Latest Posts
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Ancient Readers & Their Scriptures: Early Bird Registration Ends Soon!
Read more: Ancient Readers & Their Scriptures: Early Bird Registration Ends Soon!My colleague Garrick Allen and I are organizing a symposium at the University of St Andrews on 2–3 June, 2014. We’re currently still accepting abstracts until 1 February, which is also the last day for our early bird registration (more details below), so do sign up and come join us! The title for our symposium…
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God’s timing. . . . Grrr
Read more: God’s timing. . . . GrrrPhD work is difficult. You spend the first year wondering what in the world you are doing. You read and read, hoping to come across something specific on your topic that you can intensely focus on. You look for a weakness in the already existing research to exploit. This takes a lot of time and mental…
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3 Reasons Why Christians Should Be Good Storytellers
Read more: 3 Reasons Why Christians Should Be Good StorytellersI’ve recently found myself surrounded by stories – I’ve been reading them, telling them, listening to them, and living them. It all started when I read East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I had heard that it was a good story, but I was entirely unprepared for its power. I found myself lingering over numerous sentences,…
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Walk This Way
Read more: Walk This Way“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25 NIV). At some point in the past week, each member of this Smith household has benefitted from those who have gone before us, who are steps ahead of us on the road of life. My husband had the opportunity…
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I Heard God in the Midst of Suicidal Thoughts Through Community
Read more: I Heard God in the Midst of Suicidal Thoughts Through CommunityA friend made a comment about a blog post that I recently “liked” called Hearing God in the Midst of Suicidal Thoughts by Matthew Wireman on The Gospel Coalition blog. In jest, he asked if me if I was doing ok, and wanted to make sure to talk me off the ledge. In my response…
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An Open Letter to Phil Robertson
Read more: An Open Letter to Phil RobertsonHave the men of our time still a feeling of the meaning of sin? Do they, and do we, still realize that sin does not mean an immoral act, that “sin” should never be used in the plural, and that not our sins, but rather our sin is the great, all-pervading problem of our life? Do we still know that it…
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Why the “Conference Culture” Must Die
Read more: Why the “Conference Culture” Must DieCommitted Christians go to conferences. Or so the narrative goes. Christian conferences are everywhere, all the time. They are at hotels, convention centers and churches. They also come in all shapes and sizes. You can go to a big conference or a little conference. You can go to a regional conference or a national conference….
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Announcing: Ecclesia & Ethics II
Read more: Announcing: Ecclesia & Ethics IILast May we had our first meeting of the Ecclesia & Ethics conference. This conference was live, on-line, in real time via Webinar (gotomeeting.com). There were no airplane fees, no travel days, no accommodation fees, no annoying roommates, no special travel documents required, nothing like that. We simply asked that everyone make a small donation…
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Would Jesus buy a pair of Tom’s shoes?
Read more: Would Jesus buy a pair of Tom’s shoes?This week I asked my friend and officemate here at the University of Aberdeen if I could re-post a great blog he wrote about the ethics of Tom’s shoes and consumerism in a globalized world. Enjoy! Driving through Aberdeen city centre this morning I noticed a woman walking to the office in a business suit. It…
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Boys, It Is All Hell
Read more: Boys, It Is All Hell“This f-ckin’ sucks.” This is the phrase uttered over and over again by the four Navy SEALs pinned down in heavy enemy fire in Afghanistan during the firefight scenes in Peter Berg’s latest film Lone Survivor and it epitomizes the underlying thematic focus of the film. I’m not going to get into what the plot…