I’ve always thought of Lust as only having to do with sex. It was always held up for me as the opposite of purity, chastity, virginity. When I think about it now, I realize that this narrow definition has actually become quite a convenient for me as a 21st Century American Christian. In limiting the term to only having to do with sex, I’ve conveniently blinded myself to other areas affected by Lust in my...
The rain pelted the hoods of our jackets as we rushed under the shelter of the awning, standing alongside the others waiting to enter the sanctuary. We stepped through the doors and headed towards our normal pew section (we don’t want to sit in the same pew each week, but being people of habit, we have our regular pew section). Though the sanctuary was living up to its name, protecting us from the sting of...
‘Tis the season for self-control. The beginning of Lent always seems to inspire a flurry of resolutions and prohibitions, sometimes the same ones we made at the outset of the year then promptly forgot to keep. As we begin this season of intentional identification with Christ’s wilderness experience and self-denial, my husband and I are walking through Dave Ramsey’s “Financial Peace University” (FPU). We’ve been “living like no one else” for a few years now,...
Stars are pretty cool. If you have ever laid out under a dark night sky to see the vibrant tapestry of the galaxy above you, you might understand how it could become someone’s captivation, one’s ambition. Such was the case for Percival Lowell. You may have heard of him. He was born into a wealthy Massachusetts family in 1855, graduated from Harvard, and spent some decades of his life actually as a US foreign secretary...
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.-1 John 3:18 She is new. None of us have seen her before. A woman with a modest hijab walks into our English class for the very first time. In many ways she is out of place. She is the only woman in our class and those of us teaching can tell that she is not from the ethnic group...
What does it mean that the “word of God is living?” That’s a big question, but I will only focus on one part. I think that it is of fundamental importance to recognize that, in every day speech, there are two very different sorts of existence that we describe as “alive.” Before we apply the label of “living” to a text we have to decide what sort of living thing it is. These two sorts...
The other day, I was listening to Larry Mantle’s show AirTalk on my local public radio station. His guests for one of the segments that day were Michael Shermer, founder of Skeptic Magazine, and William Lane Craig, philosophy professor at Biola University’s Talbot School of Theology. Their discussion was based on the recent opinion piece in the New York Times about whether atheism is irrational, an interview conversation between philosophy professors Gary Gutting and Alvin...
“The grass is always greener on the other side, so water your own damn lawn!” my friend told me the other day (in the most loving way, of course). As I think about this piece of wisdom and trying to find contentment in my own life, I’m grateful for the reminder to cultivate what I do have, and seize the current opportunities offered to me in this season of life. In this season of trying...
During the summer of 1957, a mixed race family immigrated from Holland into the small town of Terra Ceia, North Carolina. The father was Dutch, the mother Indonesian. As they attempted to send their two children to the local Reformed Church school, they were met at the door by local segregationist leaders who considered the children to be colored and therefore unable to attend the all white school. This incident brought the small Reformed Church...
I’m fortunate enough to be doing my graduate work at a small, liberal arts college in Southern California, where, in the middle of January, I get to walk to and from class in temperatures ranging from sixty-five to eighty degrees. In all honesty, if you’re running late or forget a book, this walk can seem to be, in the moment, an annoyance. That being said, when I’m not sweating, trying to make it to teach...
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