Part 3 of series: How Does God Guide Us? The Bible reveals that the God guides his people. Scripture abounds with examples. Some are dramatic, as in the Book of Exodus. There, not only does God direct Moses by speaking through a burning bush that is not consumed, but also God guides Pharaoh to release his Israelite slaves by sending catastrophic plagues upon the whole nation of Egypt. Sometimes God’s guidance is ironic, as when God guides Balaam through his... Read more
Spiritual guidance is a marketable commodity these days. If you’re willing to fork over a few bucks–sometimes, a few hundred–you can receive personal guidance from people who claim to have a special channel to “the spirit world.” Many of these gurus hock their supernatural wares at expensive conferences and workshops. Others have turned to the Internet. Yes, you can visit websites where, for a fee, you will receive personalized guidance that purportedly comes from some immaterial being. This “spirit guide”... Read more
As a pastor, some of the most common questions I’ve received have do to with divine guidance. What is God’s will for my life? Is God leading me to take this new job? Does God want me to marry this person? Could God be pointing me in a new direction for my life? Of course the question of how God guides us isn’t just a pastoral matter for me. Ever since I first put my faith in Jesus Christ over... Read more
Come and Listen! Psalm 66:1-20 Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he did for me. Psalm 66:16 In Psalm 66, an anonymous poet celebrates God’s awesome deeds. His example of testifying to what God has done serves as an example for the whole earth, so that everyone might join in the celebration (66:1-4). In verse 5, the psalmist invites people to “come and see what our God has done.” This “seeing” happens... Read more
As you may be aware, Texas is in an extreme drought this year. Thus, we have seen relatively few wildflowers (though I’m amazed by the fact that quite a few flowers bloomed even with almost no rain for months). In ordinary years, where rainfall is plentiful, the wildflowers are stunning. Last year, my family and I visited the Willow City Loop, a stretch of road in the Texas Hill Country, near Fredericksburg. I thought I share a few pictures from... Read more
“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” Jesus of Nazareth Luke 14:26 Yesterday, I shared here one of my Daily Reflections. It dealt with a particularly troublesome passage in the Gospel of Luke. Today, I’ll share my second reflection on this text. Yesterday, I began considering Luke 14:26 with its troubling instruction about hating our family members. I suggested that we... Read more
“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” Jesus of Nazareth Luke 14:26 In addition to blogging each day (more or less), I write a devotional known as The Daily Reflections. These reflections are published on The High Calling website and are emailed each morning to more than 15,000 people. (If you want to sign up to receive them, visit The High... Read more
Laurie Goodstein, religion reporter for the New York Times, has written a fascinating piece on a relatively new effort to increase religious tolerance in the United States. In “An Effort to Foster Tolerance in Religion,” Goodstein tells the story of Eboo Patel, a Rhodes scholar with a doctorate in sociology from Oxford, a Muslim man who is also a valued adviser to President Obama. Noting with concern the rise of intolerance among religious people, Patel decided to do something positive:... Read more
Throughout this series on the message of Jesus I’ve attempted to answer the most common and central questions people have about his message. In this final post I want to review what we have learned by summarizing my answers succinctly. I have gathered all of the individual posts on this topic into a series I’ve called: What Was the Message of Jesus? You can find the whole series in logical order by clicking on the link. If you want to... Read more
Adam Liptak explores the growing use of dictionaries by U.S. Supreme Court Justices in “Justices Turning More Frequently to Dictionary, and Not Just for Big Words.” Increasingly, justices are turning to dictionaries for definitions that help them decide legal cases: A new study in The Marquette Law Review found that the justices had used dictionaries to define 295 words or phrases in 225 opinions in the 10 years starting in October 2000. That is roughly in line with the previous... Read more
Mark D. Roberts
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