-
Patience and Power
Love begins with patience. Fundamental to every act of love is respect for the agency of the one loved. This is the main reason why God does not intervene in ways we think he should to prevent war, pestilence, famine, and other causes of large-scale suffering. His intervention takes the form of individual acts of…
-
Rest Requires Faith (or Exhaustion)
The first creation myth in Genesis ends strangely with God’s rest. Of course, in the stories that follow, the Sabbath and observance of the Sabbath often play major roles, and it’s unsurprising that the authors and preservers of Genesis would want to introduce the origins of the Sabbath at the outset. Yet it is odd…
-
Why God Gives Us Power
The first chapter of Colossians includes Paul’s prayer for his readers. In it he prays that God will grant them wisdom and knowledge and enable them to bear good fruit and do good works. Then he adds, “being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that….” I stopped there. What was it…
-
How to Resist
Immediately after his baptism with water and with the Spirit of God, that same Spirit leads Jesus into an uninhabited region where he goes without food for 40 days and faces testing from the devil. After 40 days, he was hungry, so the first test he faces springs from his hunger. The devil says, “If…
Go to Parent SiteThoughts on religion, politics, life and death. And other banned topics.
