I once asked a friend what a spiritual topic was she said, “Greed.” Wasn’t what I would have thought of… I might, however, have said something like selfishness or consumerism. We all use different words, but at bottom we all deal with the same spiritual issues. One of the things I believe liberals underestimated and […]
God calls us to more than “good,” he calls us to righteousness. Righteousness is not merely morality, but rather a state of being/living. It is where we walk down Christ’s thin road of discipleship in faith – all the while pursuing justice in our relational and institutional contexts and avoiding a type of infidelity where
Here is something that my brother Marcel from the Congo said in the middle of an interview the other day. Pretty straight talk from a guy who puts his life on the line every day as an expression of his Christian faith. (Imagine Marcel saying these words slowly and intently with a distinct French accent).
What are you dying for? Read More »
Lately, I’ve been noticing that most of the things that God created for believers are pretty unattractive on the outside. Think about it. Baptism is really really awkward. Reading the bible never seems that important or fun. Church often feels stale or sticky. Solitude is always down on our list. Fasting, by definition, is the
Velvet on the Inside Read More »
Here is a quick answer to an e-mail I received today from someone asking about how to hear from God and how we know when we’re hearing from Him or not. Learning to hear from God is a long-term thing. It really begins by meeting him in scripture, beginning to learn his character and will
Here’s the complete quote from something I read this morning at Antioch that someone asked me to post. It is from the Puritan Samuel Rutherford whose letters from prison were collected and published after his death. It is in a manner as natural to us to leap when we see the New Jerusalem as to
Before I left for vacation, I seemed to be suffering from an epidemic of misunderstandings. Misunderstandings are an interesting thing. They arise from lack of information, the wrong information, the wrong paradigm for interpreting information or, as often is the case, from different communication styles and personalities. All that sounds really sanitary, simple and not
On Being Misunderstood Read More »
I’ve been thinking the last few days about when you’re too tired to desire God. When this is the case, I think we usually focus on the desire part — I don’t desire, don’t feel like I have it in me to desire, don’t want to desire, am guilty that I don’t desire etc. The
Too Tired to Desire God Read More »
Matt Smith, Antioch’s College Pastor, and I have been having a lot of discussions this week on the nature of community and the identity of the church. Far too often, we overlook community and focus only on the function of the church. However, doing comes out of being and function follows form. Being in deep
Tape and Glue Required Read More »
One of the concepts that C.S. Lewis used regularly as a literary device was that of Mercenary Rewards. The mercenary, for Lewis, was the perfect symbol of someone who doesn’t act for true love or desire for the thing itself, but for the reward he receives – much like mercenaries don’t care about the cause
