A Loss for the Home Team… Or Was It?

Since January I've been working through a Church history course as part of my M. Div. program at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. Up until now in the course, it has been fascinating and exciting to watch Christianity spread from Jerusalem to places as far away as Spain in the far west and China in the far east. It's kind of like watching the home team advance in big ways. This past week, however, the home team took a major hit. Or did it?

All Our Hopes and Fears

"[T]here was more than merely hope that lay in an animal trough in a small town called Bethlehem that night the angels appeared to startled shepherds and announced the birth of a Savior, their Messiah and Lord. Something capable of instilling a fear deeper and wider than hell itself lay swaddled on top of the straw too."

Like a Letter From a Loved One

We were gathering that early evening because a few days earlier Laura had seen this video. She shared it with our friends, and they had, in turn, shared it with others, and the response was immediate and overwhelming. People were asking us how they could give money to help. The image of a grown man in tears because he hasn't eaten for two days is hard to get out of your mind.

No Time for Nuance

Laura and I lived a few houses away from a U.S. Bank branch that was burned to the ground in the wake of the rioting that broke out after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, murdered an unarmed black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis, MN, on May 25, 2020.

Truths to Build Your Life On: Open Letters to the Class of 2020, Part 3

You are not a sinner merely because you do sinful things. Though that's true. You are sinner in the first place because from the moment you were conceived in your mother's womb, you were bent in the wrong direction (Psalm 51:5). That is, your heart longed for the same independence from God that Adam and Eve pursued when they ate of that stupid fruit in the garden. You've inherited their rebellious heart and attitude, and not only that, if you were honest, you would admit that you have actively invested a lot of your time and energy into cultivating that rebellion.

Truths to Build Your Life On: Open Letters to the Class of 2020, Part 2

God's Worth is the Basis of Your Worth https://youtu.be/TAzJpm15_24 Listen to this post on YouTube. In 2017 the painting Salvator Mundi sold for a record $450 million, the highest price paid for a painting to date. As the name would infer (Salvator Mundi means "Savior of the World"), the painting depicts Jesus and has been … Continue reading Truths to Build Your Life On: Open Letters to the Class of 2020, Part 2

Truths to Build Your Life On: Open Letters to the Class of 2020, Part 1

God's Plan is Better Than Your Plan https://youtu.be/pw9TgdDul90 Listen to this post on YouTube. My dear "ninth graders," You, Class of 2020, are graduating high school during a pandemic. And there's just no other way to say it than to say that that sucks. You've missed a huge hunk of your final semester of high … Continue reading Truths to Build Your Life On: Open Letters to the Class of 2020, Part 1