It all begins with God — what we think about God shapes what we think about ourselves and those around us and our world. It begins with God. James Bryan Smith, in The Good and Beautiful God: Falling in Love With the God Jesus Knows (The Apprentice Series) , helps us think about this. God is trustworthy. “The God Jesus reveals would never do anything to harm us. He has no malice or evil intentions. He is completely good. …... Read more
My heart, for instance, jumped when I recently re-read Dante Alighieri’s (whom a Texan friend refers to as “Danny, Ally, and Gerry”) The Divine Comedy, which title takes some brushing up against some intelligent folks to comprehend. I liked Dante, but he led me to read Virgil (whom the urbane spell as Vergil), who wrote the even more noble The Aeneid. Virgil beckoned me to begin again with the great epics from Greece, Homer’s The Iliad and his even better... Read more
We come to the end: James 5:19-20: My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring them back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the way of error will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins. The book ends on an unexpected note: wandering, if not apostasy, and the pastoral summons to bring the wandering back. Here are my observations about this text: (more…) Read more
The July/August issue of Books and Culture contains an interview by Karl Giberson with Francis Collins on his views of science and faith – now available on line: Evolution, the Bible and the Book of Nature. Here is a brief taste of the article – read the whole – better yet subscribe! (pictures from wikipedia) On the general approach Collins takes to issues of science and faith: Giberson: You take both the Bible and evolution seriously. Did the harmony you... Read more
Long ago an English writer announced that our God was too small — and he then listed the ways that Christians generally have bad ideas about God. James Bryan Smith, in The Good and Beautiful God: Falling in Love With the God Jesus Knows (The Apprentice Series) is arguing something like this when he suggests we take a deeper look at our “false narratives” that are shaping our lives. God is good. Smith tells a story when his faith in... Read more
This is an unpublished essay I wrote a few years back and want to post it this and next week while we are in Italy wandering from one Tuscan village to another. Enjoy… Never Alone “…the truth that reading and its necessary twin, writing,constitute not merely an ability but a power.”— Jacques Barzun “Every old man complains,” so said Samuel Johnson, “of the growing depravity of the world, of the petulance and insolence of the rising generation.” Old Professors of... Read more
James explores healing through prayer and anointing. What he urges, and here we clearly hear resonances of faith in James 1:6-8, is to pray in faith — to pray trusting that God can heal and that God will heal. Here are James’ words: And the prayer offered in faith will make them well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so... Read more
Another post from my colleague, Mary Veeneman, based on a book by Harper and Metzger. Let’s hear what you are thinking about church discipline. When I was in college, I had a professor who had previously been a full-time pastor. In a discussion on ecclesiology one day in class, the subject of church discipline came up. Our professor told us that in the church he had led as pastor that he would contact the former church of anyone who sought... Read more
A wonderful German scholar once said, “The first and the final thought of Jesus was thought about God.” (I translate.) That theologian, Adolf Schlatter, gets it exactly right: what you think of God matters most. So I want to begin a new series and we’ll use James Bryan Smith, The Good and Beautiful God: Falling in Love With the God Jesus Knows (The Apprentice Series), as our launching pad to think more about God, to think more about what we... Read more
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Pastor’s Bookshelf: 1-2 Thessalonians
This week’s version of Pastor’s Bookshelf is commentaries on 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Because it’s my old stand-by, I turn first to F.F. Bruce, 1 & 2 Thessalonians (Word Biblical Commentary) (Vol. 45) but there are two recent commentaries that shake things up: Charles Wanamaker, The Epistles to the Thessalonians: A Commentary on the Greek Text (New International Greek Testament Commentary) . Abraham J. Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians (The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries) . Then I turn to... Read more