Reflections on the loving kindness of the Triune God
Paul’s epistle to the Romans is well known for presenting the nature of faith. One commentator claimed, more broadly, that knowing Romans well will keep readers from heresy. Amen! Yet there are some interpretive shoals to navigate. Let’s consider one, in chapter 2:14-15. Competing views of this text have produced very different and competing versions …
Read More Reading RomansI’ve experienced many of the services offered by service industries. Airports, hotels, trains, car rentals, restaurants, and the like, are regular features of life lately. So here are some thoughts on how to find the best service possible. First, services are reliable: companies remain consistent in being either strong or weak. So I always pay …
Read More Finding the best serviceEverything. God wants everything we have, and all of who we are. Not more and not less. God’s ambition for us is heart-based: he wants whole hearts. That includes our mind, soul, and strength. Or, in contemporary terms, our time, our employment, our money, our devices, our attitudes, values, marriages, plans, and everything else we …
Read More “You want what?!”Are you happy? And—to press the issue—is happiness your aim in life? I ask because the answer, yes, is widespread. The classical religions and their teachers—led by Greek and Roman philosophers in particular—made happiness an ultimate value. Aristotle, for instance, was a “eudaimonist”—one who seeks goodness-satisfaction-happiness—and he made the state of happiness his measure of …
Read More Happy?Here’s a practical question that quietly divides Christians. Is Christ personally present to believers in faith? Or is he an iconic object of faith who offers us spiritual benefits from afar? Different answers change the basic shape of applied faith and explain some key distinctions among Christians. To be clear, this question differs from our …
Read More God’s PresenceWhere do we stand with God? Is he pleased with us? Are we confident about the future—sure about eternal life? Hopefully, yes, but let’s pause to think about it. And let’s ask the question in light of God as the Father, Son, and Spirit God. Justification—our engaging God’s righteousness—is a biblical linchpin for Christians. The …
Read More JustifiedIn 1509 Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam wrote a biting critique of society in his day, In Praise of Folly. Among other issues he had the corruption of the church in his cross-hairs. His satire was so engaging that even Pope Leo X is said to have enjoyed it . . . without quite realizing that …
Read More In Praise of FollyJames enjoys being with Avery. On Friday James’ family came to dinner at my place and Avery was invited too. I hadn’t met her until now but I knew of her through my visits with his family in Poland. There had been many mentions of Avery during my visits and part of the talk by …
Read More Strange SpiritualityFour boys were sitting around a bench at the local mall after school today. They weren’t doing anything out of the ordinary—just hanging out and passing time. I suspect they were actually giving each other some sense of meaning. They all looked about the same. For some reason they reminded me of my six months …
Read More Social FabricFaith is a favorite term among active Christians. Someone, for instance, may be having a crisis of faith. Another person may have just come to faith. Still another may be seeking more faith. There is also a collective term—“the faith”—that speaks of Christian doctrine as a whole. It’s an important term because faith is the …
Read More Demystifying Faith