I will now write about not speaking too much. As a talkative person, I have had to admit that my style is not just an alternative to quietness, but a deterrent to maturity. The Bible after all urges that “he who keeps his mouth and his tongue, keeps himself out of trouble.” Saint James devotes an entire chapter to the problem of the tongue. God wants me to control my mouth and gain quietness of spirit. If I am talking,... Read more
Christianity is not a warrior religion, unless a person is God or the Holy Angels. Men cannot kill other men without fear of injustice and no man’s death is altogether good. We hate war and we pray for peace. I am not a pacifist. I think, with most Christians in most places at most times, that war is a necessary evil this side of paradise. American Christians remember any war, especially the Civil War, as a horrible lesson in the... Read more
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Real education, if you are open to it, gives you exactly this vision: Jesus, the Word of God, the personal operating system of creation, is known to you. Seeing Jesus will continually give you a vision of grace and truth . . . the two necessary elements to live successfully. A... Read more
Today is the last Torrey Honors Institute event over which I will ever preside as director. Seventeen years is a long time in a career, but seems like an educational moment. I started teaching with Genesis and seventeen years later had a last class on Revelation, so obviously I am a slow learner. And I mean to go on learning, but with seventeen years worth of lessons taught me by Torrey students. 1. Taking a risk in a discussion is... Read more
Tattoos can be beautiful and they can be ugly. Body art is art: which means it can be good or bad. Obviously, the Bible condemns any action taken to worship idols. We cannot mark our bodies for false gods any more than we can build shrines to them. Any good thing can be corrupted and most good things can be redeemed: including the tattoo. Most arguments against tattoos are utilitarian: they don’t age well or they are dangerous. Of course... Read more
The Biblical book of Acts introduces a character named Apollos. He was Jewish, like Paul, eloquent, unlike Paul, and didn’t write any world class epistles, also unlike Paul. He was the kind of guy made for television or the Net, but sadly for him the ephemeral media was several thousand years away. Apollos was “fervent in spirit” and knew truths about Jesus, but not the full story. He listened to further teaching and become a strong advocate for Christianity. In... Read more
Residents of Houston tell me they can tell I have long lived in Southern California by my use of the definite article before a highway number. One does not just drive highway five, a man motors down The Five. The definite article in danger from Twitter is evidently alive and well in So-Cal designations of roads. This says something about what we value in Southern California. Our roads are our pathway to Heaven either through the martyrdom of traffic, sometimes... Read more
My wife has beautiful eyes. Having eliminated most readers fearing a burst of Kinkade in prose, I shall now continue. My wife has beautiful eyes. As a result of this fact, I have spent twenty-six years looking at them. Close attention to any beautiful object is an education to the soul and so a good student should be able to summarize what he has learned. I have noticed that people review other great works of beauty and so consider this... Read more
Jesus is a person, not merely an idea. He is also the Divine Word, a Way, and following that “logos” wherever He leads means never resting. Orthodoxy is merely a gate to further wondering as He refuses to let even the truth become a cage for his children. Every truth constrains, but the way a door in a wall constrains. I wall through it and find more to experience on the other side. A simple implication of these truths is... Read more
No incumbent is ever hopeless. Herbert Hoover was close, but he still got almost 40 percent of the vote. Read that again. In the Great Depression, a major party did no worse than forty percent of the vote. Only the split in the GOP between Taft and Roosevelt or Dole and Perot drove the vote totals lower for a major party. We know Mitt Romney will get 46% of the vote. How? John McCain, after yelling at us to get... Read more
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