Disputable matters. Yuck. They had them in the 1st-century church: for example, when it comes to meat sacrificed to idols, to eat or not to eat? As for the Jewish calendar, to observe or not (and which days and why)? As for circumcision…, well, ahem, you get the idea. And we have them in the […]

Read More On meat, music & masks: dealing with disputable matters

It seems like everywhere I turn, I learn of fellow sisters and brothers in conflict with one another. It’s actually not true, but it sure feels that way. I know it’s not true, because I can look at a number of churches who by God’s grace have prayerfully, graciously and wisely navigated a number of […]

Read More The first thing I forget in conflict: who the real enemy is

All three are easy to do, effective, and are in fact three facets of one single thing: reading. A Stanford University study beginning in the first half of the 20th century followed nearly 1,500 men with IQs in the top 1%…for fifty years! It found that even within this seemingly elite group there was a […]

Read More 3 Big Ways to Love our Kids

One of my heroes–or heroines, I should say–in the field of New Testament studies is Morna Hooker. She served as the Lady Margaret’s Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge from 1976-1998 and, if memory serves, is professor emerita. While I was pursuing a degree there, she often attended the various seminars and occasional […]

Read More Three Key Words Today’s Experts Can’t Seem to Say

The other day I was driving somewhere with one of my teen daughters, and the stereo was at near max volume playing “Running Down a Dream” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. We were both singing our lungs out. In between songs, she randomly observed, “You know, they just don’t make music like they did […]

Read More The Role of Music in Parenting

“The wrath of the Lamb.” It’s one of the most striking phrases in Revelation–that puzzling last book of the New Testament. The phrase is evocative, not to mention unsettling. And it communicates one key facet in Revelation’s truly awe-inspiring portrait of Jesus–think about it: a lamb, a pure and powerless recipient of divine wrath, becomes […]

Read More Jesus, the pandemic and the plague of Cyprian

Here’s how I think Scripture would have Christian leaders and laypersons respond to the 2020 U.S. presidential election results, as we presently understand them: 1. Christians should promote justice and peace by allowing the election process to play itself out, without drawing conclusions: Like wild fans at a football game arguing over a disputed play […]

Read More Responding to the election justly and peaceably

The Old Testament books of Ezra-Nehemiah are truly intriguing with their impressive applicability to this election season. This shouldn’t surprise us too much: His Word is ever a compass in a given cultural moment, when responsibly interpreted. That last phrase (“when responsibly interpreted”) is huge, especially when it comes to discerning the Bible’s posture toward […]

Read More The Politics of Ezra on the Eve of a U.S. Election

How many of us are any good at disagreeing? Most of us find no pleasure in voicing disagreement, and those of us who do usually aren’t up to much good–ha!  Sadly, when it comes to disagreeing, we either avoid it like the plague or we do it disastrously:  the result is injury and exhaustion with […]

Read More How to disagree with grace

An even more cumbersome (if more accurate) title for this post would be, “My ongoing battle with feeling completely useless, worthless and alone”–ha! Ugh. If I remember correctly, Christian counselor Paul Tripp once shared about a particularly difficult counseling case he had. Failing to discern his counselee’s underlying problem after a number of unsuccessful sessions, […]

Read More My constant struggle with feeling useless