SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“I am so cautious when it comes to a certain strain of Christian thought that glorifies suffering as a good in itself. Too often, I have heard people say to other grieved people that God is ‘using’ their suffering to accomplish some end, as if it were a hammer with which he intended to nail them into godly place. This is the instrumentalist view of suffering: that it’s somehow a pragmatic necessity in God’s plan, something he intends in order to accomplish his ends. If you’ve

“Many of us long for the past because we believe, correctly, that the past uniquely offered something that satisfied a core human need—namely, the need for hope for something better and everlasting beyond this life, which communities steeped in religious tradition, in which faith formed the center of one’s life and permeated every aspect of it, were able to inspire. In short, this past provided the means by which man’s spiritual thirst could be quenched. The tragedy of the pr

“The wounds come. None of us escapes the hurt and pain of human relationships. No parents are perfect. No siblings are ideal. Classmates and even best friends engage in shaming and bullying. Teachers, in their own brokenness, unwittingly give unintended lessons to a child. Over time, the conflict, the darkness and the hardening set in. We lose our capacity for awe and wonder and with it a clear view of the world. Our access to God seems blocked by the opacity of our own wound

“Struggle is inescapable, for if we are not struggling in the service of Jesus, we will be struggling in the service of sin…In Christ, by contrast, we have a relationship with the living God. He loves us, illumines us, stands with us, and forgives us as we struggle to have Him and His being formed within our hearts and souls.” (Robin Phillips, Dynamis 9/7/2018) “There is an ascetic imperative, an utter necessity to enter into the struggle that is Christ’s own struggle. We fas

“A conference participant once asked the speaker, "What is the best way for a father to love his children?" The speaker replied, "The best way for a father to love his children is to love their mother." I reflect often upon that superbly accurate statement. And I think the reverse is equally true: the best way a mother can love her children is to love their father. More than anything else in the world, children need a loving family and parents who support each other, even if

“With one exception, all the major translations of Acts miss an important point about the question of the power and authority of the...

“Strictly speaking, the modern world has not been disenchanted. Rather, it is now enchanted with money and the “invisible hand” of the...

“What is the peace of the world? Perhaps we would call it security or safety; the sense that physical walls and human strength,...

“The waves of change in our society threaten to make our sea legs wobble as we are buffeted from all sides with moral chaos, antisocial...

“Christ then appears through shut doors in the midst of them and tells them one thing: ‘Peace be with you.’ For these to be the first...