Reflections on the loving kindness of the Triune God
I preached a sermon on 1 Corinthians 7 today, calling it “Marriage Matters.” The double entendre was intended. Paul addressed matters of marriage that Christians need to embrace; and the text reminds us that marriage is wonderfully important. The chapter also illuminates the weak status of marriages both in and outside the church throughout human …
Read More Marriage MattersFear holds a paradoxical status in Scriptures—it is regularly treated both as a positive and a negative; as fruitful and as destructive. Positively, wisdom is a crucial moral outcome for those who “fear the LORD”. On one occasion in Genesis God is even personified as “fear” when Jacob twice addressed his hostile father-in-law, Laban, …
Read More On fear, faith, and loveThe heart is mentioned throughout the Bible—used as a term that summarizes the motivations of both God and humanity. Anyone who reads through the Bible very boldly, say in five to six weeks—or less—will be struck by the role the heart plays in God’s conversation with his people. So much so that when I encourage …
Read More Out of the HeartCreativity is a gift. And everyone is gifted with creation. The two are united in expressing God’s overflowing goodness. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This through the Son’s creative work: In the beginning was the Word and the word was with God and the Word was God. He was …
Read More The Gift of CreationMany in the church of Corinth were enamored with style. And Apollos had style to spare. He seems to have been bright, articulate and alert to the philosophical streams of his day. In a nutshell, Apollos and his offspring are the sort of men every church wants to recruit as a speaker for their annual …
Read More The Wise FoolMartin Luther, in his 1518 disputation at Heidelberg, compared a theology of glory with a theology of the cross. Theologians of glory were—in a modern term—triumphalists. They presented God as the basis for success; and in that success they impressed people with their intelligence, their erudition and their godliness. Personal achievement and godliness were represented …
Read More The Glory of the CrossPontius Pilate famously asked Jesus a rhetorical, and probably cynical, question: “What is truth?” The context of this episode in John 18 is important. Jesus was being tried on trumped up charges by the religious leaders of the day. They knew they needed to charge him with a capital crime but nothing he had done …
Read More “What is truth?”I’m a sinner. I shared that last week. And I thank God that I now know I’m a sinner. That awareness was his gift to me that unblocked a logjam keeping me from faith. And who could have guessed that sin would be the gateway to relationship with God! What’s more, I now realize …
Read More … a sinner saved by graceI’m a sinner. And there’s no caveat coming to make it any less serious than it first sounds . . . a fact that shames and grieves me. If it weren’t for God’s mercies in Christ I would be buried by the pain of that reality. Yet in his mercy I find comfort and relief. …
Read More I’m a sinner . . .Social misconduct in the 1980’s—such as a man walking away from his marriage—was often linked to the notion of identity, as in “he’s having an identity crisis.” I’m not sure what light the label of ‘identity crisis’ actually shed on the man’s decision except to lift the onus a bit. “Not much to be done,” …
Read More An Identity Crisis