Gaining a heart of wisdom
Advent is my favorite space on the church calendar. I understand the season as preparation and a solemn but celebratory time of waiting. Lent is longer, and I find myself losing focus, but I appreciate the invitation to reckon with Christ's offering up of himself and to examine my own heart before diving into the… Continue reading Happy Pentecost! But What Does It Mean And How Do I Celebrate?
One day, I stopped apologizing for my boring salvation story. While it's true that "I once was lost but now am found," there was no dramatic Damascus Road turnaround for me, no potty mouth to disinfect or cigarettes to snuff out. The real miracle, though, was that God landed with grace in the unseen muck… Continue reading Hope for the Hearts of Saints and Scoundrels
The recent biographical movie featuring the life of J.R.R. Tolkien captures him saying, "After all, what's language for? It's not just the naming of things, is it? It's the life blood of a culture, a people." Language and the way we use it reveals our thinking and our character. The structure of a language reveals… Continue reading The Gift of Language and the God Who Speaks
Blessed are those who read Gospel conversations, divine pronouncements, and follow the trail of Truth back to the nature of God. "Greater than the Temple," "Lord of the Sabbath," His words revealed Divine Prerogatives and a set of priorities wholly out of step with the elite. No Mr.-Rogers-with-a-beard, Jesus used the sharp edge of sarcasm… Continue reading Red Letters–Fiery Words
Flannery O'Connor is known for her short stories, but she packed images large and alarming into her economical word count. Murder, road side ambushes, and the cast of grotesque characters who populated her writing reinforced her oft-quoted credo: "You have to make your vision apparent by shock -- to the hard of hearing you shout,… Continue reading New Testament Women and the Piercing Embrace of the Following Life
Shrouded in mystery, the ways of God are stitched into stories, carried on the smoke of a burning sacrifice, and sung from the heart with both joy and tears. Through promises and prophecies, God hints at a plan that will reel in rebellion and undo death and loss -- until the silence of four hundred… Continue reading Old and New Testaments: One Great Story
Reading Warren Wiersbe, I understand how my kids feel when I glance into a closet and pull out the basketball they "can't find." It was there all along, but they just didn't see it. In his writing Dr. Wiersbe pulls outlines and alliteration out of Scripture -- rather than imposing them upon the text --… Continue reading Hebrews — “Be Confident!”
Living Our Days 