A couple of rules I live my life by: Use the lectionary as an opportunity to read scriptures that are easy to skip over. Don’t embarrass myself or anyone else by writing about sex. Normally, these two don’t come into conflict. But I’m writing a daily series of devotions, and today’s readings include some verses … More The With-God Life: Song of Songs
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through … More The With-God Life: Ambassadors
As I’ve restarted this series of daily devotionals, I find myself drawn more to the Old Testament selections from the lectionary than the gospel and epistle texts. Maybe that’s because I’m in the middle of reading Separated Siblings: An Evangelical Understanding of Jews and Judaism, by former North Park Seminary president Jay Phelan. Growing out … More The With-God Life: Commandments
At the end of the 6th century AD, Pope Gregory the Great launched one of the most significant missions in Christian history. “Do not let the toil of the journey or the tongues of men, discourage you,” he told the apprehensive monks tasked with converting the Anglo-Saxon people of England, “but with all earnestness and … More The With-God Life: Idols
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
Earlier this year, as COVID forced Bethel online and Minnesotans sheltered in place, I spent about four weeks writing daily Lenten devotionals. Spurred by a midweek sermon from my brother-in-law, the series was meant to help me focus on spending time each day encountering God in Scripture. I called the series “The With-God Life,” the … More The With-God Life: Part Two
This week: • Michael Gerson’s argument for not voting on the basis of abortion alone was compelling when he wrote it on Thursday… but all the more so after the Supreme Court abruptly reentered the presidential campaign on Friday night. • I’ll write more about the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a couple of days, … More That Was The Week That Was
It’s been almost four years since I first considered the idea of writing a spiritual biography of Charles A. Lindbergh, and three years since I signed the contract for that book with Eerdmans. And the calendar will have turned to 2021 before anyone can actually pick up a copy of that book. But yesterday I … More My Lindbergh Biography Is One Step Closer to Publication…
This week I wrapped up my devotional series on “The With-God Life,” shared some wise words from one of my favorite historians, started a new podcast exploring the importance of the liberal arts in the middle of a pandemic, and considered Christian responses to the polio scares of the 1950s. Elsewhere: • I mentioned C.S. Lewis’ … More That Was The Week That Was
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
The Pietist Schoolman 