It is good to give thanks for the Lord’s grace to us, especially when we have been rescued. The psalmist, and this one is attributed to David, gives thanks to God for rescue in these words at the opening of Psalm 30: 30:1 I will praise you, O Lord, for you lifted me up, and did not allow my enemies to gloat over me. 30:2 O Lord my God, I cried out to you and you healed me. 30:3 O Lord, you pulled me up from Sheol;... Read more
It seems Christianity is taking sides. Some of it is overt and conscious while most of it seems unconscious and many are not even aware this is happening. On one side are Christians who think and believe like Jesus, and they take the Gospels as their primary (and sometimes only) source. On the other side are Christians who think and believe like Paul, and they take Romans (especially) as their primary (and sometimes only) source. As I said, many aren’t... Read more
I will be posting this a few times, but just to begin the notification process now. We will be blogging right here at Beliefnet through August 31 but on September 1 we will be at our new site. Please visit the new site below and drop a comment so we can clear your name … this will make things smoother next week. Please point your link toward the new address at Patheos, which you can visit now: http://www.patheos.com/community/jesuscreed/ And the... Read more
Yikes, Philly is starting to pressure bloggers with ads to get a license for their “business.” NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Philadelphia bloggers were abuzz this week about a citywide move to crack down on citizens running a business without a license — which includes any local bloggers running ads on their sites. The weekly Philadelphia City Paper kicked off the kerfuffle with an article spotlighting several small-scale bloggers who were startled to receive letters from the city demanding that they shell out up... Read more
Psalm 29 has a natural (and profoundly theological) progression: it begins by summoning the “sons of Elohim” (heavenly beings) to worship God, and this seems to be a way of getting all humans to see that the idols must turn in their work to YHWH. Then the psalmist declares the gloriousness of the “Voice” of YHWH. Now in the last two verses the psalmist announces that YHWH sits enthroned over all: First, the psalm describes YHWH’s enthronement: YHWH reigns over... Read more
Dinesh D’Souza, a Roman Catholic (or is he?), is now President of an evangelical Bible college in NYC: King’s College. Here are his comments from Sarah Pulliam Bailey’s article at CT: “I’m quite happy to acknowledge my Catholic background; at the same time, I’m very comfortable with Reformation theology,” D’Souza told Christianity Today. “I’m comfortable with the evangelical world. In a sense, I’m part of it.” OK, I get it that there’s more convergence today than there was five hundred years... Read more
Kenda Dean’s new book is called Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church , and I will be blogging my way through it. Her fundamental insight is back-logic: we can infer from the condition of our youth’s faith to the faith of their parents and contexts. What do we learn about the faith of the young Christians today? That they are what she calls “Christian-ish.” Do you see these five theses? Five theses: 1. Most... Read more
Is a place like Iona, the famous island off the coast of Scotland where Columba set up a monastic community, holy? Do you think some places — as places — are “thin” places? What is a holy place? How is a place holy? In his wonderfully written book, In Search of Sacred Places: Looking for Wisdom on Celtic Holy Islands , Daniel Taylor and his wife (and family) reflects on his trip to Iona. Jayne told Daniel that a certain... Read more
I’ve been blogging here at Jesus Creed for, I think, five and a half years. It began one day when an editor friend, Bob Smietana, over coffee suggested that I blog and I asked, “What’s a blog.” He told me, I marched over to my office after coffee, set up shop at Blogger and it took off … rather quicker than anything I expected. I found blogging to be natural because, as I’ve said before, I have scribbler’s itch. I... Read more
I will be posting this a few times, but just to begin the notification process now. We will be blogging right here at Beliefnet through August 31 but on September 1 we will be at our new site. Please point your link toward the new address at Patheos, which you can visit now: http://www.patheos.com/community/jesuscreed/ And the new RSS feed address is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/PatheosJesusCreed Read more
Jesus Creed
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In