Fall is my favorite season that, for me, culminates with Thanksgiving. Amidst its vivid and profound themes of color, beauty, and change, are fun things like A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day—one of my daughter’s and my favorite holiday traditions and something we now share with her two boys as well. As I write … Read More
Defining Christian Nationalism, 1 of 2
I was finishing tiling her floor when my friend, Margaret, asked me “What is Christian nationalism?” She had seen the term referenced in this Mantua Creek story of impact from last year: “When we first started coming, I was questioning if there was a place for me in the evangelical church. I was discouraged by the rise of Christian Nationalism … Read More
More on Knowing God as Father
Many feel that David Bently Hart’s That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation is the best case in our day against an everlasting hell and for universal salvation. Although I can’t tackle these important questions here, I do want to take issue with Hart’s oversimplification of God’s fatherhood in the quote below, as well as his misapplication … Read More
Eagle Powers for Christmas?
“But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13, NRSVUE) We know well that worship is at the center of the Christian celebration of Christmas. As … Read More
How Parenting Teaches Us About God’s Heart
To all the fathers out there, Happy Father’s Day! In the Bible, what is said about God often makes use of what theologians have traditionally called anthropomorphic language; that is, language that speaks of God in human terms. For example, we might talk about “the eyes of the Lord” or “the long arm of the Lord.” Other places in Scripture … Read More
Getting Involved in Spiritual Transformation, Part 2 of 4
“…but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.” Psalm 1:2, NRSV Stepping away from polluting voices is the first step in getting involved in spiritual transformation, but it’s only the beginning. We need something to take the place of those polluting voices; that is, something that will strengthen our … Read More
Is the Essence of God Love?, Part 3 of 3
I mentioned last week that, in scripture, predestination is a positive doctrine (e.g. Eph. 1:4-5 says, “In love he predestined…”) and should be applied pastorally like the following: “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day … Read More
Is the Essence of God Love?, Part 2 of 3
Growing up, movies like The Burning Hell made me think God was more wrath than love, and then, detoxing from that, I spent another thirty-five years believing love and wrath were both attributes of God. In viewing John’s plain statement that “God is love,” I stood with good-hearted teachers that said things like “certainly love is a very important attribute … Read More
Is the Essence of God Love?, Part 1 of 3
Fatherhood—including now being “Papa” to my grandson, Emmett—has provided me with powerful testimony to a loving God who, in Christianity, reveals Himself as “Our Father.” I shared this story about the first time I heard my then two-year-old son, Matthew, tell me he loved me and received this note from a friend: “IMHO, you are probing, without saying so in … Read More
Why I Believe in a Loving Creator
Let the godly sing for joy to the LORD;it is fitting for the pure to praise him…The LORD merely spoke,and the heavens were created.He breathed the word,and all the stars were born.He assigned the sea its boundariesand locked the oceans in vast reservoirs.Let the whole world fear the LORD,and let everyone stand in awe of him.For when he spoke, the world … Read More
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