It’s hard to believe it, but this weekend marks 5 years since we moved from the Southwest to West Michigan. Since we lived in Dallas for 6 years, it’s hard to believe that we’ve been gone almost as long as we were there. It was such a formative part of my life, and by contrast our time here in Grand Rapids has been something of a blur. I want to reflect on that today and in the process catch you up on our lives. Our first five years in Dallas saw us living in two homes, attending two churches, but ultimately living in the consistent and structured pull of seminary…

Thanksgiving is almost upon us…which means it’s time for my annual review of the ETS conference. This year’s Evangelical Theological Society annual meeting was held in Denver, Colorado. After spending 6 years in downtown Dallas and visiting 8 other conference sites, including Baltimore, Chicago, and New Orleans, it turns out there were more panhandlers in Denver than anywhere. But the city was fairly nice, public transportation was very helpful, and the weather gorgeous for mid-November. The Rockies were only visible to me on the train ride in and out of town, but overall it was a nice venue. The theme for the meeting was the Holy Spirit. While I only…

I began 2018 with the desire to “tell myself something true in public every day.” I was pretty solid for a month, but with a new baby in the home, little disruptions can turn into a big deal. While a lot of my friends are dealing with influenza, it only took a common cold to derail my plans. Then throw a few birthdays and holidays into the mix, and it’s “blog? What blog?” But I haven’t forgotten. In fact, I’ve been eager to get back. Even though it’s a sacrifice to set aside the time, I did find that the discipline improved my thinking. And my writing. (You may quibble…

In my last entry on this series, I talked about something Paul calls the defiled conscience, or the conscience of a person who can’t help but see good things in an evil light. These are false teachers who claim that you can’t come to God unless first you’ve renounced everything that defiles you—when in reality the sin is in the way that you use it, in your intentions and actions, and not in the thing itself. Today I’d like to talk about another category of conscience, one that is very similar but with one crucial difference: these are not false teachers but faithful Christians. It’s a familiar category: the weak…

Today in my men’s Bible study I was reminded of the scene in the Old Testament where God speaks to the people of Israel from Mount Sinai. I had never noticed it before, but it appears as though the Ten Commandments as originally delivered may have been spoken to the whole nation, not just to Moses. There a few small clues, but most prominently at a glance is Exodus 20:22: And the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven.'” And again I was reminded about the intimate relationship God had with…