I’m listening to the Chronicles of Narnia with my daughter every morning on the way to school. We’re right at the beginning, The Magician’s Nephew. It’s actually been a pretty worshipful experience so far, but today I found myself getting a little frustrated. If you know the story, you know towards the end there’s a cabbie and a horse that somehow get taken into Narnia. Anyway. Aslan chooses the cabbie to be the first king of Narnia and he chooses the horse to go on a special mission for Him, making the horse the first of the winged horses of … Continue reading Grace to the Common

I’ll admit at first, I thought it was a little strange to hear Jesus referred to as a high priest. For me, the term conjures up an image from something like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I don’t think I’ve ever met a high priest, except for some Mormon I sat next to on a plane one time (I think he told me he was a high priest, but then again it was pretty late at night) and it would be easy to dismiss the concept, except that biblically speaking it is like vitally important. The writer of … Continue reading This is no Temple of Doom…

I don’t know if you’ve ever stopped and thought about it, but some biblical duties are just strange. Take hope. We’re commanded all over the Bible to hope in God. 1 Peter is just one example, “set your hope full on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” I think we get so used to commands like that, we don’t recognize how crazy awesome it is. What kind of God do we serve? A God who commands us to look forward to the future with a confident expectation that He’s going to do … Continue reading Amazing Grace…

I was thinking about the difference between Christianity and other religions the other day while sitting on my couch watching “My Name is Earl.” Don’t misunderstand, I’m not recommending My Name is Earl, I’m just saying it reminded me a profound theological lesson. The show is about redemption. The plot is pretty simple: Earl’s done a lot of dumb things and Earl’s trying to redeem himself by going back and trying to fix all his mistakes. Apparently he was watching Carson Daly one day and learned about Karma. Now there is a Joshua Mack who is into Karma, he wrote … Continue reading Grace not Karma

How do I become a person who dreads sin and lives in awe of God? I think I know how many people who sincerely want this for their lives and who want the same thing or their children and for their church would answer their question, and the unfortunate thing is that the answers many come up with are very different than Peter’s. When they want to motivatge others and even themselves to fear, they turn to intimidation. Isn’t that the basic tactic of the world? If you want to cause someone to fear, you bully them. And believe it … Continue reading Scary Grace part 2

“And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each man’s deeds, conduct yourselves in fear…” I’ve read, studied, and even preached these verses before and I’ll admit, I’ve always been a bit confused as to why exactly Peter brings this up. Now, I can understand the first part; why Peter talks about us calling God Father. That fits with the theme of the chapter. Peter’s talking about the difference it makes now that we’ve been born again. He begins in verses 3-12 by blessing God that he’s caused us to be born again, and in … Continue reading Grace is Scary…