Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
I've pastored a very rural church for well over a decade. Our town has about 1,000 people and will never grow until Jesus returns. 38 people attend our worship on Sundays. Here's a quick list of what we’ve done to grow our church, and what I’ve done to survive pastorally.…
Thanks for sharing so honestly about your current crisis of creativity. I totally understand and relate to that; it’s happened many times in my musical life thus far, and I’ve begun to accept it as a normal rhythm of the creative process. I actually went through a serious dry spell…
The Broken Stones of Israel At Sinai, the tablets of the Law of Moses were broken and restored. The Old Testament is a history of “new covenants,” including that promised in Jeremiah and fulfilled in Zechariah. Ultimately, the vertical Oath and the horizontal Sanctions met in the death of Jesus…
Woe to the sinful nation. Woe to those who enlarge their estates and build their portfolios. Woe to the drunks. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Woe to the proud who are wise in their own eyes. Woe to Congressmen who pass unjust laws and to…
The interpretation of Romans 7:7-25 is notoriously difficult. Good scholars disagree on many aspects of the passage, but the central interpretative difficulty concerns the identity of the “I.” Is Paul referring to himself? Is Paul referring to himself pre- or post-conversion? Does the “I” refer to Adam? Is the “I”…
You board the Metra train at Arlington Heights station one afternoon, heading to downtown Chicago for some sight-seeing. As the train departs from the station, a man in jeans, a striped t-shirt, and a Kansas City Royals baseball cap enters your train car, and begins asking to see each passenger’s…
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R ay Oldenburg’s The Great Good Place is a brief for the “third place,” a place that is neither home nor workplace, a public place that isn’t political, the cafe, tavern, coffee shop or diner where everyone knows your name. “Third place” designates “a great variety of public places that…
T homas Friedman announced over a decade ago that The World Is Flat . It’s gotten flatter since. Friedman focused on how technology had dismantled hierarchies in politics, business, production, and distribution. More recently, Gillian Hadfield argues, “ Digitization on a global scale converts objects and actions and ideas into…
The genealogy of the Levites (ch. 6) is at the center of the genealogical section of 1 Chronicles (chs. 1–9). It’s a long and complexly organized passage. In general, it divides into two sections: The genealogies of the priests and Levites (vv. 1–53) and the cities assigned to priests and…
T he Psalm recorded in 1 Chronicles 16 (Psalm 105) exhorts the singers to “remember forever His covenant, the Word He commanded to a thousand generations” (v. 15). The covenant with Abraham and Isaac, confirmed to Jacob and Israel, has to do with the land: “To you I will give…
R omans 10:9–10 is arranged in a straightforward chiasm: A. If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord B. and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, C. You shall be saved. B'. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness A'. and with the…
W alter Brueggemann sums up the Bible’s perspective on Money and Possessions in six propositions: Money is a gift from God. Wealth is a reward for obedience. Possessions belong to God and are held in trust. Money can be a source of social injustice. Possessions are to be used and…
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