Reflections on the loving kindness of the Triune God
Solomon offered us an upside-down gift. His bold curiosity—part of his famous wisdom—led him to explore both good and evil. This quest led to his confused Bible profile: a man of vast wealth, intelligence, and privilege; but also a profligate and apostate soul. So a gift he offers is a warning … of what not …
Read More Solomon’s GiftJ. I. Packer’s Knowing God is a good read, but in this entry I’ll just draw on his title. Knowing God is a key feature in life. Whatever our view of him happens to be is evident in how we live. Yet the range of views about God is vast and often vague. For many …
Read More Knowing GodTwo familiar forces in life, magnets and gravity, offer analogies for love and faith. Magnets attract anything made of ferrous metal. That attraction, in turn, sets up the magic of a generator. And gravity keeps us grounded because without it things float apart. So with gravity at work we aren’t left to chase handholds like …
Read More Magnets, Gravity, & LoveThe newspaper editorial was scathing. The writer charged insecure white evangelical Christian men in America with hypocrisy in electing a conspicuously broken president. A “morally destitute, insecure narcissist.” The writer’s thesis is that we—I’m an evangelical Christian man—made a bargain with the devil in an effort to restore our former social hegemony in the country. …
Read More Bargaining with the DevilPaul held Abraham to be the father of faith in both Romans 4 and Galatians 3. Let’s turn to Genesis 11 to 25 to see what Paul had in mind. Abraham’s story centers on God’s promise to the patriarch in 12:1-3—“Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your …
Read More Promise & PatienceWho is God to you? And more specifically, what role does the Holy Spirit have in your faith? We can agree, of course, that talk about the Spirit can be confusing. While the titles of Father and Son are familial and familiar terms, the Spirit seems more nebulous. He’s presented as one who hovers over …
Read More Spiritless spiritualityI was with Mark at his son’s college graduation—with James receiving his bachelor’s degree in computer science. At some point in the pleasant tedium of giving and receiving diplomas I started counting asterisks to see if they reached ten percent of the whole. These markers in the program noted special honors. Some asterisks indicated Cum …
Read More DistinctionsNobility is too often an orphan: an uncommon quality in local, national, or international news. And figures we have admired like Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, or Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger are now figures of the past. Even though nobility is available to all of us. I’m reading Isaiah right now and in the early chapters of …
Read More NobilityHere’s something from a college Ethics course I taught some years ago: a case study in how we do decision-making. I hope you find it useful. Most of us are informal Stoics. We view decision making as an exercise in logic and choosing. That, in turn, sets up our view of ethics—that we become good …
Read More Cleaning the GarageLet’s think about Genesis 12-16—of God’s promise of a son to Abram and Sarai. This son extended God’s blessing promise made to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15. And, as we now know, the birth anticipated a son born of Abram’s lineage centuries later: Jesus, the Son of God. The plan started badly. As the …
Read More A Problem