Yesterday I had the privilege of preaching on the subject of the uniqueness of Christ. I chose to begin by affirming the facts. Who Jesus was and what He did was not a myth that grew over several generations as some critics suggest. The very first followers, the eyewitnesses, were absolutely committed to the fact | Read More…
Too many Christians, I’m afraid, have the disaffected God of the Greek philosophers in mind when they pray or plan their day. The Greek versions of God are mainly about power—about having control over everything—rather than about his forming and sustaining relationships with a treasured creation. But let’s be clear from the outset that I don’t know many Christians who | Read More…
You have a chunk of time and decide to pray. Now what? Perhaps a pattern would be helpful? Now some might object that this would squelch the reality of a true relationship. Then again, when Jesus was asked how to pray, he responded with a pattern. As a young believer I was taught the A.C.T.S. | Read More…
I read a troubling newspaper article on the internet today. It was one of the “most read” items and it spoke of a Christian writer who recently announced her departure from the church. The report included a summary of what disturbed her and what, for many of us, is tragically obvious: “But judging by the | Read More…
In Bill Bryson’s book, The Mother Tongue, he suggests that one of the curses of modern English is the tendency to use jargon. He points particularly to academic and political circles and their tendency to use waffle and jargon. For example, he states, At a conference of sociologists in America in 1977, love was defined | Read More…
Lewis Ayres in Nicaea and its Legacy offers a helpful summary of the “pro-Nicene” theology of fourth century church leaders. The Council of Nicaea (in 325) set out an acceptable manner for speaking of God’s oneness while still affirming his eternal distinctions as Father, Son, and Spirit. Yet the debate over how best to speak | Read More…
Motivation matters. Let’s take, for example, the issue of global missions. Some Christians are passionately motivated to somehow participate in God’s global project, but others are much less motivated. Can this be explained by turning to the language of individual calling? That is, only some are called to take an interest in missions today? Since | Read More…
Michael Allen Gillespie in The Theological Origins of Modernity explored the contribution of Francesco Petrarch—a monumental 14th century figure—in The Solitary Life: “At the heart of this [Petrarch’s] claim [that a public life is incompatible with virtue] is his conviction that social life is dominated by the opinions and values of the multitude, who are | Read More…
The latest edition of the Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care includes a book review by Brian Owen. I’d like to share some of his wording to prompt our conversation. I won’t name the book as I haven’t read it and for this post it doesn’t matter. The book is about being an apprentice | Read More…
This site has just had a slight facelift and is gearing up for the new Cor Deo blog. Today we have stocked the shelves with a few posts from Peter and Ron’s blogs (just so we don’t have an empty blog on here!) Starting very soon we will have “conversation starter” posts on here. These | Read More…
