Reflections on the loving kindness of the Triune God
Let me revisit an important question. Is a distinct conversion always part of an authentic faith? Or in a day to come will professed believers who lack a decisive conversion hear the Lord say, “Depart from me. I never knew you.” As a starter, we must never take on God’s role. If someone claims to …
Read More A Lively QuestionLet me return to a familiar topic but this time with a new facet in view. How does our Trinitarian faith touch on the question of passions? A book recommendation from a friend stirred my question. C. Kavin Rowe, in his One True Life: The Stoics and Early Christians as Rival Traditions, affirms the traditional …
Read More In Defense of PassionJonathan Edwards (1703-58) offered some unique and helpful insights about the Holy Spirit in his “Treatise on Grace.” Right now I’m reading Robert W. Caldwell’s study, Communion in the Spirit: The Holy Spirit as the Bond of Union in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards, where he probes the “Treatise” in his second chapter. As Edwards …
Read More Broken LoveI was in Ethiopia last month to observe and support a Christian “follow-up” ministry. The leader, Rich, was a Bible translator in Nigeria for many years. After translating the New Testament into a regional language he spotted a problem. Many new converts brought along their old ways of worship to their newfound Christianity. So for …
Read More The Demonized LadyRichard Sibbes, my favorite English puritan (1577-1635), treated human salvation very much as Martin Luther had done in Saxony a century before—mainly as a function of ontology. It shifted the focus away from the more judicial notion of salvation common in his day. In the judicial view Jesus took up the Father’s judgment against sin—death—on …
Read More Three unionsWhat makes one person more successful than another? It’s a hard question. I can think of my high school classmates, for instance. Back then the school “annual” picked a pair of students as “the most likely to succeed.” So at a recent class reunion I asked about Steve, one of the select pair. Was he …
Read More A hard questionMost of us have seen TV documentaries that feature flocks of starlings whirling through the sky as a single dynamic body. It’s called a ‘murmuration.’ There are other examples, like a ball of sardines swimming together in tight formations to escape ocean predators. Herds of migratory animals—buffalo and Wildebeests—also display complex group movements on land. …
Read More MurmurationsNote: In this entry I’m repeating parts of an earlier entry (8 May 17) with a slightly different take that comes from a closer look at Exodus 17. Both are about ‘connecting dots’ … I hope it’s not a distraction! Which life adventure is the best of all options? Would you think of climbing Mount …
Read More The Great AdventureRuss, my stepfather, struggled with Parkinson’s related tremors in his last five years of life. Near the end he couldn’t eat without help, or handle his phone, or use a keyboard. He knew what he wanted his hands to accomplish, but his body betrayed him. His struggles were like many churches today. The ultimate head …
Read More Working TogetherIn Deuteronomy 8 Moses warned Israel against self-confidence. He reminded them of God’s manna for forty-years. The key benefit of manna was that it kept them alive. The drawback was that it was dull and predictable. So the ancient Israelites asked, why such a dull diet? God answered through Moses. It was “that he might …
Read More Connecting Dots