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Holy and Jealous God
Psalm 99 1 The Lord reigns, let the nations tremble; he sits enthroned between the cherubim, let the earth shake. 2 Great is the Lord in Zion; he is exalted over all the nations. 3 Let them praise your great and awesome name— he is holy. 4 The King is mighty, he loves justice— you have established equity; in Jacob you have done what is just and right. 5 Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool; he is holy. 6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel was among those who called on his name; they called on the Lord and he answered them. 7 He…
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Jacob Wrestles With God
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Money in the Heart
“A wise person should have money in his head but not in his heart.” Jonathan Swift One of the earliest scandals around insider trading involved Ivan Boesky. While many have forgotten him he lives on through the one quote attributed to him – and his being the basis for the character of Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas) in the film Wall Street: “Greed is good.” It was one of those unforgettable (and maybe unforgiveable) lines that summed up an era in one way but signaled the advent of another that was more irresponsible and harmful than even his own. In some ways Boesky was merely a precursor – or…
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Good God
“‘Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion”…’Safe?’ said Mr. Beaver; ‘don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.’” 1. That’s the issue this morning. What is the nature of God’s goodness? What do we mean when we say – sometimes glibly – God is good all the time and all the time God is good? Do we mean He is safe or do we mean a kind of terrible goodness as well? Do we mean something we define and control as “good” or is the…
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Jacob Wrestles With God
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An Open Letter to Books & Culture
When I read Sarah Pulliam Bailey’s post last week about the funding crisis at Books & Culture I had two immediate and opposite reactions. First was the saying I keep on the wall over my desk “When The Horse Is Dead Dismount.” Second was “Too Good To Fail.” I’ve bounced back and forth between them all weekend. It’s not quite like the tension of conflicting opinions about whether or not to bomb Syria but in my mind it is an important moment. While I might agree in part with Gregory Wolfe’s analysis that “the religious culture of North America is playing a role in the current financial challenges faced by…
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An Open Letter to Books & Culture
When I read Sarah Pulliam Bailey’s post last week about the funding crisis at Books & Culture I had two immediate and opposite reactions. First was the saying I keep on the wall over my desk “When The Horse Is Dead Dismount.” Second was “Too Good To Fail.” I’ve bounced back and forth between them all weekend. It’s not quite like the tension of conflicting opinions about whether or not to bomb Syria but in my mind it is an important moment. While I might agree in part with Gregory Wolfe’s analysis that “the religious culture of North America is playing a role in the current financial challenges faced by…
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The Case For God
I am not starting with “proof” of God. I don’t believe you can prove God to someone who is simply unwilling to believe. For whatever reasons, there are people who resist believing and there is not enough evidence in the world (or outside the world) to convince them. The Scripture calls them fools in Psalm 14:1-3: The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. In Psalm 10:2-5 David says of the fool: In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises. He boasts about the…
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Jacob Wrestles With God
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Gothic Giving
I wrote last year on the transition from Gothic architecture to Baroque and how that change reflected a larger and more theological shift in society. Gothic was focused on the hereafter and Baroque was shaped by the desire to make this life better instead of thinking only of the hereafter. “So the emphasis was not spires ‘reaching toward heaven’ and the ‘ordered nature of structure’ but light color ” texture and art intended to draw people in – a kind of celebration of”. It was not change in a vacuum or an innovation for the sake of innovation. It was an alteration in worldview. In the same way, you can follow the trends…
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2 Thessalonians
1. From the beginning, there have been people teaching all sorts of doctrines about the second coming and the time of the end. Yes, there were and are false teachers but most of the confusion is either jumping to conclusions about certain signs or overly excited imaginations or just different readings of Scripture. Why else would we have pre/post/a millennial and pre/post tribulation interpretations of end times. No one knows for sure but everyone has an opinion or a feeling. That was true for the church at Thessalonika. There were people teaching that the only explanation for their suffering and hardship was the end times had begun. Others were teaching…
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Jacob Wrestles With God
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Guest Blog with Peter Greer
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Fred, It’s Jeff Bezos. Got A Minute?
The phone rang this morning and I saw a number I did not recognize. “Fred, it’s Jeff Bezos. Got a minute?” “Jeff, good to hear from you. I’ve been wondering about what you are thinking in buying the Washington Post. I heard George Will say it was probably an intellectual challenge. Others have said this is what rich people do. Something like your own ‘Jurassic Park’ except you buy dinosaurs instead of creating them. Everyone down here is talking about it.” “I know, and I’m a little surprised myself. I thought I was just another bidder for buying lunch with Warren Buffett but it went another way. So, I’m on my way…
