Our culture goes two opposite directions on life after death. Both are a long way from Christian faith and hope. On the one hand we have sentimental universalism. It can be the soft-focus flowers and clouds of greeting card theology, trying to comfort the grieving. It can be stories of near death experiences in the […]
What Do You Hope For? Three Promises In Christ’s Resurrection
Years ago, when I was a pastor, I stood with a family who had lost a loved one — a husband, father, and grandfather. His widow, whom I’d not previously met, was overwhelmed. She hardly spoke in the week I saw her, so wracked she was by the pain of grief. It is hardly surprising. […]
John Wesley’s Basic Christianity, or, How Does a Methodist Stay a Methodist?
I’m at the plate. The ball whizzes by, right at elbow height. That’s one. The second pitch goes the same way. That’s two. I swing at the third, but I don’t know if the “whoosh” of the ball or the “whoosh” of the bat is clearer in my ears. “You’re outta there!” Baseball has clear […]
Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall: Heidelberg Catechism and the Law of God
You see someone looking in the mirror. Looking. Looking. What is he thinking? Better still, what are you thinking? Too much attention to his reflection — easy to suppose he likes what he sees. We mock the self-absorption of mythical Narcissus, falling in love with his reflection in a pond. But we also fear what […]
Spiritual Discernment: Meet St. Ignatius of Loyola
Number one on my list of Tough Guys for Jesus: St. Ignatius of Loyola (c. 1491-1556). His leg was smashed by a cannon ball when he was a soldier. He endured surgery to set the bones — long before the day of anesthetics. Here’s where the tough guy points rack up: The bone didn’t set […]
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