Category: Spiritual Formation
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Reflections on Biola’s Center for Christian Thought Conference on Psychology and Spiritual Formation
Read more: Reflections on Biola’s Center for Christian Thought Conference on Psychology and Spiritual FormationThis past weekend was Biola’s Center for Christian Thought’s Conference on Psychology and Spiritual Formation. While I didn’t get to attend the whole conference, I did get a chance to hear from some amazing and brilliant people like James Houston and Bruce Hindmarsh from Regent College, Robert Emmons from UC Davis, Ellen Charry from Princeton…
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Mind-Blowing Monks at a Benedictine Monastery
Read more: Mind-Blowing Monks at a Benedictine MonasteryGrowing up in a Filipino-American conservative Protestant church, and having parents who converted from Roman Catholicism (the prevalent religion in the Philippines) to “born-again” Christianity, I was well aware of the ways we disagreed with Roman Catholics – how our faith was about grace, and how their faith was about works. It was an “us”…
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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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A Needy Jesus
Read more: A Needy JesusToday marks the Day of the Epiphany. While Christmas has come and gone, I’m still going to post about Christ’s incarnation, to continue the reflections on His coming after being reminded by fellow Two Cities bloggers about Epiphany (See King-Ho’s post on “Christmas Eve Beyond Christmas” and Tanner’s post on “Let Christmas Continue“). For the…
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Remote Control
Read more: Remote ControlIf you happened to be sitting between rows 24 and 27 on the American Airlines flight from San Antonio to Dallas last Sunday, you might have heard the following rhyme playing repeatedly during the 38 minute flight: I’ve got a remote/ and I’m ready to roll/ making things happen/ ‘cause I’m in control! While I…
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The Shameful Company of Prostitutes, A Pregnant Teenager, and Farm Boys
Read more: The Shameful Company of Prostitutes, A Pregnant Teenager, and Farm BoysIn studying the theology of shame throughout the Bible, I’ve been noticing how Jesus came into the world in the midst of shameful company. Since the New Testament culture was a collectivist culture, where honor and status were highly regarded, honor and shame were essential parts of the society at large. From His lineage, Jesus…
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Spiritual growth through heresy
Read more: Spiritual growth through heresyThere are two ways (in my mind) in which heresy spurs spiritual growth. For the purposes of this post, I will use the word heresy in extremely broad terms. One of the ways merriam-webster.com defines heresy is: An opinion, doctrine, or practice contrary to the truth or to generally accepted beliefs or standards As I…
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Desperation, or True Worship
Read more: Desperation, or True WorshipOccasionally, I seem to think that I’ve got stuff pretty much worked out. I go through my life thinking that if I just make everybody at work happy, keep my family satisfied, advance myself somehow either in my career or educationally, if I just work hard enough or think long enough or talk with enough…
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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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The Dark Night of the Soul
Read more: The Dark Night of the Soul3 years ago, Dr. John Coe of Biola’s Institute for Spiritual Formation preached at a Biola University chapel and it rocked my world. He preached on something that I have become all too familiar with: the dark night of the soul. Now it is true that God is always present. This new covenant reality, bought…