Christ, Our Passover

Posted inOther1 Comment

The Wall Street Journal ran an op-ed piece last week raising the question, “Is Passover the New Christmas?” The article’s author, Diane Cole, the book columnist for the Psychotherapy Networker, pointed out that more and more non-Jewish people are celebrating Passover. Partly due to the rise of interfaith marriages or the universality of the theme of liberation (which she interpreted only as the political variety), these celebratory meals, called Seders, centered around unleavened bread and four glasses of wine, are becoming more and more popular.

My take on Rob Bell

Posted inThoughtful Living1 Comment

The cover story of this week’s Time magazine is about Hell. Specifically, it poses the question of “What if there’s no hell?” It’s all a response to a brewhaha about Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins. I won’t attempt to review the book or the controversy since others have done that already and have done so far better than I can do here.

Q & A about evangelism

Posted inEvangelism1 Comment

One of the purposes of this blog is to help Christians proclaim the gospel well. From time to time I hope to post a question someone has posed and my response. Here’s my first attempt at this.

Question: How do you go about resolving the tension between, on the one hand, having a “dialogue” approach to evangelism and viewing it as a process, and, on the other hand, wanting to get the whole gospel into the conversation? I find that if I don’t get the whole gospel outline into the conversation, I feel guilty and anxious afterwards, because what if a) I don’t get another chance to talk to this person, or b) they don’t get another chance to hear the gospel? E.g. they get hit by a car next week (I realize that’s a bit of a cliche but you get the picture).

The Power of Poetry

Posted inRecommended Reading2 Comments

April is National Poetry Month. I hope you have a few favorite poems that you’ll dust off and enjoy. And I hope you will explore poetry a bit more, regardless of how much or little it has shaped you thus far.

Poems touch places where prose can’t go. They scratch where other genres don’t reach. They ignite or fan into flame emotions that otherwise remain cold.