It is not faith in any old God we have conjured up in our minds. It is based upon the fact that God has revealed himself in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. There one may see and know God. ‘He that has seen me has seen the Father’. God has spoken in flesh and blood. Not in philosophy, for that would leave some of us out, not in spiritual experience, because so would that, but in bones... Read more

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God is a God who challenges human faith and obedience. He is a God who can order the doings of Herod and Pilate, but he will not compel the obedience of Peter, the conscience of Levi, or the love of John. He offers himself to human beings gently and graciously, he waits for faith not fear, for love, not blind conformity. But he does wait, he does present his claim. He does challenge and respond. He does call ‘Follow me.’... Read more

Here is a nice tribute from my friend Timothy George to J.I. Packer, with whom I once took a course on the Holy Spirit at GCTS, and whom, hilariously one day came into class on the run, being late, saying ‘I’ve just been held up by the hunt. I didn’t know you had the hunt’ referring to the chasing of the fox in S. Hamilton Massachusetts by the Hunt Club, who even had installed a horse high button to stop... Read more

“THE KINDNESS AND SEVERITY OF GOD”—ROMANS 11.22 [Preached four times from 12/21/82 at St. Chads College, Durham to Bishop Auckland 8/2/87] You heard these words when they were read a few minutes ago from the Epistle. Whether you found them familiar or not, I am not so sure, unless indeed you are a theologian with Romans as a set text. I doubt whether even with theologians it is a popular text. It has perhaps some of the virtues but all... Read more

We are in the throes of football season, and one new feature of what we see weekly whether in college or Pro football is— ‘the concussion protocol’. While I would say this is a good thing in itself, if we were really serious about taking serious the data surfaced by the movie ‘Concussion’ and many medical studies, if concern for the health of the player was paramount, not secondary to all else that happens on the playing field, then it... Read more

I never know quite what to say when I’m talking sometimes to people who have lost a loved one and they say ‘well it was God’s will’, when sometimes I know that to be an errant blasphemy on the love not to say the common sense of God. Much of the suffering of life is due to human sin and to say that it is God’s will is just a lie. Of course it is not (to take just the... Read more

“Elsewhere in this letter Paul says ‘all things are lawful for me; but I shall not let myself fall into the power of any of them.’ Here is the first clue. God has given us—most of us—a rich wealth of possibilities. There is human love to enjoy, loving and being loved. There is the realm of things, things that can be bought and sold in the process of which we increase our wealth and multiply our resources. There is the... Read more

I must confess trepidation, When Fall begins to fall, Do we count the cost Of the killing frost, Or do we revel in the riot Of restless red leaves? A chill falls on the fairway, Your breath hangs in the air, But shall I celebrate the denouement Or should I even care? For the killing frost is inevitable Silently slaying summer. It’s one thing to age in a cycle And bounce right back in the Spring But alas that’s the... Read more

When people are troubled, there is always hope. I will tell you how I have seen that happen. I have seen people begin their studies in a severe self-confidence, a far greater confidence that they have settled the problems of theology than I dare admit. And I have no hope of their learning anything worth learning until they begin to be troubled, to see that the ocean of truth is a bigger thing than the parish pool they thought of.... Read more