Homeward Bound

G. K. Chesterton once commented on the marked difference between typical images found in Christianity and those found in Buddhism: "The Buddhist saint has a sleek and harmonious body, but his eyes are heavy and sealed with sleep. The medieval saint's body is wasted to its crazy bones, but his eyes are frightfully alive." As I read this book I kept thinking of that contrast, and Trevin Wax's The Thrill of Orthodoxy is an invitation to behold this full and transcendent faith we have been confronted with the only way possible: with frightfully wide-open eyes. Wax lists out the ancient creeds which have, based on critical Biblical texts, formed a baseline of the Faith throughout the history of Christianity. Adherence to these stunning truth claims is what is called Orthodoxy, and deviations from it, heresy. Interestingly enough, these deviations are almost always thought in their time to be more thrilling than Orthodoxy. Human nature feels what C. S. Lewis called “the ho...

Fatherhood in one word is humbling. It has added pressures and revealed sin I have never had to address before. Life in the general seems to have this affect over time. When I was young I thought I was for the most part very good. This is typical of youth: because the previous generation has a track record that can be poked with holes, and because our lack of a track record can't, we think our lack of a track record preferable to theirs. Typical youths! I remember reading Proverbs and just taking for granted I was the wise character from the start: "Yes, that sounds like me, me, me again." But it is not until we take aim and fire that we see how far we are from the mark. It is not until we are tested that we see our score. It's not until we have to actually do something, and face some annoyances, and struggle, and sweat, and bleed a little--that we see who we really are. And after I have undergone some of that by my thirtieth year, I have found the fool has been insid...

I love the story in the gospels of the syrophoenician woman. The text in Matthew 15 goes as follows:  Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment. ** The story is fascinating because Jesus acts in what we moderns would call a “un-Christ-like” manner towards this...

Imagine for a moment year 2023 gives you exactly what you want. What if your ambitious resolutions are reached and your year is a year of growth unlike any other?  You may be surprised to hear a word of caution on the dangers of self-revolution. Jesus says an interesting statement in Matthew 12:43-45 as he pulls back the veil on the spiritual realm and describes what proves too often the case with human nature and our success: "When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation." We know little about what caused the impure spirit to flee, but we can figure that the person it ...

No surprise I did not read as many book as I had hoped this year. 2022 ratcheted up the intensity a notch or three, but despite failing to reach a significant total to brag about on my blog I was blessed by many of the books I did read. As reading time shrinks with obligations, commitments, work--it is more important than ever to read real quality books. That is just what happened this year which featured a mixture of my usual eclectic genres: practical theology, well-written fiction, and the odd war history.  Here are my top ten for the year:  10. Letter of the Marque - Patrick O'Brian (1988) I have enjoyed this working through this 20 book series of Napoleonic era naval fiction. A slower pace from the also excellent Horatio Hornblower series covering the same era--O'Brian's series contains rich dialogue and brilliant characters as Captain Jack and Dr. Maturin sail the seas to impede French power at every turn. This twelfth of the series features a cutting out expedition ...

"Naked I was born from my mother's womb and naked I will return." Job 1:21 Try as we might, we cannot get away from nakedness. And we do try. Life is spent in the accumulation of all manner of temporal goods--some material, some immaterial--but all temporal nonetheless. From early ages we gain cognition and ability to communicate. We develop faculties of thought and reasoning. We form relationships with others, have experiences, make memories. As we grow to independence we attain certain achievements and build a stock of possessions. All of this rising to a peak of powers, a period of micro-dominance as that original naked state is pushed to the furthest margins of memory. Some experience magnificent heights and some see sustained plateaus with no hint of decline for decades. No matter how high that peak grows--however pronounced our intelligence, network, status, skillset, influence gets--it inevitably must return to the starting point of zero. Nakedness, like gravity, ...

How would you respond if Jesus visited your town or your neighborhood? I think almost everyone, non-Christians included, would be thrilled by the possibility. Most everyone likes Jesus. His morality cannot be improved upon , select portions of his teachings have been applauded for time gone by, and we sure would love to see something supernatural. In Jesus' day there was just something special about him and the miracles, the preaching, the tenderness mingled with strength, the verbal take downs of the religious--all drew massive crowds, with good reason! In our own time I doubt it would be any different.   But I have often been bewildered at the Gerasenes (Mark 5:1-20) who pleaded with Jesus to leave their town. Put yourself in their shoes. Here is Jesus, this fantastical figure, and He has come to your time. Of all possible moments in human history He is walking the earth the same moment you are walking the earth! Humanity has been waiting for this for generation after generatio...