Eugene Peterson, in his new book, Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ  examines the poetic significance of Ephesians 1:3-14, one long, long sentence in Greek — and it’s all about God. (I post the passage after the jump.) “201 nouns and verbs, adverbs and adjectives, prepositions and conjunctions cascading off Paul’s pen!” (55). The passage is about God, and it reminds me of this question:  How can we learn to be better “theo”centric Bible readers? How can we... Read more

My friend, a pastor and a professor, Allan Bevere, keeps up with the political stuff better than I do, and this post is one worth citing in whole. Allan calls into question the prominence of empire language when Bush was President and the near absence of such empire talk under Obama. Is “empire” code language for anti-conservative politics? I know I am not the only one who has noticed that all the Christians comparing the USA to the Roman Empire... Read more

Remember again what legalism is: Legalism is any practice or belief that is added to the gospel that compromises the sufficiency of Christ as Savior and jeopardizes the adequacy of the Spirit in moral guidance. Legalism then is the charge against you or me, often sensed at the deepest level, that we are not accepted by God in Christ and indwellt by the Holy Spirit. What role do the “authorities” play in legalism’s power? And Paul’s letter to the Galatians... Read more

The question, what do you do after you believe, is the subject of Tom Wright’s new book: After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters . How do we combine the grace of God with the efforts of humans to grow in that grace? Are the “spiritual disciplines” efforts in grace-growing? For readers of Dallas Willard’s book, one of the major ideas in Tom Wright’s newest book will be familiar: we get from where we are to transformed character through the... Read more

Sad news today posted at iMonk’s blog by Chaplain Mike. Our prayers are with him, with Denise and family, and all those who know and love Michael Spencer. Chaplain Mike received this update from Denise Spencer today. It is with a heavy heart that I bring my latest update on Michael. We have learned that his cancer is too advanced and too aggressive to expect any sort of remission. Our oncologist estimates that with continued treatment Michael most likely has... Read more

Glenn Beck has now urged folks to get up and leave their church if the church website mentions “social” or “economic” justice.  Here are his words: I’m begging you, your right to religion and freedom to exercise religion and read all of the passages of the Bible as you want to read them and as your church wants to preach them…are going to come under the ropes in the next year. If it lasts that long it will be the... Read more

Eugene Peterson, in his new book, Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ  explores the significance of the Ascension for the Church. Ephesians 4: 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 4:8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he captured captives; he gave gifts to men.” 4:9 Now what is the meaning of “he ascended,” except that he also descended to the lower regions, namely, the earth? 4:10 He, the very one who descended, is... Read more

This is our first post in a new series on Tom Wright’s newest book, and today I want to settle on his central question and his central answer.  The central question Tom Wright asks in his new book, a book that belongs with Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense and Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church , is this question: What are we here for (after we believe)?  That is, what is life... Read more