Non-Violence in the Early Church *The following post is adapted from Preston Sprinkle’s forthcoming book: Fight: A Christian Case for Non-Violence (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2013), 187-207. Preston’s book is due to release on August 1. If the early church was pacifist, or close to it, would that impact your views for today? One of the most sobering things about writing a book on violence is where I’m writing from. Here I am, locked up in the confines of... Read more

What do you think about tipping? What’s a better practice? Source So I was thrilled to hear that New York City’s Sushi Yasuda recently decided to eliminate tipping altogether. Including gratuity for parties of six or more has already become relatively commonplace; in a few restaurants, like Thomas Keller’s Per Se and The French Laundry, it’s automatically added onto all checks. But Yasuda has gone one step further, dispensing with service as a separate line item — and implicitly, an “extra”... Read more

Before I get to “The Chart,” I turn to Katelyn Beaty, of CT: Many scholars have noted that “traditional gender roles”—defined as a husband working outside the home while a wife stays home with children—are a relatively new phenomenon in human history. Take, for example, the world of the Bible, wherein most husbands and wives co-labored to scrap together a subsistence living. We don’t see Boaz coming home from the fields, propping his feet on the coffee table and asking... Read more

What’s the Imitation Question? What is the one thing Paul teaches “everywhere in every church”? Paul teaches his own way of life, his “ways in Christ… everywhere in every church” (1 Cor 4:17). Thus, Jason Hood opens his excellent new book on imitation, Imitating God in Christ: Recapturing a Biblical Pattern. But that leaves the question: Where you are on the Imitation Question? Jason Hood proposes three basic approaches to the idea that we are to imitate Christ. Or, How central... Read more

Source So I stopped talking, trying to convince her of my innocence. I cried instead. I gave my reputation to Jesus to manage, as I’m not so great at doing that task. I remember the release I felt when I realized this truth about God: He sees. He sees my heart. He sees my motives (and there are plenty of impure ones mixed together in a jumble of confusion and integrity). He sees the bureaucrat’s heart. He discerns my friend’s heart.... Read more

God Speaks in Life’s Silences- 1 Kings 19  It’s called a theophany. At least that’s what the biblical scholars call it. Theophany: ‘a public presentation of God’s immediacy’ is how my bible dictionary puts it. Theophany- as in, the LIGHT that strikes the apostle Paul blind on the road to Damascus. As in the VOICE that tears open the sky at Jesus’ baptism and declares ‘This is my Beloved Son. Listen to him.’ Theophany. It’s God making himself known, in the now. Like:... Read more

Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Read more

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