Between the Trees

Well, it’s been a good run, but the time has come. Those of you who are regular readers know that, for a variety of reasons, I’ve been slowly fading in my posting regularity over the last few months. Platitudes about my busy life aside, I think the time has come to make a decision and [...]

Note: This is part 3 of an ongoing series discussing the question of hell. Here are posts one and two.
Last time, I tried to offer a take on the big story of Christianity, putting the questions of hell and divine judgment in their proper contexts. I’d like to sum up four major points from this [...]

I’m sorry for the dearth of posting, but seminary is crazy right now. That said, I had to make a quick comment.
There is a video game called Guitar Praise, which for those not in the know is Guitar Hero for church kids. One of the reviews on the site starts “We are not conformed to [...]

A big, beautiful, 47-year-old middle finger to the idea that musical talent needs to come in an anorexic hourglass body.
Made me cry.
(HT: Andrew Sullivan)

A repost from last Easter, but I love the poem.
Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.
It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of [...]

To start talking about hell, it is critical that we place it within the framework of the larger biblical story. Both the objections people outside Christianity have to the doctrine and the distortions that tend to creep into our own ways of discussing it come from placing hell into a different story than the biblical [...]

Has anyone else noticed the twinge of pride and triumph you get from finally getting through all the unread mail in your e-mail inbox? Or sorting through and ignoring all of the group and event invitations you allowed to pile up on facebook?
My first impulse is to think that perhaps it signals just how much [...]

One of the issues which keeps cropping up in my interactions with friends who aren’t Christians is the question of hell. While I usually end up sidestepping this issue, both its commonness and intensity have driven me to ponder lately how we as Christians should answer the question, and I wanted to post a series [...]

This is a fantastic post on Christians struggling with same-sex attraction. Go read it. Now.
(HT: Abraham Piper)

I just read an article discussing what “Christian Hipsters” are. It was creepy - like someone describing symptoms of cancer and you realizing you’re exhibiting every one of them. While I wish the label didn’t fit (which is itself a symptom, I guess), I am now forced to admit that I am indeed a Christian [...]