Reflections on the loving kindness of the Triune God
Jesus always obeys his Father—see, for instance, John 5:19 and 6:38. Let’s pause and ask why. The answer we reach may just reshape our own obedience. Was the Father so much greater than the Son in his being—his substance—that a proper obedience was what the Father required of him? Did the archheretic, Arius, and his …
Read More Law, Love, and Obedience“The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answers of the tongue is from the LORD” (Proverbs 16:1). Here the author offers us God’s perspective as a basis for our own point of view. That is, of course, a key insight for faith as we enter a new year. Let me carry it …
Read More Making New Year PlansHow often do you ask questions? What kind of questions do you ask? And what’s the ratio between your queries and your assertions? I ask with an agenda: questions are the lifeblood of learning. Even more than that, questions are crucial to our spiritual growth. And too many of us aren’t growing very quickly – …
Read More The Quest of QuestionsMy generation of Christians love rationalistic debates. And one favorite debating point is the question of salvation: among professing believers who is truly saved? Whenever that question is raised claims and counterclaims fly: “You don’t have any right to judge us!” Or, “You’re bending the Bible to build your view!” And again, “Our faith offers …
Read More Truly SavedYears ago I met each week with five or six Christian men from two regional theological schools. In evangelical parlance it was an accountability group—a meeting that called for mutual reports on how we were doing in our self-designated ambitions to be holy and faithful men. Any reports of moral defeat or felt vulnerabilities in …
Read More Accountability GroupsChristians, if quizzed, will favor firm objective truth rather than loose subjectivity. If, for instance, believers are asked, “Do you know that God loves you?” most will respond with, “Yes, of course”. We can treat God’s love as an objective certainty affirmed in the Bible. But if the subjective question is asked, “Do you often …
Read More Faith and ExperienceI recently reflected on some of the main spiritual pathways found among evangelicals today. Let me identify three broad sectors and offer a brief commentary on each. It’s still a preliminary work of reflection and readers are invited to look over my shoulder to offer comments. For the full post please go to our Cor …
Read More Current Options in SpiritualityI heard recently that one of my former seminary students married a non-Christian. Despite my grimace-of-heart it’s no great surprise: such mismatches (in biblical terms) seem to be on the rise among evangelicals. And, in a separate moral commentary, premarital sexual activity by engaged believers is more and more common—and all but assumed in some …
Read More Textbooks about GodSome Christians seem to bank on salvation as the spiritual equivalent of a catastrophic health insurance policy: good for the future disaster called death but hardly related to the small matters of life in the here and now. This, I suspect, is the fruit of an approach that drew many people to profess a Christian …
Read More How saved are we?This weekend all Christ’s followers remembered his death and resurrection once again. Yet the world at large retains its smothering skepticism about our claims that he is risen. We can hardly be surprised. Even his forewarned disciples doubted the first reports of an empty tomb as when Jesus scolded two of his disciples on the …
Read More A Healthy Skepticism