Aksel, our grandson, loves Thomas the Train. Kris sent him a couple of Thomas the Train books and as Annika (his mom) opened up the books and (Aunt) Laura snapped pictures, they caught Aksel in the act of being delighted in seeing Thomas. By evening, they had read him the books about 30x. Read more
This guy’s beard is weird! I have a piece in the new Neue magazine (cool pun, huh?). Sad to hear of Clark Pinnock’s Alzheimer’s (see here too). Sad to read Christine’s piece. Our prayers. Before we go any further, who’s got an iPad and what do you have to say? Southern story of father and son. A southern writer calls out a southern preacher. Good question for all of us, in whatever setting we find ourselves: “Who’s not here?” Another good... Read more
Mary Eberstadt’s new book, The Loser Letters , is clever fiction; it’s satire and it takes on the issue of the problem of “those obnoxious Christian convert traitors,” those who have left the Brights (atheists and atheism) for the Dulls (believers in God). Like Alister McGrath (by the way: The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World ). Eberstadt’s letter writer calls him “a total traitor enemy combatant Loser-lover guy” (Loser means God in this satire). What... Read more
Good Friday is often morose, but the theology of atonement it embodies is profoundly about God’s provision. As God provided the Lamb for Abraham, so he offers the Lamb for the Church. On the Cross it is as if God is showing to us the magnitude of his love and the vastness of his grace and infinity of his goodness. Perhaps this story about largess and provision from Eugene Peterson (Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ ) will... Read more
Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. From The Book of Common Prayer And from Genesis 22: God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said,... Read more
One of the best things I’ve ever heard on prayer comes from Eugene Peterson’s new book, Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ . “But here’s the thing: prayer is personal language or it is nothing. God is personal, emphatically personal: three-personed personal. When we use impersonal language in this most personal of all relations, the language doesn’t work” (156). Think about it. The Psalms is a collection of personal prayers, sometimes so deeply personal these prayers make us squirm... Read more
Psalm 2 [after jump], (Psalms, Vol. 1: Psalms 1-41 (Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms) ), is about God’s enthronement of his king on his holy hill in Zion. It is about the hybris of the pagan nations who want to conquer YHWH and YHWH’s people, Israel, and Israel’s king, the anointed one. The anointed king now speaks (vv. 7ff): YHWH told me, as he was to tell Solomon, that I could have what I wanted. Go... Read more
There are many reasons why women are underrepresented in a variety of fields – from ministry, theology, and evangelicals and the early church,, to science and engineering. While men and women often have different goals, values and abilities, these factors alone are not enough to account for the differences, or for the hurdles perceived by women who aspire to positions in these fields. The AAUW recently put out a study Why So Few? exploring reasons for the lack of women... Read more
I read somewhere that someone said Mary Eberstadt’s book, a collection of satirical letters to the upper echelon of atheists about how not to argue if they want to get some more converts to atheism … I read somewhere that someone said this is not the way to convert. This is not the way to win your argument. That her satire is shallow. And as I read her book I wonder if she’s not exposing the shallow arguments of the... Read more
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