Reflections on the loving kindness of the Triune God
I prepared to speak on wisdom in the Bible book of James this week. In the process I reflected on how little I hear wisdom mentioned these days. People may be called clever, brilliant, silly, or more, but rarely are they called wise. I wonder why. Is it because of shifting language use? Certain words …
Read More Wise?This post repeats an entry on the Cor Deo website. Please post any responses on that site by clicking here Richard Sibbes, my favorite 17th century mentor, shared, “Whatsoever we do [in our responding to the Scriptures] if it be not stirred by the Spirit, apprehending the love of God in Christ, it is but …
Read More Collecting, Cooking, or Communing?How do we exist as persons? Are we free individuals? Are we limited cogs in a broad social mechanism? Are we elements of a larger organism? Or perhaps something else? Are we able to define our own place and meaning in life, or is it somehow defined for us? The Bible is happy to answer …
Read More PersonsThis post repeats an entry offered on the Cor Deo site. Please offer any responses by clicking on that site, not here. Thanks! A benefit of moving from time to time comes in seeing things in a new light. Life in Spokane, Washington, for instance, was dramatically different for me as a teenager than life …
Read More A New PerspectiveThe lady was angry. “You don’t tell me what I’m expected to do! All you do is talk about God!” It was an awkward moment. I had preached that morning with heartfelt commitment to the Christ-centered focus the text offered. And beforehand I had prayed for God’s gracious presence to be among us touching hearts. …
Read More The Lonely SpiritThis entry repeats the leading entry on our Cor Deo site. If you would like to respond please click to go to that site: thanks! Cor Deo The 17th century Puritan preacher, Richard Sibbes, was brilliant in his exposure of the human condition: “Oh! We should dismount from the tower of our conceited excellency. The …
Read More Our ConceitHow do caterpillars turn into butterflies or tadpoles turn into frogs? The term we use for the change is metamorphosis. With that in mind I was intrigued years ago by a study I did on Christ’s transformation on the Mount of Transfiguration. I found that the underlying Greek word for the transfiguration comes from the …
Read More ChangedThis post has been written for the Cor Deo website (to go there, click here ). Please offer any remarks on that site. Thanks! Sitting in a busy coffee shop in downtown Chippenham as lots of ordinary folks stroll by I’m reminded of a movie title, “Ordinary People”. It was an ironic title because the …
Read More Ordinary PeoplePaul started his letter to the Corinthians with a stark appeal: stop elevating people and pay attention to Christ! Who were the competitors to Christ among Corinthian Christians? None other than Paul and, with him, Apollos and Peter. Let’s review this cluster of Christ’s Corinthian competitors. Paul founded the church in Corinth so he had …
Read More ApollosThis post “belongs” to a shared Cor Deo site. Any responses are welcomed on that site, please. To go there, click here What do we think about in our free moments? What delights us? And what worries us? I’m not asking about the immediate thoughts and concerns stirred by our latest circumstances but the deeper, …
Read More Maslow’s Mistake