The Face of Disfigured Piety

I have been reflecting on some conversations I’ve had over the past little while in the light of my meditation on what Flannery O’Connor said about the face of good being grotesque because in human beings good is always something under construction.  (Please read my blog, “Good’s Disfigured Face,” before proceeding.) My meditation could be read to be suggesting that the only form of brokenness that we have to see past to…

Being Married to a Eunuch

I’m working on a project for a friend who is developing Sunday school curriculum. The project has required that I reread and paraphrase a lot of the Old Testament for reading out loud to children. It has been a good project for me, even if often I have had to make myself do it. It is not very intellectually stimulating. However, reading through the life of Joseph this morning I saw something…

Fasting

At the end of Romans, starting with chapter 12, St. Paul begins to give practical application.  It is the common pattern in St. Paul’s letters to start by thanking and praising God (doxology), and then move on to explaining a little about who God is and what He has done for us (theology), and then to move on to behavioral application, the “so what” of theology: how we apply theology in our…

Hebrews 10:24

“And let us consider one another to stir up love and good works.” (NKJV) “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” (NIV). For many years—most of my adult life really—I read the NIV translation of the Bible. This verse in Hebrews played an important role in how I understood relationships among Christians were supposed to work. That is, I thought we were supposed…