Kris and I grieve today after hearing that my teacher and former colleague, Grant Osborne (1942-2018), passed away in his sleep last night. We offer consolations to Nancy and to Amber and Susanne. Grant, famous for his extensive handouts and dialogical classrooms, began his career in Canada and came to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 1977 when I was a student. I believe I was in the first class he taught, a class on the Gospel of Matthew. (Did I... Read more

Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your gift that your faithful people offer you true and laudable service: Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen. BCP Read more

Gotta love Bill Murray, and this pic just may well be a good morning laugh. Tonight, Daylight Savings: People in the United States will feel a bit more refreshed on November 4 as daylight saving time 2018 ends. The clocks fall back at 2 a.m. ET on Sunday, ushering in three months of getting up in the dark until the winter solstice welcomes back the sun on December 22. You’ve probably heard that Ben Franklin kind of proposed daylight saving time (also erroneously called... Read more

By Mike Glenn With my brother and I, it would always start small. One of us would poke the other. The other would steal a favorite toy. There would be an initial name call and an open-handed slap. That would lead to a push which would bring a shove and then, fists would start flying and furniture would get broken. Our parents would send us to our rooms and we would have time to think about what we had done.... Read more

I believe in … the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, Earlier this year my husband and I took a trip to Germany and visited a number of churches as well as Veste Coburg and Schloss Wartburg where Luther spent time when the Protestant confession was being debated.  He worked on his translation of the Bible into German during this time. Travels around the world and immersion in the history of the Christian church drive home the importance of... Read more

Reuters: An unprecedented 31.3 million Americans plan to costume their pets this year. The largest group of these are millennials aged 25 to 34, the National Retail Federation said. “Spending on pet costumes alone is expected to reach $480 million,” said NRF spokeswoman Ana Serafin Smith. Dog skeletons are showing up in ghoulish decorations. Sales of bony decorations modeled on breeds ranging from Chihuahua to Doberman have grown 18 percent since the decorations were introduced in 2014, said spokeswoman Michelle... Read more

By T Following the most recent bomb attempts on several of the President’s critics, President Trump said several things that are typical for presidents during times like this of national tragedy caused by horrible violence. He called for unity and civility, though he was, within days of the bombs being intercepted, back to calling the media the enemy of the people. But at a rally following the bomb attacks, he made an equally telling statement, and it made me wonder... Read more

You Are What You Speak: When Politics Becomes a Holy War, People Get Hurt and Sometimes Killed, by Allan Bevere No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces... Read more

By my friend Allan Bevere: In this post, I am not really offering any new insights or a new perspective. But I decided to post on this subject because I think it is important to make the case once again that the so-called Wesleyan Quadrilateral (as has been said many times) is neither Wesleyan nor a quadrilateral, even though we UMs continue to employ it. The fact that we do so reveals we are much less Wesleyan than we in actuality... Read more

There is a history of interpretation and re-interpretation in the church’s reading of Revelation. Many American evangelicals, and those throughout the world where American evangelicalism’s pet themes have been exported, have learned to read Revelation through the lens of dispensationalism and rapture theories. This approach has compelled many to discover a worldview or adopt a social, historical hermeneutic that makes sense of the world in which we live.  A good book on how theologians and others in the history of... Read more