Our Common Prayerbook 25 – 5

Last updated on: August 3, 2010 at 11:53 am By Scot McKnight

Our theme for Psalm 25 is that prayer is soul-ish wandering. Soul-ish wandering begins in one place and the spirit and soul wander from place to place and from thought to thought while in God’s presence. One could say that genuine prayer often meanders from one thought to another. The psalmist shifts from Torah-observance-blessing and reverence-of-YHWH reflection (vv. 12-14) to a first person confession of dependence on YHWH. Soul-ish wandering now gets more personal. I like Goldingay’s translation of Psalm... Read more

Evolution in the Key of D: Direction (RJS)

Last updated on: September 17, 2011 at 7:15 pm By RJS

We have taken something of a detour the last several weeks, but I would like to get back to John F. Haught’s book Making Sense of Evolution: Darwin, God, and the Drama of Life. One of the common complaints about evolution from the point of view of faith is its purported rambling waste and its meaningless wander. One of the aspects stressed by evolutionary materialists is its purposelessness and contingency. Haught suggests that both of these are off the mark... Read more

Love believes all things

Last updated on: August 3, 2010 at 12:05 am By Scot McKnight

What does the apostle Paul mean in 1 Cor 13:7 when he says Love “believes all things”? Everyone who has ever commented on this verse qualifies it with this: Paul is not saying be gullible or foolish or believe anything and everything. Still, the line is powerful one: “love believes all things.” Those who know Greek may remember that Paul begins everything in v. 7 with the Greek word panta (all things or always). So, in English it can look... Read more

Galli on God-Talk

Last updated on: August 2, 2010 at 1:54 pm By Scot McKnight

I liked this piece by Mark Galli, at Christianity Today, and clip a bit from it. We’ve got problems today about how we talk about God … some are altogether too irreverent, others are so reverent they aren’t even biblical, and yet others are so imaginative they are no longer biblical. Galli ventured recently into the re-use of the riskiness of the Bible’s metaphors and comes back with this piece that shows the bounds and freedom of our God-Talk. (Mark,... Read more

Our Common Prayerbook 25 – 4

Last updated on: August 2, 2010 at 12:41 pm By Scot McKnight

Our theme for Psalm 25 is that prayer is soul-ish wandering. Soul-ish wandering begins in one place and the spirit and soul wander from place to place and from thought to thought while in God’s presence. One could say that genuine prayer often meanders from one thought to another. Psalm 25:12-14 lands the meanderer in the realm of the theme of “fear of God” though the NetBible, which we quote after the jump, focuses on being faithful or loyal. Goldingay’s... Read more

Imagine a World 4

Last updated on: August 2, 2010 at 6:10 am By Scot McKnight

Imagine a world — at Jesus’ invitation — where God is good, where God’s people come to him with their requests, and where God responds to them. Imagine a world where God is good, where God is gracious, where God wants to respond to the needs of his people. Imagine a world where God trust God and so go to him with their needs. The Parable of the Friend at Midnight (Luke 11:5-8; after the jump), which is sometimes read... Read more

Evangelicalism’s Radical Diversity 5

Last updated on: August 2, 2010 at 12:00 am By Scot McKnight

Secularists seem to be giddy about the demise of Christianity in the world, and some evangelicals are wringing their hands in despair about the decline of the Church and even the collapse of evangelicalism. But as Steve Wilkens and Don Thorsen say their new book, Everything You Know about Evangelicals Is Wrong (Well, Almost Everything): An Insider’s Look at Myths and Realities , there’s a major mistake here: “Their world … overlooks a few continents, namely South America, Africa and Asia.” What does... Read more

The Power of a Whisper

Last updated on: August 1, 2010 at 2:13 pm By Scot McKnight

I’ve heard our pastor, Bill Hybels, speak of whispers and promptings from God for years, and so I’m glad to see that he has put together all of his thoughts on whispers from God in his newest book: The Power of a Whisper: Hearing God, Having the Guts to Respond . People get nervous about this subject. Many have stories of stupid things people have done because “God told them to do something.” Some have stories of where they thought... Read more

Prayer for the Week

Last updated on: August 1, 2010 at 12:03 am By Scot McKnight

Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Read more

Saturday Afternoon Book Review: Michael Thompson

Last updated on: July 31, 2010 at 1:42 pm By Scot McKnight

Reggie McNeal, Reggie McNeal, Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church (Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Series) (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009). Reviewed by Michael C Thompson, who blogs at Grasshoppers Dreaming. Sitting at a recent church conference at which Reggie McNeal was the featured speaker, I remember this excited and humor-filled preacher unapologetically declare, “The church doesn’t have a mission; the mission has a church.” I knew immediately that what he had said was right, and that it would require a... Read more