“All the natural movements of the soul are controlled by laws analogous to those of physical gravity. Grace is the only exception. Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it, and it is grace itself which makes this void. The imagination is continually at work filling up all the fissures through […]

For part one of these somewhat meandering reflections on obedience, Fear Comes First ; part two, Whispers. More (as I write ‘em) articles in this series, as well as other Devotionals. Love is a terrible thing, especially when that love is God’s Love. God’s Love reveals to us that we are without love. This is the first and most foundational […]

As with the previous portions of this series on obedience or whatever one might choose to call it, what follows is not meant to be a universal teaching. Far, far from it. Take what is useful; toss the rest. “It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey.” And “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” These […]

I think a lot about the hardness of human hearts. I feel oppressed, depressed, beaten down by the many examples of “man’s inhumanity to man.” I look in the mirror and see someone looking back at me whom I at times do not know. That face doesn’t tell me anything I don’t read into it. Hardness is not always seen […]

[Here’s an oldie-goldie from my still-extant but no longer updated blog exploring Christian feminism, “Are Men Really Human?”] Today, a dear friend unintentionally brought me face to face with my own anger. I had sent her links to an article blasting her ministry as unbiblical and “liberal.” Indignant, I was sure she’d enjoy ranting with me about their many logical […]

[Originally published on Wilson Station June 6, 2011.] I wrote this recently in response to a friend’s self-confident writings about why he had left the Christian faith behind. It was one of many back and forth communications we have had. It is not a perfect argument for God, or some well-crafted Atheist-busting syllogisms. It is, I suspect, more a cry […]

A few years ago, in response to an illness, a doctor gave me a powerful anti-biotic called Factive. The cure was worse than the disease. I ended up on my bathroom tile floor, racked with pain through my entire gastro-intestinal tract. And in the midst of that pain, the worst physical pain I’ve ever known, I found myself praying that […]

Sometimes we resist traditions outside our own branch of the Christian faith, and do so for reasons we don’t totally comprehend ourselves. Today I received in my email a post from Vic Williams, one of our Jesus People USA pastors, about just such a tradition: Ash Wednesday. Today, in case anyone hadn’t noticed… JPUSA is having an Ash Wednesday service […]

C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters offer up one side of a “correspondence” between two tempters from hell, one (whom we never actually hear from) being the Junior Tempter and the other (his “uncle” with all the creepiest meanings of that word) being the first’s tutor. Below is a short tutorial the elder demon Screwtape offers regarding the proper use of […]

I, along with other people I’ve been talking with about it, have been reading the book of Revelation (at the end of the Bible). Are these really the ‘end times?’ Is Jesus really coming back, soon? It is a wonderful thing to have a healthy, reverent fear of the living God!! Come on, either God is real, or He’s not. […]