Previously I talked about how the Christian life is the unintentional life, one where the natural response is godliness and we no longer require effort to be ungodly. This is the nature of sanctification. Now I want to talk about how God also interrupts and destroys any notion of the centrality of intention to Christianity. […]
Read more "The Christian Life Is the Unintentional Life (Pt. 2)"“Intentional” seems to be a buzzword among Christians these days. Phrases like “intentional relationships” appear in discussions about the nature of dating. Intentionality has become a part of how some Christians define what it means to have friendships or our relation to God. Intentional seems to be this buzzword that seems to be this positive thing […]
Read more "The Christian Life is the Unintentional Life (Pt. 1)"As a protestant, the word “catholic” is not the first word I’d use to describe myself. Indeed, for many of us who do consider ourselves to be fairly conservative protestants, holders of the gospel of salvation by grace through faith alone (with some measure of asterisks around the word “alone”), the very word “catholic” might […]
Read more "The beauty of catholicity"The gospel is not everything. By this I mean to say that the gospel isn’t necessarily this message of the holiness of God and sin (and indeed it is not). It is not the message of heaven (though that may be a result). The gospel is much more focused than that. Pure and simple, the […]
Read more "The Gospel Is not Everything"Hillsong is amazingly popular in Evangelical circles which have a focus on contemporary music and sometimes a sort of concert like air about worship services. However, Hillsong itself reveals a sort of inconsistency in how Christians view church and ethics within Evangelical thought. This is perhaps best highlighted by a recent news article from the […]
Read more "Hillsong and Evangelical Inconsistency"I am American and I am just old enough to have remembered the events surrounding 9/11 (which are now closer to the fall of the Soviet Union than today) and the world I live in has been shaped by this pivotal moment, even if I may not be one of the many who have lost […]
Read more "Remembering 9/11 and the Church"How long, O Lord? Wilt thou forget me for ever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? —Psalm 13.1-2 (RSV) I don’t think I’ve really understood […]
Read more "Longing for the Justice of God"The more I understand Christianity and Christ the more that I don’t want to be Christian, and yet the more I can’t help myself from being so. Christianity is about grace, it is about how a God who is love has provided a means for a wayward people to come back to himself in the […]
Read more "I don’t want to be Christian"The Son of God was made man so that we might be made God Athanasius, On the Incarnation §54 When I first heard this astounding quote I was repulsed and revolted by the idea that man might become God. Christianity is, after all, not polytheistic. We are at our core monotheistic and the very idea […]
Read more "God Became Man so that We Might Be Made God"Recently I have been reading Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship where Bonhoeffer talks about the nature and meaning of true Christian discipleship—the purpose of Christianity. Reading it, I was most struck by how Bonhoeffer frames the relationship between works and faith. only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes. Thinking more about […]
Read more "Faith and Obedience"
Defined Faith 