A battlefield is a bad place for the naïve, but once there was a young man who through a series of circumstances found himself in just that position. He was not fearful, but in his naiveté he thought that the great conflict going on around him was simply an enormous misunderstanding. The reason this happened …
The Food of the Gospel
Jesus commands us to labor for the food which endures more than just a short time — food which endures to everlasting life. He tells us also not to give ourselves in idolatrous labor for that food which necessarily perishes. Jesus says that the Son of man will give us the bread that does not …
Vintage 3
Blended, rich, mingled smooth like sanded oak. Light, not frivolous. Her taste is fruit with weight, textured chocolate. Wood-aged in the barrel, For all these years with me. She is my tawny port.
Autumn
Laughing rain, a glorious train, Mercy comes in showers. Falling leaves and dripping eaves, Autumn’s fading hours. Noisy reds take to their beds, Yellows start their fading. The pale sun arcs and golden sparks Dim in joyful shading.
Kill Bills
Not that I want to see them, or encourage others to see them, but allow just a few brief comments on the Kill Bill movies. The extreme violence they contain are sometimes defended as being too cartoonish or ritualistic to be taken seriously, and so we can go and just enjoy the “over the top” …
Deuteronomy or Democracy?
A recent book that insightfully discusses the defining mythos of America is The Myth of the American Superhero [John Shelton Lawrence and Robert Jewett, Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002] The authors discuss manifold expressions of that myth, from The Virginian, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and the Lone Ranger, to Spiderman, Jaws, Batman, Star Trek, and …
From His Holy Hill/Psalm 3
We are told in the book of Job that man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. In the third psalm we discover what it means to find our rest and comfort in God alone. When David fled from Absalom, it was one of the greatest troubles of his life. “LORD, how are …
Curve Ball
Once there was a young man who decided that he understood what he had been taught, and not only this, he decided that he understood it far better than his teachers did. His teachers were of course very concerned about him. This is something that all young students go through, but sometimes a student is …
A Parked Car
A young man, recently graduated from college, was sitting on the sofa in his parents’ living room. He was somewhat discouraged. His plans for work had fallen through, and he was not sure what he should do. To be perfectly honest, his planning had not been all that thorough, and it had not taken much …
Resurrection Power
Lord of the Sabbath, We praise Your name and thank You for the kindness You displayed in giving us this day in which to worship You and remember how Your Son and our Lord came back from death. We glorify Your wisdom and exult in the fact that through this resurrection power, declared from Lord’s …