General
NEW BOOK: “God Looks Like Jesus”
Category: General
In the past several decades, a grassroots global movement has people rediscovering a Jesus-looking God who is raising up a Jesus-looking people to transform the world in a unique, Jesus kind of way. This accessible…
Love Weeps
Category: General
This standoff in the Middle East between Hamas (and Allies) and Israel (and Allies) is taking an emotional toll on me, and I know I’m hardly alone. I imagine my children or grandchildren among the…
Why Christ, not Scripture, is Our Ultimate Foundation
Category: General
Tags: Belief, Cruciform Theology, Doubt, Scripture
Topics: The Church, Theological Method
In a previous blog I argued that all our theological reflection must not only be Christ-centered, it must, most specifically, be cross-centered. I now want to begin to unpack some of the most important implications of…
Determinism Is Ugly (June 2007)
Category: General
In the previous blog I celebrated the beautiful non-necessity of things. If you haven’t read it yet, you might want to before reading this one. Because in this blog I want to talk about a…
Why Your Imagination Matters
Category: General
Tags: Imagination, Imaginative Prayer, Transformation
The flesh, which we discussed in this post earlier this week, is shaped by Satan’s web of deception that deeply infects our imaginations. This is why it has such power to move us to perform…
“Prove it, Jesus!”
Category: General, Guest Contributor
Essay by: Dan Kent A small crowd of merchants tried to remain reasonable as they watched Jesus crash around the temple in utter pandemonium. The merchants woke up that morning, ate breakfast, then came to…
Must We Believe in Satan? As a Personal Agent?
Category: General, Guest Contributor
Article by: Dan Kent Have you ever noticed how boldly some Christians proclaim their belief in God while simultaneously shying away from belief in Satan? How strange, especially since we all form our beliefs in…
What Does a Perfect God Look Like?
Category: General
Tags: Attributes of God, Classical Theism, God, Jesus, Open Theism
Topics: Attributes and Character
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…
2 Ways We Misinterpret God’s Promises
Category: General
Tags: Benefit of the Doubt, Doubt, Faith
Topics: Faith & Doubt
In the church where I first found Christ, we used to sing a hymn called “Standing on the Promises of God.” The hymn itself isn’t bad, for it focuses entirely on our relationship with God….
God’s Regrets and Divine Foreknowledge
Category: General
Tags: Divine Foreknowledge, Free Will, God of the Possible, Open Theism, Scripture, Wisdom
Topics: Open Theism
One aspect of the portrait of God in Scripture that suggests the future is partly open is the fact that God sometimes regrets how things turn out, even prior decisions that he himself made. For…
Must I Become Less?
Category: General, Guest Contributor
Article by Dan Kent Have you ever proclaimed a theological belief loudly and publicly only to have the Bible seem to proclaim the exact opposite? In 2019 Fortress Press published my book Confident Humility. There…
Love: The Only Truly Creative Thing We Can Do
Category: General, Guest Contributor
Article by Dan Kent I daydream often. Lately, in my fog of contemplation, I’ve pondered a question about creativity: Can a person truly be creative? I’ve concluded this: The only thing we truly create is…
God’s War on War
Category: General
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
Though the OT portrays God as not only tolerating violence but also in many cases various narratives quote God as getting his hands dirty and actually promoting and commanding acts of violence, this is not…
“So Good To Me” — A Tribute to Ed Boyd
Category: General
After three years of corresponding about the Christian faith, my seventy-four-year-old father, Ed Boyd, surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. (Our correspondence is recorded in G. Boyd, E. Boyd, Letters From a Skeptic). Unfortunately, soon…
To Bleed or Not to Bleed: Reflections on Animal Sacrifices
Category: General, Guest Contributor
Article by Jesse Birkey Is God good or not? “Hey, make sure you don’t let the dog out tonight.” My father started out the door but threw one final look at me. “Or if you…
Saturday Art Share: Chris Orange Photography
Category: General
Today’s Saturday Art Share features photography by Chris Orange. I appreciate Chris’s landscapes. Maybe what I like about them, they have a hard, almost metallic feel. But they also reveal something soft. They almost feel…
It is Finished. It is Enough.
Category: General, Guest Contributor
Article by Elizabeth Berget Shared with permission from her website HERE. I’ve been known to joke that I most likely won’t even be able to SEE my mom in heaven because she’ll be so much…
The Fight of Our Lives – The Battle Against Hurt
Category: General, Guest Contributor
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence, Following Jesus
Article by Larissa Lee When I talk about trauma, forgiveness, recovery, and all of the things that go along with these, this is not a theoretical or academic discussion for me. I have complex PTSD…
Is 2020 Judgment from God?
Category: General, Guest Contributor
Article by Larissa Lee 2020 has been the ugliest year the US has seen for a while. As I write this we’ve had two hurricanes rage towards the gulf of Texas and Lousianna. There are…