This Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, as it is Ash Wednesday. As we enter into this season of Lent to prepare our hearts in reflection on the passion week of Christ and Easter, I think about the value of this season of lament that is found in the liturgical calendar. In recent years, I’ve come…
Edward Said’s, Orientalism (1978), was a masterpiece for its time because in it, he was able to give frame and structure to a period of history that could be referred to now as “The Age of European Imperialism”. These 500 years birthed the west as we know it, and so it makes sense why Said’s…
Stars are pretty cool. If you have ever laid out under a dark night sky to see the vibrant tapestry of the galaxy above you, you might understand how it could become someone’s captivation, one’s ambition. Such was the case for Percival Lowell. You may have heard of him. He was born into a wealthy…
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.-1 John 3:18 She is new. None of us have seen her before. A woman with a modest hijab walks into our English class for the very first time. In many ways she is out of place. She is the…
I am pleased to say that my book, Esther and Her Elusive God: How A Secular Story Functions As Scripture, is finally available for purchase. The book was endorsed by N. T. Wright (St Andrews) and Chris Miller (Cedarville), and Dr. Ronald W. Pierce (Biola) wrote the Foreword. The book can be purchased from the publisher’s website,…
For this weeks post I would like to take a couple of moments to coin a phrase. At least that was my intention before I preformed an extensive search of all available writing the world has ever known in order that I might claim this unique phrase as my own. (In other words I used…
About a month ago, I wrote a post giving reasons why I believe Christians should be good storytellers. After I had shared it on my Facebook wall, one of my close friends commented, in a joking manner, that I should have written the article as a story. While he was only making light of the…
What does it mean that the “word of God is living?” That’s a big question, but I will only focus on one part. I think that it is of fundamental importance to recognize that, in every day speech, there are two very different sorts of existence that we describe as “alive.” Before we apply the…
The other day, I was listening to Larry Mantle’s show AirTalk on my local public radio station. His guests for one of the segments that day were Michael Shermer, founder of Skeptic Magazine, and William Lane Craig, philosophy professor at Biola University’s Talbot School of Theology. Their discussion was based on the recent opinion piece…
“The grass is always greener on the other side, so water your own damn lawn!” my friend told me the other day (in the most loving way, of course). As I think about this piece of wisdom and trying to find contentment in my own life, I’m grateful for the reminder to cultivate what I…