I am personally not a fan of new-years resolutions, because most never get accomplished. However, I’ve decided to take some time to reflect on what it might mean to “sanctify” the coming year to God. My thoughts here are following Jurgen Moltmann’s book Spirit of Life.
Moltmann takes issue with popularized conceptions of “spirituality.” Sometimes spirituality [...]
The Scripture does not only command us to do certain activites. We are also commanded to feel certain emotions. Thus an emotion-less obedience is not in fact full obedience. God calls us to follow and obey him with our entire selves – all of our bodily, sensory, emotional, spiritual, and relational existence. This might seem [...]
The problem with sin is not “because God said so.” Sin is a cancerous force which seeks to destroy all that is good, true and beautiful, leaving the wreckage of alienation and death in the wake of its violence.
In his Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, Jonathan Edwards describes one of [...]
I’m unsure if you’ll believe me, but I am not preparing to launch into a discussion on bodily processes, but rather, New Testament Greek and the New Testament concept of love. I have often heard sincere Christian people define love as something like “acting to promote the well-being of others.” I can understand, both the perspective [...]
Jesus is worthy to take the scroll and open its seals. Jesus is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. What is the relationship between these two ascriptions of worthiness? Why precisely is Jesus worthy? In Revelation 4 and 5 we see a dramatic scene of [...]
For some time I’ve been pondering the notion that we become like what we worship. Recognizing this as a biblical principle (2 Cor. 3:18, amongst others), I’ve wondered how exactly it works. I’ve come up with a theory, not attempting to fully explain the concept, but perhaps to give perhaps one reason why worship has a transformative effect.
Narcissim: Denial of the True Self is a fascinating book by Alexander Lowen, a leading psychoanalyst discussing the problem of narcissism. Though commonly thought of as simply the dilemma of an over-inflated ego in which one loves themselves excessively, Lowen contends that narcissism is rooted in emotional numbness. The narcissist does not love themselves excessively, [...]
