Thoughts on the Beatitudes, Part 8a: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. As a young boy I generally and genuinely enjoyed going to church and Sunday school. Besides being attracted to the weekly Scripture readings, I was also fascinated by some of the illustrations of theological, anthropological, and soteriological issues...... Read More

Thoughts on the Beatitudes, Part 7a: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. My wife Joanne and I often have a discussion about people whom we know and the positive traits that make them who they are. In some of our conversations, we discuss certain individuals who we are convinced will inhabit a...... Read More

“And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from (the) evil (one).” When I started writing about the Lord’s Prayer, a friend of mine said that she couldn’t wait to see what I was going to do with this phrase. Lots of potential controversy lurks behind its words. Questions about the origin of...... Read More

Responding to last week’s post on “your will be done” someone made the comment “It looks like you think that God doesn’t care about our decisions.”  My offending remark had to do with a friend who wants to buy a house that his wife is not equally enamored of. My conclusion was that, in some...... Read More

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven (the Lord’s Prayer as a statement of faith, part 4). “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his work” (Jesus in John 4:34). “I wish that God would just tell me what to do, and...... Read More

In my last post, I used the opening of the Lords prayer, “Our Father,” to begin an extended discussion on faith. Before pushing further into Jesus’ famous words, I thought it might be good to take a look at one feature of being a child of our father – the scary good truth of dependence....... Read More

The Intimate Majesty of the Father “Our Father in heaven …” When Jesus’ disciples make the simple request, “Teach us to pray,” he answers with what might be the best known text in the New Testament – what we call the Lord’s Prayer. As I think about this response, Jesus seems to be saying, “I...... Read More

Don’t you wish God was simple? What about believing in God, or knowing how to handle the regular moral and relational dilemmas that we face? Wouldn’t it be a relief to have a collection of Bible texts that could take us, step by step, through each day and each day’s demands? After all, life is...... Read More