RSS FeedTHE PRESUMPTION IN TRYING TO EXPLAIN SUFFERING
When Job’s three friends…heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to...
GRIEF, LOSS AND DEPRESSION
Job was a man who was described as blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. Yet a combination of natural disaster and human depravity devastated his life. The Sabeans attacked and carried off his livestock. Lightning burned up his sheep. Chaldeans...
LOVE ALWAYS HOPES
Love always hopes (1 Corinthians 13:7) because love sees possibilities where none seems to exist. Love always hopes because love never despairs. Love is not dependent on the fulfillment of immediate expectations. Love takes the long term point of view. Love will not...
LONG LIFE AND DEATH
I have recently read the two volume letters and memories of Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) published in 1890. Kingsley was an Anglican clergyman who wrote the popular novels Westward Ho, and Water Babies, was an accomplished naturalist, a professor of Modern History at...
THORNS IN THE FLESH
New York Times writer David Brooks, began his book The Road to Character by contrasting résumé virtues and eulogy virtues. The résumé virtues are the ones you list on your résumé that contribute to external success. The eulogy virtues are deeper. They are the virtues...
THE VICTORY OF FAITH
Hanging on the wall in my office beside my desk is the shield of arms of my college in the University of Durham: St. John’s College, where I did my post-graduate studies in theology. Below the crest is the motto of the college in Latin: FIDES NOSTRA VICTORIA, Our...
WHO IS GOD?
If I were to ask you to tell me about yourself, what would you say? Where would you begin? Would it be with your origins, your career, where you lived, your family, your interests, your major challenges, crises, your strengths? “Who am I” is a big question. If you ask...
PENTECOSTAL POWER
At his Ascension Jesus promised the disciples that “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses… to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8). When the day of Pentecost arrived a mighty rushing wind and tongues of fire rested on...
THE GOSPEL OF THE ASCENSION
The Ascension: Rembrandt The Ascension of Jesus is celebrated on the 40th day after Easter Sunday (Acts 1:4). Because it is always a Thursday it tends to be overlooked and neglected. Yet the Ascension of Jesus is the culmination of his earthly life. It confirms his...
MEMORIAL DAY – WAR IN THE BIBLE
On Friday, April 9, 2004, the Florida Times-Union ran on its front page an arresting photograph of ten U.S. Marines praying while standing and kneeling around a fallen comrade in Fallujah, Iraq. On Sunday, April 11, the newspaper ran Tony Perry’s commentary on the...
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