“Dogs often fight because the supply of bones is scanty, and congregations frequently quarrel becaue they do not get sufficient spiritual meat to keep them happy and peaceful. The ostensible ground of dissatisfaction may be something else, but nine times out of ten deficiency in their rations is at the bottom of mutinies which occur …
Repentance Is Not Scooting Your Shelf Idol to Face Right for a While
“Those pathologies cannot simply be subsumed under such labels as liberal, conservative, or radical. The ideologies common to American politics all have a share in them; none has clean hands . . . . political rhetoric, the media, and the educational establishment have badly distorted the political and economic landscape, making it appear that the …
And Throwing Elbows
Yesterday the sermon was on competition.
The Problem With Third Ways
A lot of Christians know that the language of Scripture requires us to develop and maintain a distinctive voice. And thus it is that when they are in the process of being swept up by the latest wind of doctrine, they claim that they are doing this as a “third way.” Lured and enticed by …
Unintended Consequences
In the recent posts about global justice and the related microcosm issue of help for panhandlers, one of the points I have sought to make is that swell intentions are not even close to good enough. Here is another example of that principle, a little closer to home. In the latest Atlantic Monthly there is …
Tangible Signs, Tangible Seals
We have considered what our confession of faith states about the Lord’s Supper specifically, but we can also be blessed by thinking through the biblical basis for the claims it makes about sacraments generally. First, what are the sacraments? Of course there are two of them—baptism and the Lord’s Supper. And because they share the …
Restoring From Within
We are still in the season of the resurrection, and we would do well to continue to focus our hearts on the meaning of life from the dead. The fact that Jesus was raised in the middle of human history, and not at the very end of it, means that God has not abandoned this …
Ministerial Milquetoastery
Let me say at the outset that I am persuaded by the arguments. I have no problem with ministers discharging their office while robed, and I also have no problem with ministers who wear a collar in public — as long as, of course, they aren’t driving around like crazy giving other motorists the bird. …
More Leepike News
Nate’s first book with Random House was Leepike Ridge, and they are due to release it in paperback this July. The cost in this go-round will be $6.99. New cover too.
Sin Came Before the Jews Did
It is not surprising that the book of Romans, the book that shows the revelation of God’s righteousness, does so against the backdrop of man’s sinfulness. There are so many uses of the words we have been considering that we will have to divide our treatment of this book in two, with the first installment …