Reflections on the loving kindness of the Triune God
The Bible is a faith-producing book. As we read it boldly and regularly it generates a response: a growing confidence in God and, with that, a sense of entrustment. The Bible is also brutally honest. It tells stories of misguided faith and un-faith. For the faithful reader those stories help in navigating a dangerously skeptical …
Read More Hearts both tender and hardThis is a new iteration of a story I’ve used in talks and in earlier informal compositions. The Bible will strike most objective readers as odd, very odd. Why? Because it has so much gross content: sin, arrogance, murder, incompetence, hatred, brazen betrayals, and much more. The startled reader who takes up the book without …
Read More Parable of the capsized cruise shipClive Cowell makes his debut on Spreading Goodness by offering a reflection stirred by a posting by Peter Mead on January 4 (a second offering by Peter was posted on February 15). Clive is a dear friend who presently serves as the Executive Director of the Bible Institute of Hawaii. Read and enjoy! My …
Read More The beauty of divine conversationThis is a revision of a post I first offered a few years ago for the Multnomah University website that maintains Alumni connections. Years ago, long before today’s satellite GPS—global-positioning-systems—the standard way for navigating boats of any size through inland waterways was to combine a set of resources: the boat’s radar, its magnetic compass, …
Read More Navigating by faithFifteen years ago last Tuesday the killings started. In just 100 days almost a million people were killed. Nearly two thousand years ago last Friday God’s Son was killed. The conjunction of the two remembrances in one week was striking to me even though the events are distant from each other in time and scale. …
Read More Genocide and the CrossThe psalmist, David, began Psalm 138 with a resounding peal of praise: “I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart!” In the stanza immediately following he spoke of bowing down toward the Jerusalem center of worship—to the tent where the ark was located. But it wasn’t this temple that stirred his worship, …
Read More The name and word of GodThe prophet Jeremiah was told by God to buy some property from his cousin Hanamel even though God had already promised him that the city would soon be overrun by the Chaldeans. Jeremiah responded with a remarkable statement: Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who has made the heavens and the earth by your …
Read More Is anything too hard for God?Jeremiah Burroughs, a 17th century Puritan pastor, spoke of contentment as a rare jewel. It’s something experienced by some but not all. A paradox he also noted is that for Christians true contentment will always leave us dissatisfied. He unfolded one side of this mystery but left the other side undeveloped. Both are important and …
Read More A dissatisfied contentmentAs I’m traveling myself I recruited Mark Nicklas, a pastor in Beaverton, Oregon, and good friend to share from his own heart for God. As you will read here, we once shared in a 4-month Bible read-through together, sharing with me the pleasure I always find there. I’m pleased to have him fill the post …
Read More I hear voicesI preached a sermon on 1 Corinthians 7 today, calling it “Marriage Matters.” The double entendre was intended. Paul addressed matters of marriage that Christians need to embrace; and the text reminds us that marriage is wonderfully important. The chapter also illuminates the weak status of marriages both in and outside the church throughout human …
Read More Marriage Matters