Demas

This post is co-published with the Cor Deo website. I encourage you to go there by clicking here What happened to Demas? Demas is mentioned by Paul in both Colossians and Philemon. Along with Demas we find Aristarchus, Luke, and John Mark cited as a support team with Paul during the apostle’s house arrest in …

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Bonding

Relationships define us. Yet most of us share a common sense assumption that we exist as self-defined and self-directed individuals. This unshakeable premise grows out of a shared human experience: that we live and move on the basis of inward, personal deliberations. Even the quiet and private moment of reading just now can be seen …

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Leadership

My post this week was delayed because of a leadership conference in Hungary. Among those present at the “ELF” conference were some of the brilliant and powerful leaders in European and British Christian circles today. I was impressed and sometimes very moved by what was offered. And I felt some grief as well. Let me …

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Predestination?

This post has first been published on our Cor Deo site. To visit the us there please click here Predestination is a topic that can end a pleasant conversation among otherwise sociable Christians in a nanosecond. I see it, put wryly, as our Enemy’s favorite antidote to Christ’s love. There are a couple of ways …

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The Divine Last Laugh

I’m struck with the lack of overt humor in the Bible, especially given how often we readers tend to treat delight and laughter as one and the same. Yet the Bible avoids linking God to laughter even though it speaks of his delight and joy. So joy, yes, but laughter, no. Irony, yes, laughter, no. …

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Out of the World

This post has also been published at the Cordeo.org.uk website. In John 17 Jesus prayed for his own—for those the Father had given him. In praying for his own he offered a contrast between them and those who are in the “world”. The distinction can’t be missed as Jesus uses the term “world” seventeen times …

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