Reflections on the loving kindness of the Triune God
Early this morning, at 6:30, I got a call from Rick in Africa. He knew I’d moved to Idaho earlier this year after a trip to the beach to pray about the prospect. So he asked how to encourage Nigerian pastors to go on prayer quests. It’s afternoon by now and he’s waiting for an …
Read More With JesusThe Bible gives readers a repeated alert, “Then you will know that I am the LORD.” Over seventy times. In both the Old and New Testaments. It’s spoken by prophets as from God himself, and it’s meant mainly for self-assured skeptics. Or quietly indifferent agnostics. Should we pay attention? Of course. It’s profoundly important. If …
Read More “Then you will know”Let’s revisit our ongoing discussion of faith. It’s how humans, once dead, come alive to God. John’s gospel is a workbook on faith—or, as he prefers, on “belief” in Christ. Early in John’s gospel Nicodemus came to Jesus for spiritual coaching. And Jesus, citing Numbers 21, simply told him to “look and live” in John …
Read More Living FaithConsider Psalm 2:12. “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” We’re surprised to find God’s Son cited in an Old Testament setting. Christians later recognize the Son to be Jesus of Nazareth, as in Acts …
Read More “Kiss the Son”Life is a scramble among competing priorities. The time, energy, and money available for the opportunities and demands that come our way are too limited. And God gets this. Which is why he’s so clear in calling us to what really matters. He is an ultimate “Who” among a myriad of “whats.” We were made …
Read More “What’s important?”I just moved from Camas, Washington, to Moscow, Idaho. And in my current Bible reading I’m newly sensitive to relocation stories. Both Genesis and Exodus are all about moves. In both books God relocates people as a way to build faith. He disrupts lives by creating new needs, new values, new questions, new answers, and …
Read More MovingI’m in a coffee shop as I’m writing this, and some man just got into my car outside! I had my IRS tax return payment sitting on the passenger seat. The auto-lock door hadn’t worked! So I jumped up, and as I got outside the man was already getting out. “Sorry!” he said as he …
Read More Disrupted LivesI sailed on the Queen Mary 2 recently. The first morning out I sat in the library watching waves reach to the horizon, with companion clouds. A few seabirds floated above the ship’s bow. It was a quiet, pleasant scene. But after an hour boredom came trolling. A ship on the ocean is all too …
Read More Empty EyesMartin Luther coined the phrase “theology of the cross” in his Heidelberg Disputation of 1518. The cross, he held, is where differences between human and divine loves are sharpest. Human love seeks personal benefits and satisfaction—whatever is good. While God’s love forms what is good in humans. “Therefore sinners are attractive because they are loved; …
Read More Two kinds of loveI crossed the lawn going to the kibbutz office in Dovrat, Israel. My Hebrew studies would begin there the next day. On the way I watched a child chasing an Israeli soldier from the bus I was on. A ceasefire in the October 1973 war released soldiers to come home. “Abba, Abba!” the boy called, …
Read More God as Father