Reflections on the loving kindness of the Triune God
I think it was Mark Twain who quipped, “I wrestled with my conscience and won.” We smile as Twain takes an element of truth and turns it with a wry reversal. The truth is that we all live with a sense of right and wrong—our conscience. And it’s also true that while we sometimes override …
Read More On Conscience & True FaithAs I write this entry I’m sitting on a chair in my driveway watching nearby neighbors set off some pretty extravagant fireworks. The children next door just came out to watch and one of them started jumping up and down, arms waving in delight. They plan to start their own display in a short while. …
Read More Freedom on Independence DayWhere is God these days? Is he paying any attention to my life and needs? Does he know what’s going on in our lives? In our families, churches, and neighborhoods? We hear in church that God rules the universe and knows every thought we think, and every act we do. So why is it that he …
Read More What does God have to say?Long ago I realized that I participate in a widespread form of relational abuse. Why? Because, like so many others, I realize that it makes life work. We come to see it as an ordinary fact of life. But it shames me and I can never be “okay” with it. The abuse is relational pragmatism. Or, more to the point, it views people …
Read More An impractical devotionRecently I was visiting with a friend who was once a pastor. His marriage is broken—already into years of separation with no restoration in sight—yet he longs to be together with his wife again. In our conversation he touched on the promise of Romans 8:28—”for those who love God all thing work together for good”—as …
Read More Pain, Patience and ProvidenceYears ago I was impressed by what I read about Helmut Thielicke as he toured the United States. When he was asked by a reporter what impressions he had of the American church as a whole he responded to this effect: the church is wide and lively but it seems not to understand the benefits …
Read More Reversing rolesAt times I’ve been cheered on by others with a hearty “way to go!” The cheer celebrates a moment of progress or success. And there are other ways way is used. In the Bible the term often serves as a moral metaphor. Listen, for instance, to Jesus: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). …
Read More Way to go!The irony wasn’t lost on me. All my writing of the past three months evaporated in a keystroke. The subject of my writing? Sin. The cause of the lost file? A computer virus that wiped out both my back-up file and my hard drive. I hadn’t made any print copies of the project so I …
Read More Thank you Lord!The Bible is a faith-producing book. As we read it boldly and regularly it generates a response: a growing confidence in God and, with that, a sense of entrustment. The Bible is also brutally honest. It tells stories of misguided faith and un-faith. For the faithful reader those stories help in navigating a dangerously skeptical …
Read More Hearts both tender and hardThis is a new iteration of a story I’ve used in talks and in earlier informal compositions. The Bible will strike most objective readers as odd, very odd. Why? Because it has so much gross content: sin, arrogance, murder, incompetence, hatred, brazen betrayals, and much more. The startled reader who takes up the book without …
Read More Parable of the capsized cruise ship