We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
Let Us Pray
It’s appropriate to pray and reflect and run to God when tragedies like the one in Newtown, CT take place. We wanted to share a couple of things we found helpful around the blogosphere as we struggle through our sadness.
T.C. Moore shared some thoughts on Darkness, Advent, and Newtown CT on his blog. Really helpful perspective.
From the article:
Advent isn’t a pill we take to quickly forget the darkness, or ignore the darkness. No, Advent grants us the space to dwell in-between tragedy and deliverance. It gives us time to reflect, feel the weight of the pervasive darkness in this world, and hope for a Savior to come into the world and rescue us. It is a reminder that though the Savior has come, and Jesus is that Savior, we still live in-between his Advent into the world and his Return to shine his light on darkness—destroying it forever.
Until then, we pray, we grieve, we remember, and we hope.
And here are some prayers from David Smith to help us to focus our hearts towards healing and compassion.
Let us pray.
Category: General
Tags: Advent, Darkness, David Smith, Grief, Newtown, Prayer, Problem of Evil, T.C. Moore
Related Reading
Hearing and Responding to God: Part 5
We hope you’ve enjoyed this series on hearing and responding to God. In this last video on the topic, Greg discusses the significance of the fact that God IS love, and how our communion with him is the product of God’s eternal loving nature. You can watch the earlier installments here, here, here, and here. ***Bonus: Greg experiences a…
Why Compatibilistic Freedom Does Not Make Sense
Compatibilism is the view that free will is compatible with determinism. In this view, freedom is defined as the ability to do what you want, though what you want is determined by factors outside of you. Theologians who espouse this perspective, hold that God ultimately determines what individuals want. This is in contrast to “self-determining…
Prayer When You’re Anxious
The following is adapted from a prayer exercise that Greg wrote for his book, Present Perfect. If you’re feeling anxious today (or even if you’re not anxious at all) we encourage you to spend a little time with it. As you read this, remind yourself that the only thing that ultimately matters is that you are submerged…
Why Can’t I Feel God?
Question: Greg, you’re always talking about how we need to keep our eyes fixed on the cross to see and experience God’s love for us. But I find myself arguing with God, asking him: “How am I to believe that you love us that much when you don’t love me enough to lift the veil…
The Image That Transforms
With the Advent of Jesus, we see the icon of God, the One in whom the otherwise invisible God is seen. The word icon comes from the Greek word for “image” (eikon). While it is idolatrous for humans to make and worship icons of God (Lev 19:4; 26:1), it’s certainly not idolatrous for us to…
Put on the Armor of God
The whole of the Christian life is an act of war against the enemy as we follow Jesus in storming the gates of hell (See post.) No passage better illustrates this than Paul’s metaphor of spiritual armor from Ephesians 6. He writes that Christians are to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength…
