Even as we start to get back to something like a pre-COVID normal, this summer I want to do even more of one of my chief pandemic hobbies: reading books. Here’s some of what’s on my reading list for the next three months. History Most of my more academic reading will be devoted to boning … More What I’m Hoping to Read This Summer
Every once in a while, the readings from the daily lectionary just line up perfectly. See if you can spot the theme: • Today starts with the author of the longest psalm — whose “hope is in [God’s] ordinances” — pledging to keep God’s “law continually, for ever and ever” (Ps 119:43-44). • In case the people … More The With-God Life: “If you wish to be perfect…”
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all … More The With-God Life: Love the Lord
Part of the power — and problem — of the psalms is that they were written in a certain context for a certain people at a certain time… but speak to, and for, other people living at other times in other contexts. Psalm 63 is described as being written by David “when he was in … More The With-God Life: “A Dry and Weary Land”
With the 2020 elections just over two weeks away, I’ve started to see more Christians on social media post some version of this claim: Whomever we elect president, God is still in charge. Yes, on the one hand, and amen. As today’s psalm opens: The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the … More The With-God Life: The King Who Loves Justice
On Thursday I forgot to go outside and catch a glimpse of this month’s first (of two) full moons. But looking at some stunning lunar images that night on Facebook made me think of Kendrick Oliver’s religious history of the race for the Moon, To Touch the Face of God. It’s named for the last … More The With-God Life: The Voice of Silence
Let me revive my series of lectionary reflections long enough to share what I wrote this morning for the daily devotions our church emails out to members. I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as … More The With-God Life: The Nature of Prayer
I once called Easter Monday “that forgotten day of the church calendar seemingly dedicated to, well, getting on with our lives.” This year, when nothing feels all that normal, it’s probably less true that Easter’s joy will “[dissolve] into the mundane, predictable routine of the workweek.” But under quarantine or not, we’ll continue to spend … More The With-God Life: Call and Response
How we read the Bible is always shaped by our context, but I can’t wait until the day when my mind stops seeing Scripture in terms of a pandemic. Just before I came to this morning’s lectionary selection from Psalm 31, for example, I saw a news report about the possibility that we’ll all start … More The With-God Life: Deliverance from Enemies
Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my supplications in your faithfulness; answer me in your righteousness. Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. (Psalm 143:1-2) In yesterday’s reading, a drought threatened all of Israel. Today, David’s soul thirsts for God “like a parched land” (v … More The With-God Life: “Do not hide your face from me”
The Pietist Schoolman 