moved by his father’s […]
Los Angeles Lakers’ star, Kobe Bryant, is claiming today that his hyperdunk jump over a pool of snakes is for real. His stunt, that recently hit the internet, echoes a television series that aired for six years from 2001 to 2006. “Fear Factor” was the first reality show to be syndicated by a television network. […]
Some places are not a good spot to begin looking for God. With a smile, but in all seriousness, we talked about some of them in our last post. The pride by which we turn our backs on God can turn into a wounded pride that leads us to think that our sins are greater […]
Like Jesus, the Apostle Paul sets high standards for entering the kingdom of God. In his first letter to the Corinthians he writes: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites…will inherit the kingdom of […]
