Growing

All of us are still growing.  As adults we don’t pay as much attention to growth as we did as children.  Back then our too-small shoes or too-short trousers were regular clues.  But now as adults it takes a promotion at work or a graduation ceremony to remind us that we’ve moved on from an …

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Demas

What happened to Demas? Demas is mentioned by Paul in both Colossians and Philemon.  Along with Demas we find Aristarchus, Luke, and John Mark cited as a support team with Paul during the apostle’s house arrest in Rome.  We can guess that Demas, like the other men, was a young convert whose response to the …

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A Scottish Gift

This weekend I flew up to Glasgow for a reunion with Brian and Scott.  I first met Brian almost a decade ago when he was a student at the theological college where I was teaching.  He is now the lead pastor in a church known for its commitment to Bible read-throughs.  I had to see …

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Predestined?

Predestination is a topic that can end a pleasant conversation among otherwise sociable Christians in a nanosecond.  I see it, put wryly, as our Enemy’s favorite antidote to Christ’s love. There are a couple of ways to address predestination—the “P” word.  One is combative: to set up opposed creedal havens.  A second—one with lots of …

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Discipline and the Disciplines

In a talk at Saturday’s Delighted by God conference I mentioned my dismay with the “spiritual disciplines”.  Later someone asked about it.  It’s worth talking about. In the Gospels—in Christ’s ministry—we just don’t find a promotion of the disciplines.  By disciplines I mean a systematic elevation of spiritual exercises such as enforced silence; extended prayers; …

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Out of the World

In John 17 Jesus prayed for his own—for those the Father had given him.  In praying for his own he offered a contrast between them and those who are in the “world”.  The distinction can’t be missed as Jesus uses the term “world” seventeen times in his prayer!  We will do well to pay attention. …

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Jeremiah’s Complaint

Jeremiah, the 7th century BC prophet, had a tough job.  God called him to tell his family, friends, and neighbors in Jerusalem how wrong they were.  Their views of God, destiny, and personal security were case studies in denial.  They needed to face reality and Jeremiah was there to supply that reality.  But they refused …

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Triune Intimacy

Years ago, on my first day at Kibbutz Dovrat in Israel, I was walking across the lawn to find my newly assigned room.  Off to my right a young boy—probably 4 or 5 years old—shouted to a man who was walking ahead of him, “Abba, Abba!” It was my first chance to hear a native …

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Defining Deity

On Saturday I had some good reading time on a train to and from London.  On my lap?  A book by Donald Bloesch, God the Almighty, that begins with a survey of the 20th century theological landscape.  In a chapter on various attempts to define God he noticed views of deists, pantheists, panentheists, classical theists, …

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Union and Communion

As I write this on Sunday evening I’m reflecting on this morning.  With Jon and Rob of our Cor Deo group this year we were privileged to join Huw and Alison at the International Church of Turin.  Huw is a Cor Deo alum from last year and now pastors the Turin church.  We had a …

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