Coming home from classes Tuesday, I put in my CD player a brand new CD by Andrea Bocelli called My Christmas . I enjoyed it immensely — a mix of some genuine Christmas songs, including a wonderful rendition of The Lord’s Prayer (the liturgics know the Lord’s Prayer is for all seasons, including Advent), as well as typical seasonal songs. I was wondering what suggestions you would make for Christmas music? Do you like Christmas music? Since it’s about the time... Read more
In a week or two we will be making an announcement about an exciting opportunity for the Jesus Creed blog community. Today I want to quote some Bible and remind us that whether we take this verse in a more literal or more expansive sense, you and I — people of global privilege — have an obligation to care for orphans, widows and (to expand these) the marginalized and suffering and neglected. Now from James 1:27: Pure and undefiled religion... Read more
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Just a thought and a question: I don’t read newspapers anymore; we no longer subscribe; we no longer have blackened fingers; we no longer have stacks of papers in our recycle bin. We read the news online and we watch the news on TV. TV has its ads and online has its ads, but the reports I hear all the time is that ads online aren’t sufficient. Which means this: Journalists are being laid off; journalism majors are either not finding... Read more
Missional work leads at times to prison work, but not by choice. Instead of Paul feeling sorry for himself or fearing for his life, Paul and Silas praise God. I don’t think this is about the power of positive thinking as much about knowing that God’s mission is God’s work and they are but God’s missional servants. God responds to their prayers and praise with a mighty work that astounds everyone and leads to the jailor’s conversion. The jailor, astounded... Read more
I announced two weeks back that we are beginning a new series with David Opderbeck, a professor of law. He will educate us on law — should be fun. Christians and “Judicial Activism”: Viva la Revolucíon? There are few hotter flashpoints in the culture wars than the question of “judicial activism.” For Christians, the question perhaps reached a boiling point in a famous (or infamous) essay by Chuck Colson, published in the journal First Things in 1996, in which Colson stated: In America today,... Read more
Why do we have so many thereapeutic specialists? And — here’s a big one — why have so many pastors become therapeuts? Perhaps a different angle on this question: Why do so many take their “spiritual” or “psychological” problems to therapists instead of to their pastors or to others in the church community? Is the gospel supposed to be therapeutic? Is your life now “as good as it gets”? (Jack Nicholson) So, I’m very pleased that, in their new book,... Read more
Lydia responds to the gospel and offers hospitality. In strong contrast, the next woman — a demonized woman — ironically declares Paul has the gospel of salvation but her annoying declarations lead to an exorcism that shuts down her ability to tell fortunes and that lands Paul in trouble with the magistrates. 16:16 Now as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit that enabled her to foretell the future by supernatural... Read more
We began last Thursday to look at Kevin Corcoran’s book Rethinking Human Nature: A Christian Materialist Alternative to the Soul where he develops a constitution view of human persons. Professor Corcoran is a philosopher teaching at Calvin College specializing in philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion – a philosopher who tries to connect philosophy with bible, theology, faith, and science. Reading this book is something of a new experience for me as I have taken one and only... Read more
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