Reflections on the loving kindness of the Triune God
A man who already had his PhD warned me before I started my own adventure, “Be sure to pick a topic you can live with. If you pick something that doesn’t satisfy, you’ll pay for it!” Good advice, and advice I followed when I selected Richard Sibbes as my subject of study! Getting to know …
Read More My friend RichardThis week included two separate experiences. I read from Job and I had a vivid dream of an earthquake. Let me link them here in a single reflection on God’s greatness in the face of human self-confidence. I’ll start with the earthquake dream. In the dream I saw a hillside in motion as I …
Read More My Vivid DreamCommunity offers communion and communion builds community. It’s a circular statement, I know, but my aim is to point to the circularity–the reciprocity–of relationships. Every authentic relationship grows within the milieu of mutual exchange: we speak and we listen. We listen and we speak. We care and we receive care. Souls become bonded into a …
Read More CommunionOne certainty in life is a baby’s taste for milk. No prolonged training is needed! And it’s as true of babies in India as in Oregon . . . or anywhere else. Yesterday as I toured the Taj Mahal I noticed dozens of Indian mothers and their infants present among the throngs of tourists. The …
Read More A taste for GodIsaiah should be read relationally, as God’s heartfelt gift to us. His self-disclosure. His invitation. A resource from his heart meant to awaken our hearts. Three chapters are especially powerful. Read them and see for yourself: 52, 53, and 54. In chapter 52 the LORD speaks to his people in their captivity. First the slavery …
Read More Three chapters in IsaiahI know I need to live by faith. It goes with being saved by faith. And the size of my faith may play a role in my being saved, given what Jesus said about having faith the size of a mustard seed. I know, too, that I need to grow in faith. That’s because …
Read More Living by faithA good friend recently raised a question in light of my emphasis on the heart as the center of the soul. It was about the role of choosing. “I have heard,” he wrote, “teachers and preachers [who insist] that love is a choice.” He added some quotes from an unidentified devotional piece that I’ll offer …
Read More Choosing to rule my emotions?In my college days I spent a summer piloting a fishing boat in and around Ketchikan, Alaska. In learning the job I recall my first extended shift of piloting by myself as we traveled up from Seattle to Ketchikan. We followed the scenic but often narrow “inside passage” among the islands just off the Canadian …
Read More “In the beginning God . . .”I was once at a weekend retreat, speaking about God’s overflowing love. “This triune love,” I said, “explains the creation as God’s selfless giving of himself in a work of joy. The creation was made to receive and reciprocate that love.” I pointed, for support, to Genesis 3 where God came “walking in the …
Read More Which starting point?“Who” James asked, “is wise and understanding among you?” [James 3:13] This is in the same letter that all but began with an invitation to wisdom: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.” It’s interesting that …
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