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2 MYSTERIES
I could be wrong – I am no expert on the latest scientific pursuits – but as I understand it, there are at least two big everyday phenomena that science as yet has no explanation for: Gravity and consciousness. Is that not amazing? Both can be observed and measured, but the underlying mechanism has not been discovered in either case. They remain a complete mystery. Couple those two with the mystery of how life started and our Western confidence in science should be appropriately humbled. Christians are sometimes mocked for holding to a “God of the gaps” approach to science,…
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SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO
Lately Melissa and I have been planning a special anniversary trip. Our 25th falls this summer and we are using it as an excuse to do something we have been talking about since we met: A trip to Scotland. Once upon a time, for my entire junior year, I left Wabash College and Crawfordsville, Indiana behind and made my way to the University of Aberdeen on the north coast of Scotland. It was the 1988/89 school year. The other day I came across some letters home I wrote during that year. I guess I was pretty homesick at times and…
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BIGGER THAN A PAYCHECK
One of the few good things about February is this: it’s a great month to stay inside and read! After recently picking up Becoming Whole by Fikkert and Kapic, my boss at Mission Resource instantly became a spokesman for the book. (The subtitle is Why the Opposite of Poverty Isn’t the American Dream.) Dave recommended it to me and now I see what he saw: a striking confirmation of Mission Resource’s out-of-the-ordinary approach to poverty alleviation. The authors write, “The goal [of ministry among the poor] isn’t to turn Zimbabwe into the United States or to turn decaying neighborhoods into wealthy…
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BECOMING WHOLE
Recently, my boss at Mission Resource, Dave, got all excited about a book on the topic of effective ministry among the poor: Becoming Whole by Brian Fikkert and Kelly Kapic. The subtitle is Why the Opposite of Poverty Isn’t the American Dream. Fikkert is best known as the co-author with Steve Corbett of When Helping Hurts, a book that I found frustrating. At least in the first edition. I felt that When Helping Hurts made beneficial ministry among the poor seem so complicated, and well-intentioned-yet-harmful actions so unpredictable, that many readers would give up trying to help at all. So…
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RESCUE THEN PROSECUTE?
In looking closely at Paul’s letter to the Colossians, I am struck by the imagery used to describe what Jesus has accomplished in the lives of sinners: [The Father] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col 1:13-14) It’s an incredible metaphor: Jesus came to earth on a rescue mission – scooping up the weary, the battered, and yes the wrong-doers trapped in Satan’s dark territory and delivering them safely into the Kingdom of Light. Other images of God “rescuing”…
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GOOD, NOT PERFECT
A new friend gave me a book which he thought would complement my dissertation studies: Trent Hunter and Stephen Wellum’s Christ from Beginning to End: How the Full Story of Scripture Reveals the Full Glory of Christ. It’s a wonderful book and I will certainly quote it in my work. At a third of the way in, I have a single quibble – minor, yet important. In discussing the creation of Eve, the authors write, “A perfect Adam, in a perfect place, and in relationship with a perfect God, yet he still needs someone to complement him”. (p.77) The point…
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PURITAN HERO?
Today let’s look at a couple of vivid quotes from Puritan Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. How does this one align with your personal theology and anthropology: “The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.” Or this classic:…
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SAINTS AND THE IMAGE OF GOD
For years I have heard pastors and theologians define “holy” as a word meaning “set apart for service to God”. In the New Testament – although many today shy away from this term – the same word in the noun form is “saints” and gets applied to believers. The Apostle Paul was always writing his letters to “saints”, like those in Ephesus: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus.” (1:1) I guess we shy away from calling ourselves saints because we don’t want…
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LOST SLEEP AND LATE NIGHT GUIDANCE
My dissertation project is shaping up as a retreat geared toward high school students and young adults who desire to think through the basics of Christianity and begin a regular habit of personal Bible study. Months ago I put a date on the calendar to motivate myself to make progress on my degree. At first, the retreat was going to be this coming weekend, Friday night to Sunday morning – at a really sweet Baptist camp not far from my church. But early in January, as Trudy’s health was undeniably failing, I called the camp and pushed the retreat to…
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JESUS THE IMAGE OF GOD
When you realize the centrality of humans being created in the ROLE of “image of God” as the starting point of the Biblical story, everything in the New Testament makes a whole lot more sense – beginning with the language used in describing Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus is described as the “image of the invisible God”. (Col 1:15) According to John 14:9, “Those who have seen Jesus have seen the Father”. And Jesus repeatedly emphasized that “the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing”. (John 5:19) This is Jesus…