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Father Elijah: An Apocalypse © 1996 Ingatius 597 pages Holy. O’Brien’s writing bleeds holiness. I took a chance with this book. I was browsing the religion section at “So Many Books…” in Huntsville when I saw the tell-tale band across a plain spine that marks Ignatius Press books. That along with the promise of an [...]

I’m going to rip the Pope’s words out of their Roman context and apply them to the church-at-large. These words are very fitting to a church trying to reinvent herself in order to survive: This expression, “it is his Church and not ours”, is really a fork in the road for me: to acknowledge that [...]

During the month of August we looked at what makes a healthy church. It all boils down to strengthening our relationships: with God, with each other, and with the world outside the church. Here are the messages (the download links are on my audio page): Strengthening our Relationship with God [Audio clip: view full post [...]

A Time to Tear Down and a Time to Build Up: A Rereading of Ecclesiastes © 1999 Eerdmans 422 pages The contradictions in the book of Qohelet are real and intended. We must interpret them, not eliminate them (3). With these words, Fox jumps into the deep. He understands the mind of the torn and [...]

Marking up books is a profitable task. While entering my books on LibraryThing, I came across Victor Shepherd’s Seasons of Grace. A quick scan of the starred and underlined passages reminded me of how much I benefited from reading it. It’s loaded with pithy insight into human nature. Here’s a great example that came upon [...]

The Book of Ecclesiastes (New International Commentary on the Old Testament) © 1998 Eerdmans 306 pages This book reminded me of Goldilocks. It wasn’t too big: it doesn’t bog you down with too much theological minutiae. It wasn’t too small: it didn’t leave you wondering how he reached his conclusions. It was just right. This [...]

As I was studying to teach on the letter to the church in Pergamum, I read the verse about the white stone: To everyone who conquers I will give . . . a white stone, and on the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it [...]

I just hopped on board the mixtape.me bandwagon. While the catalogue isn’t as deep as I’d hoped, there’s a lot of good stuff on there. Here’s some of the music I’ve been enjoying lately. Enjoy!

Martian Chronicles © 1958 Bantam (1980) 181 pages Ray Bradbury is lauded as one of the best science fiction writers of the 20th century. I’ve only read a couple of his books now (including the famous Fahrenheit 451), but I would have to agree. Put him and the dearly departed Asimov together in a room, [...]

Helmut Thielicke preached a series of sermons on the Lord’s Prayer (Our Heavenly Father) during the air raids on Stuttgart. Every page of these messages reveal Thielicke’s pastoral desire to comfort the horrified. Here’s a particularly moving passage: Of course we praise him who holds the sun and the stars of the firmament in his [...]