All posts in Salvation

  • You Can Have It All?

    Because I was speaking to a gathering of pastors yesterday my Thinking Day is making an unusual Tuesday appearance. Perhaps I can think a little bit online.

    Saturday morning I saw some Christian television (I was on my way to ESPN College Game Day and came across it. Strange how I feel the need to qualify why I was watching Christian television). Anyway, the star of the show was promoting a new sermon series, “You Can Have It All.” Included in the package was a book entitled, How To Be A Millionaire God’s Way. Whatever.

    A little bit later I remarked to Peri, “Did you know you can have it all?”

    She replied, “What, my empire of dirt?”
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  • The Good Life

    The Good Life. We all want it. But what is it?

    This was the great question of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

    For them the answer was an examined life that led to a life of virtue.

    Not bad.

    For the modern western world the Good Life has little to with virtue. We live in age of ethical poverty.

    Materialism having won the battle for the heart and soul of the post-Enlightenment West, the Good Life now has to do with achievement and acquisition. Position and property. Social status and being able to buy lots of stuff. Climbing the latter of success and finding a Best Buy at the top. The American Dream gone to seed.
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  • From The Dust

    God formed man
    From the dust of the earth
    Breathed into him the breath of life
    Man became a human being.
    Genesis 2:7

    Humanity did not spring fully formed from the head of Zeus like Athena or fall from the sky like one of the gods of Greek mythology. Humanity did not have a pre-existent state in the non-spatial, non-temporal realm of perfect forms as Plato imagined. Humanity did not come from somewhere other than the earth. Humanity’s only home has been the spinning blue orb third from the sun. If this world is not our home (as the Gnostics claimed) we are homeless.

    Humanity was formed.
    Formed by God.
    Formed from the earth.
    All living things share common ancestry
    The dust of the earth.
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  • Locating Salvation

    I get lots of questions via Facebook. I can’t answer them all. That’s just the way it is. But here’s one I’d like to address. The question goes like this…

    Pastor Brian,
    What is the one thing that motivates you everyday to live a radical life for Jesus? Is it the hope of glory? An experience you’ve had? The realization of your identity in Christ? The reason I ask is because it’s not always easy to be radical for the Lord. It’s easy when you get to surf the wave, but when you are paddling out to sea, it’s rough… it’s easy when you get the pools of breakthroughs and miracles… but what do you do when you’re in a desert? what is it that keeps you pressing hard?
    -E.M.

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  • Who Said It?

    Well it’s way past midnight and there are people all around
    Some on their way up, some on their way down
    The air burns and I’m trying to think straight
    And I don’t know how much longer I can wait

    -Bob Dylan, Can’t Wait

    It’s late. Way past midnight. I’m reading. Thinking. Praying. Trying to get it right.
    Trying to get what right? Trying to get salvation right. Nothing matters more than this.
    Popular opinions and cheap assumptions are not enough. Too much is at stake.
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