Our eyes are positioned in front for a good reason: It allows us to focus. Having two eyes on the same side of the head is the reason we have depth perception and can examine things in detail. My friend, Derrick, and I were discussing this over coffee. We were talking about eschatology and the…
Category: Theology
Lord of the Dead and of the Living
Picture by Patrick Murphy Death and resurrection cannot be separated. This is so obvious it seems like a platitude. Often our words and thoughts divide these into separate categories. For the sake of clarity it’s sometimes helpful to consider them separately. But it’s disastrous in real life. Perhaps we are too used to treating death…
Divine Polygamy
Polygamy lurks in the shadows of theology. We know it’s there but don’t talk much about it. Christians consider polygamy heretical and immoral. But what do we do with Abraham, Jacob, or David? All of them had multiple spouses without one rebuke from God. And why would God say anything? Polygamy is nowhere condemned in…
Narrowing Sonnet
Could we put oceans in a cup, a desert in an hour-glass, the skies in a falling rain-drop, the planets in a marble-bag, it wouldn’t touch the Lord, swaddled in a body, who also humbly wore the girdle of our laws, was threaded through the streets of Jews, endured the spit and then was split…
Becoming Small
http://www.designspectre.com/photography/sequence-photography/ Becoming small, a bird folding wings, He drew Himself down into the earth. The One with no beginning knew the birth of flesh and blood and felt its slow wringing. By dying He became a scales fixed in place to judge—every valley raised and mountain planed by level crucifix— His arms nailed…
Inside Out
Photo from http://milkshakemelody.com/figurvore/index.php?topic=1183.0 The other night I read my son a Little Golden Book about Jesus’s birth. Making theology meaningful to a three year old is no easy task. Still, I wanted the incarnation of God to be more concrete. My son likes babies so I started out talking about how Jesus was born a little…
Wonderful Things in Your Law (Part 6)
Please read parts 1-5 before continuing… Scripture gives us a choice: keep the law or live by the us in Christ/Christ in us relationship. The former is the old covenant, the latter the new covenant. “By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon…
Wonderful Things in Your Law (Part 5)
Please read parts 1-4 before continuing…. In the first post of this series, we said the purpose of the law is to reveal Christ—Him who is Wonderful—and not just moral or religious practice. The examples given in the preceding post illustrate both of these points. They show that the law finds its fulfillment in the…
Wonderful Things in Your Law (Part 4)
Photo taken at the Glendive Dinosaur & Fossil Museum Please read parts 1-3 before continuing The Ceremonial/Ritual Law Thus far, we have seen that the law is fulfilled as we live in Christ and He lives in us. To deepen our appreciation of this point, let’s consider some specific laws, starting with those in the…
Wonderful Things in Your Law (Part 3)
Please read Part 1 and Part 2 before continuing… Appearances, Appearances We have been saying that the law is fulfilled by two aspects of our relationship with God—us in Christ and Christ in us. Yet these manifest differently, and have different appearances, outwardly speaking. This contributes to our collective confusion about the place of the…
The Voice of One 