Latest Posts
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Hufflepuff for the Gospel
Read more: Hufflepuff for the GospelEvery fan of Harry Potter has envisioned themselves as belonging to one of the four houses of Hogwarts. Ask any fan and they’ll tell you. For myself, I know I am not courageous enough to be Gryffindor and so I’ve always identified with Ravenclaw; not because I am particularly drawn to characters from Ravenclaw —…
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God in the Mosh-Pit
Read more: God in the Mosh-PitI’m not sure what I thought I would find when I stepped inside the gymnasium the last Saturday night in March. I know that I was hoping to find my sister and enjoy the show–but I considered neither of those very likely given the crowd of people crammed inside the gym and the fact that…
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Carving Thoughts Around “Crave:” Are the Longings of the Postmodern Person Really Timeless Truths of Every Soul?
Read more: Carving Thoughts Around “Crave:” Are the Longings of the Postmodern Person Really Timeless Truths of Every Soul?“Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations.” I think anyone who has spent time in the church has had a life filled with experiences where the execution of both new disciple making and disciple deepening have been found dreadfully wanting. So, how do we move forward from here? In the last few decades,…
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5 Ways to Love Gays
Read more: 5 Ways to Love GaysYou can’t love God and hate homosexuals. On the contrary, loving God means loving gays. Really, truly, honestly loving them. (Are you listening, Westboro Baptist cult?) That doesn’t mean voting “no” on Proposition 8 or waving rainbow flags in the nearest pride parade. No, biblical love for gays is far more extraordinary. It’s a Christ-centered…
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Beyond the Underground: Scripture in Society
Read more: Beyond the Underground: Scripture in SocietyA friend of mine, whom I love for his warm but temperate heart, expresses the concern that the Christian faith, once normalized in the prevailing culture, will suffer a weakened witness. In many places a normalized church has been a worldly church, and one does not wish to see (for instance) the Church in China…
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Getting the Most out of Your Bible: Gaining Insights from Genre
Read more: Getting the Most out of Your Bible: Gaining Insights from GenreSound hermeneutics requires an understanding of how communication works. The Bible, after all, is God’s authoritative communication to us. There are three components of communication: words, genre, and message. “Words” refers to what we say; “genre” to the way we say it; and “message” to the reason for saying it.[1] When we decide to communicate,…
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Lecrae’s ‘Gravity’ Reviewed and Analogized (Guest Post)
Read more: Lecrae’s ‘Gravity’ Reviewed and Analogized (Guest Post)Incapable of fully communicating the nuances of a fine wine with mere words, connoisseurs have at times resorted to using analogous terms like “tastes like a meadow” or even “tastes like a damp sock” (uh?) to describe its elusive and difficult-to-pinpoint qualities. Along similar lines, if someone were to ask me to describe Lecrae’s latest…
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The Torments of Anxiety and the Hope of Grace
Read more: The Torments of Anxiety and the Hope of GraceDedication: This article is dedicated to my lovely wife who has walked through a dark valley with me; to Dave Stelling who has counseled me through much despair; to pastor Chris Lent who has been a faithful shepherd of my soul in turbulent waters; to my family and church family (both in Colorado and Florida)…
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A Reflection: Checking Scholastic Habits with Orthodox Thinking
Read more: A Reflection: Checking Scholastic Habits with Orthodox ThinkingThis Labor Day, under the touching glow of a setting pacific sundown, invest some time reading a little primer entrusted to be by a dear friend- A Biblical Case for Natural Law, by Westminster Professor of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics David Van Drunen. You’re probably thinking this post is a review of this book.…
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The Gospel and Les Mis, Part 2 (Guest Post)
Read more: The Gospel and Les Mis, Part 2 (Guest Post)Most of the readers of this blog will be familiar with the Law/Gospel distinction that is present in the New Testament. While this distinction grew out of a particular set of controversies involving a particular law code and its relevance to a particular cultural situation (something that we Protestants often forget to our own exegetical detriment),…