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.

Reflecting on Henry and the Heart of God

Reflecting on Henry and the Heart of God

Several years ago Jessica and Ian had their theology revolutionized by coming in contact with the vision of God and the warfare worldview that ReKnew ministries stands for. Tragically, this last September this wonderful couple learned that their precious 4-year-old son Henry had a massive brain tumor and that he had only months to live. While they aggressively fought back through intense prayer, they also had to prepare for Henry’s memorial service in the event that he wasn’t healed.  Since all the pastors they knew would have framed Henry’s death along the lines of the blueprint worldview that most Christians implicitly, if not explicitly, espouse, they asked me if I’d offer some reflections on a video to be played at his service.  They wanted their family and friends to learn about a different way of interpreting tragedies like this.

While I received a definite word from God about 20 years ago that I wasn’t to do funerals or weddings, I felt strongly led to accept Jessica and Ian’s invitation. Along with Jessica and Ian, I have a strong sense that although God never intended for Henry to die this way, he wants to use this terrible tragedy to impact many people with the truth of his loving character and the reality of the warfare that engulfs this planet. So I prayed as I looked through Henry’s Facebook page and read Jessica’s letter and then just sat in my office and talked into my I-phone camera.

Following the beautiful and insightful reflection on Henry’s life and death that we posted several days ago, we felt it would be appropriate today to share the reflections I offered for his memorial service. Our prayer is that these brief reflections not only honor the life and death of this precious boy, but also help you and others see more clearly the beauty of God’s loving character through the painful fog of war that permeates our fallen creation.

Related Reading

God in Our Image

zen Sutherland via Compfight We came across this piece written by Jonathan Storment earlier this month and we had to share it here. The title of the piece is Everyday Idolatry: My God. He does a great job of outlining the ways that we twist God into whatever we need him to be to prop up…

What is the “classical view of God” and what about it do you find objectionable?

The “classical view of God” refers to the view of God that has dominated Christian theology since the earliest Church fathers. According to this theology, God is completely “immutable.” This means that God’s being and experience never change in any respect. God is therefore pure actuality (actus purus), having no potentiality whatsoever, for potentiality is…

Is Suffering Part of God’s Secret Plan?

In the Christian tradition since Augustine, the most common explanation for the apparent arbitrariness of life and God’s interaction with humanity has been God’s mysterious will—his “secret plan,” as Calvin says. Whether or not a child is born healthy or a wife is killed by an intruder is ultimately decided by God. If we ask…

God is Different Than You Think

The revelation of “[a] God humiliated even unto the cross,” as Pascal put it, flies in the face of what most Jews of Jesus’ time, and of what most people throughout history, have expected God to be. In this light, we can discern the thematic centrality of the cross in Jesus’ many teachings that reverse…

Why Bart Ehrman Doesn’t Have to Ruin Your Christmas (Or Your Faith) Part 4

This is the fourth of several videos Greg put together to refute Bart Ehrman’s claims published in the article What Do We Really Know About Jesus? We hope you’re enjoying these! They really provide a great overall approach to Biblical Criticism. If you missed the first three installments you can find them here, here and here.

Welcome to the New ReKnew!

Say hello to the new and much-improved ReKnew website! Not only have we upgraded the look, feel, and functionality of our site (e.g. our new search engine frankly rocks!), we’ve added – and will continue to add – new content. For example, because I am frequently asked what books I’d recommend on various topics, I…