As if it weren’t challenging enough to live by the Ten Commandments and the two Great Commandments (see Matt. 22:34-40), somewhere along the line someone decided that we also needed an additional “Four Spiritual Laws.” So now, right after “God so loved the world,” many Christians add, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan […]
Few would dispute that “the will of God” is a big issue for any Christian. After all, it is referred to explicitly some four dozen times in the New Testament. God’s will should regulate our prayers (Matt. 6:10). Doing his will is requisite for fellowship with Christ (Mark 3:35). It is required for entrance into […]
In John Buchan’s novel The Gap in the Curtain, five men, under the influence of the brilliant German physicist and mathematician Professor August Moe, glimpse pieces of information in the pages of a future issue of The London Times. Mayot has a vision of the front page of the paper and sees the name of […]
President George W. Bush has told the press that he prays about policy issues before acting. The San Diego Chargers pray before each game (not that it shows any signs of having a marked effect). We will often pray that we get this job or that special house, even though that means that someone else […]
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I acted like a child, for I was in fact a child. But as I grew, I learned to put away childish things. I grew into maturity by learning to listen to my Father's voice. He taught me who I was and why I was […]
I have no doubt that the drive to know and do God's will comes from a pious desire to obey God and enjoy the blessings of a life lived in close fellowship with him. But despite these good intentions, one cannot deny that this quest is full of anxiety, no matter how much one tries […]
Best-selling author Rick Warren was named by Christianity Today as the most influential pastor in America. His book, The Purpose Driven Life sold eleven million copies its first year and has remained on the New York Times best seller list for forty-four weeks. Warren's book has now become a popular spiritual growth campaign with over […]
Thomas Oden's Justification Reader aspires to demonstrate a broad consensus on the doctrine of justification, spanning the entire history of the church and all branches of the Christian faith: East and West, Roman Catholic and Protestant, Reformational and Pentecostal. As a "reader," the book intends to provide a transparent catalogue of common church teaching with […]
Reading Brian McLaren makes me feel a little like Hilary Clinton listening to President Bush’s State of the Union speech in 2001: thrilled that the administration is advocating a prescription drug program for seniors, but wondering-as the bandwagon rolls by-“Hey, wasn’t that my issue!” Like Clinton must have felt, I am grateful that McLaren is […]
In her spiritual memoir, Girl Meets God, Lauren Winner writes with refreshing wit and occasional eloquence about her pilgrimage from Orthodox Judaism to evangelical Protestantism (in this case, the Episcopal church). This twenty-something graduate student draws on a wide breadth of knowledge-both personally and professionally-to discuss a variety of religious experiences. Her father was a […]
