Reflections on the loving kindness of the Triune God
What do we want most in life? The Bible offers a simple truism here: our love shapes us. Christians, after all, love God because he first loved us [1 John 4:19]. So, in our first post we started with God’s call for us to receive him as our ultimate love. Yet today most people love …
Read More A Vision for Life: 2 of 4In the first century the Christian faith grew dramatically—hearts changed in huge numbers. So, what created that change? This post is the first of four to chase the question, with a summary post to follow. I pray the core insights are as useful in today’s post-Christian world as they were in the new-Christian days of …
Read More A Vision for LifePaul wrote of Jesus to the Romans, “if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” [Ro. 10:9-10]. Salvation, then, is heart-based. But we …
Read More Believe in your heartYesterday I finished reading the Bible. Each morning I track at a normal reading pace for thirty to forty minutes. Reading, not studying. All of Genesis to Revelation takes about four months. Why this lifelong habit? Some call it a spiritual discipline. But it’s not. Efforts on my exercise bike are a discipline … because …
Read More A look at loveCenturies ago, Puritan theologians charged their opponents with treating Scriptures like a “wax nose.” Truth can be pliable, like an actor’s face reshaped for a Shakespearean play. Is it still a problem? Of course. And not just in religion. It’s true of advertising, news-making, and identity-building. It’s summarized in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful …
Read More Wax nosesI happened to be in England just after Queen Elizabeth died. The trip—arranged two months ago—was set up to visit friends. Yet it felt like a small providence to be in London at the time of her funeral. As I wrote here a few years ago, I once met her—for all of eight seconds—and that …
Read More Queen Elizabeth IIIn his rich biography of Martin Luther, Heiko Oberman wrote of “The loneliness of the truth…” [247]. It’s an intriguing idea. Can truth be lonely? Truth can be awkward and unwanted. It’s what an honest teacher tells a failing student. What a closeup photo offers an aging actor. Or what a doctor reports after an …
Read More The loneliness of the truthHow’s our faith? Does it work? Or is it a work in progress? A key: faith starts with God, not with us. The story of the “rich young ruler” helps here. The man asked Jesus about heaven. Was his pristine religious life enough to gain eternal life? Jesus answered by first asking him about his …
Read More A Trustworthy GodHere’s a key for sound spiritual health: give God thanks in everything. Always. Tell him you recognize how good and faithful he is. Even in hard times. This invitation is striking—a real reach. Yet it’s also biblical, a pathway of faith, and a sign of Christ’s presence in us. Jesus, by his Spirit, works in …
Read More Spirituality 101Grocery stores can have bad moments. Think of a bad orange in a produce bin. Part of the skin is collapsing into a grey-green paste, with a white ring spreading around it. A good orange, on the other hand, is a joy. Years ago I volunteered on an Israeli kibbutz for six months to study …
Read More Abiding