A few years into my time working with the students and families at Westminster, something amazing happened. People began to trust me. Suddenly more students were asking, “Hey, can we talk for a second?” and more parents were calling with questions like, “How do you think my son is doing?” It was the kind of ministry I loved doing more than any other. After just a few months I realized one very importa…
I’ll be honest, I’m not so sure that I had a good grasp on what “theology” was when I got into seminary. I’m pretty sure I thought it was just the language that really smart people used to confuse the rest of us when they were talking about God. Why say “eschatology” when you could just as easily say “the study of the end times?” I was much more interested in biblical scholarship and historical studies in the be…
Everybody knows the Christmas story, or at least the part about how the baby arrives. Less familiar to many people, I think, is who this baby turns out to be and how he really matters. In one of those prophecies from Isaiah that sound a lot like Jesus to Christian ears, the prophet says: “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named W…
Well – here we are – ready to celebrate Christmas. Or more likely, in my case, probably running around like crazy, trying to finish up all of the last minute details… I don’t know what it’s like at your house, but somehow, no matter how much I plan, or how early I start – nevertheless I find myself with gifts still unpurchased (not to mention unwrapped – and don’t even mention the ones I had planned to make…
Great things are promised, And they are imminent. Incredible events are proclaimed, Events that no human ear has heard; unrevealed mysteries are opened up. The earth and humankind Are already quaking under their advance. And a prophetic voice cries into a frightened world: The kingdom of heaven has come near. The Lord God himself is coming, the Creator and Judge. He comes with love for…
