This is because the one word that can make a difference to your relationship is not ‘sorry’ (although this is important too) nor, oddly, ‘ouch’ or ‘oops’. Instead the word is ‘but’. And the ‘but’ is what separates, and simultaneously holds together in one thought two opposing things, our lover’s faults from their brilliance.    ... Continue Reading

Vest was asked if he accepted orthodox doctrine on for example, the Trinity and the atonement. Vest answered opaquely, “I would not say that I’m not orthodox.”  When pressed about whether he accepted the Nicene Creed, he did not respond but suggested that his teaching would not be about his faith (or apparently the church’s... Continue Reading

Chelian’s conundrum continued as she hunted to find a place to dispose of her fresh kills. She visited funeral homes first, “who ultimately started talking about how much a body weighs before they could figure out how much it cost, had to go from pounds to ounces and they were like, ‘We don’t even know... Continue Reading

“Evangelical preachers will want to take note of Packer’s strong words of caution (which have a wider application than just to the preacher). He assumes the content of preaching will come from Scripture, and insists a preacher know it and instill in his congregation a desire to learn it; the preacher, after all, is “there to teach from the Bible.”... Continue Reading

“While Puritans rejected social mobility in principle, in practice they positively fast-tracked it through an earnest work ethic. While profoundly uneasy with the consequences of these economic habits, they esteemed hard work with theological justification and institutional encouragement.”   It’s that time of year when New England muscles into the spotlight, showing off Patriots and... Continue Reading

acquiring national identities: Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and England. Because the church was the largest landowner in Europe, rulers could seldom avoid a papal dispute over revenue. Luther escaped the hangman’s noose in part because he won the backing of a German prince fed up with Rome. But most important, Luther succeeded because he tapped... Continue Reading

Not surprisingly, this disorder in my heart led to disorder in my ministry. I found it difficult to connect with people in the church. They felt like potential spies, waiting to execute their orders. “Et tu Brute?” I thought I was surrounded by a bunch of Brutuses instead of Barnabases. While I used to be... Continue Reading

“People poured in,” she told me, sobbing, “They asked me, how can I help? Most of them I didn’t know because our church is so large. They rolled up their sleeves, tromped in the mud, shoveled, carried, and began helping me sort out what to throw away and what to keep.”   (WNS)–Kay Stafford was... Continue Reading

When I sense these reappearing in my life, I know it is time to evaluate quickly. I may need to get away for a day, adjust my sleeping, or double-check my eating and exercise routine. I have learned that if I can catch these early, I can address them much more quickly and easily than... Continue Reading

“Martin Luther, a scholar, took quill in hand, dipped it in his inkwell and penned his 95 Theses on October 31, 1517. These were intended to spark a debate, to stir some soul-searching among his fellow brothers in the church.”   A single event on a single day changed the world. It was October 31,... Continue Reading