the waiting country

The second feature of God’s incomparable Word is the mystery of its doctrines. It acquaints us with  things far above our reach. “O the dept...

I thought I'd posted this here a long time ago but apparently not... Back in late 2017 I was invited to the church poetry group. Bring a...

The incompleteness of Samson’s story, and indeed the incompleteness of the entire book of Judges, is an invitation to hear the book of Judg...

Today, I’m grateful to live in a space between subsistence and decadence, between scarcity and consumption. It feels like a gift. I can work...

But perhaps you would argue that, since you want to be a contemporary poet, you do not want to be too much under the influence of what is ol...

This comment by Mary Oliver regarding poetry might also be usefully considered in relation to how we see and understand people and their sto...

[Eugene] Peterson’s various insights into the vocational benefits of reading are nowhere more compelling than in the places where he writes ...

Unacquaintedness with our mercies, our privileges, is our sin as well as our trouble. We hearken not to the voice of the Spirit which is giv...

Someone asked me, If Jesus couldn't do many miracles in Nazareth, but he raises the widow's son without any active faith, then what...

Referring to the character Dilsey in William Faulkner's novel, The Sound and the Fury, Marilyn McEntyre comments: As a white man, Faulkn...

I recently read The Flourishing Pastor by Tom Nelson - it was really helpful; here are some quotations that struck chords with me: Sheep a...

The word pair passion and serenity establishes an essential contradiction for our inner lives. Imagine a person who pursues his convictions ...

In no particular order (as they say), here are some books/listens I've really enjoyed through this year: Thy Will Be Done: The Ten Comma...

Proper prayers flow from faithful, obedient hearts bringing to God real needs that we beg him to meet. His answer may be “Yes, here and now,...

So in Genesis 33:4, Esau behaves in a way that is echoed by the Father in Luke 15, in their response to the returning (wayward) son - Gen 33...

 Mark Futato: One thing is clear when you look at God’s revelation, from Genesis to Revelation, that whenever really big things happen in th...

The command to 'remember Jesus Christ' at first sight seems extraordinary. How could Timothy ever forget him? Yet the human memory i...

My memory isn't what it used to be, suffering the fraying of edges made ragged by the wastage and shredding of time's unkempt false ...

Reflecting on the growth of the early church, Gerald Sittser offers some thoughts to explain its success: Christians had to guard the newnes...

Augustine’s Confessions bears rereading because its story is the human story, a story that—with time and contemplation—I can also make my o...