Serving Bread

My nearly three year old daughter is my resident theologian. After our nightly prayer, she turns to her mother and confesses, “After I pray I feel happy.” (Incidentally, she actually had been feeling unusually sad this evening before the prayer time)

I’m not much of a prayer warrior, but with gas prices up (with no relief in sight), I may have to join this group of the faithful. It seems that when all else fails (politics, capitalism, boycotts, economics), turn to God. The price of oil continues to rise, and people are now bracing themselves for [...]

From the extended syllabus of Systematic Theology 3: 10. A man’s place is in the army. 9. The pastoral duties of men who have children might distract them from the responsibility of being a parent. 8. The physique of men indicates that they are more suited to such tasks as chopping down trees and wrestling [...]

(HT: Discerning the Times)

Here is a recent paper I wrote on a Biblical framework for male and female relationships. We live in a culture that has a confused understanding of male and female relationships. Perhaps this confusion exists among all cultures and has been experienced through the generations, but it seems that in our current cultural context, human [...]

I recently completed an academic exercise, reflecting on the problem of evil. I found the assignment useful for my ministry, as I regularly confront questions about why God allows suffering and evil. The assignment is in response to Rabbi Harold Kushner‘s best-selling book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

I’m not much of a theologian. (Though I would say that all humans are theologians in that we have certain ideas of God that work themselves out in how we live and interact with others) When I say I’m not much of a theologian, I mean I don’t engage in too many discussions on theological [...]

I came across this quote today that I found insightful: It is often said that a person’s view of God becomes much clearer when we know how that person approaches prayer. Donald G. Bloesch, Holy Scripture: Revelation, Inspiration and Interpretation Using this insight as a critique of myself, I have found that it does paint [...]

I wonder how many assumptions I have about God that are not necessarily Biblical? In taking my first theology course at Fuller Seminary (even though I am nearly done with my program), I am challenged to reflect on my assumptions about God’s nature. Why do I believe that God is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent (among [...]

For my last message of the semester, I gave a Christmas message out of John 10.10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” It is not a traditional text on the Christmas season, but to me it encapsulates why Jesus came. [...]