How do you view the question of ultimate authority? And what are the implications concerning other questions of reality? An ultimate authority is an authority that transcends all other authorities and is understood to have legitimate—not arbitrary—rights to govern and rule. As a Christian, I would argue that God is the ultimate authority of all […]
Category: Writings on Christianity
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Daniel 8 Sermon Outline
Here’s my notes for a sermon on Daniel 8. Audio can be found here. Daniel 8: Hope in the Pain and Perplexities of Life Intro: Being a Christian will NOT exempt you from suffering and pain. Christians experience all kinds of pain: pain of persecution for believing in Jesus, pain of being excluded or mocked […]
Clinging to God in the Midst of Pain and Perplexity Daniel 8 is an apocalyptic vision of future events. The vision tells us of the rise of Persia followed by the rise of Greece and a future king that comes from Greece who causes great suffering for the people of God. This king—whom most commentators […]
Here’s the February newsletter for Cross of Christ Fellowship, our church in Naperville: https://mailchi.mp/6af7d45c8d59/cross-of-christ-fellowship-february-newsletter
A Glorious Hope (This post is a continuation of a previous post on Daniel 7, found here.) Along with the troubling fact there is also a glorious hope given to us in Daniel 7. The beastly nations and our own beastly nature do not have the final word. God, who is eternal and majestic and […]
Soccer games. Groceries. Working 70 hours a week. Trying to exercise and keep our houses in order. Driving children to endless activities. These are the concerns and rhythms for many of us in suburbia. The glories that grab our hearts are healthy children who do well in school, careers that are satisfying, and, somehow, accomplishing […]
Dear Friend, You rightly recognize the audacious claims of Christians and others who assert they possession knowledge of ultimate reality and God. (It is a bold statement to claim such knowledge about God and reality.) You also rightly recognize that competing statements about God (Jesus is God and Jesus is not God for instance) cannot […]
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Preaching Daniel
Our church in Naperville (Cross of Christ Fellowship) is going through the book of Daniel together on Sunday mornings. And as I write this post we have made it through the first five chapters so far. This Sunday a friend of mine is coming to preach chapter 6 and then we’ll be in a new […]
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Only God Can Judge Me
Sometimes I hear people say, “Only God can judge me.” What are we, who are Christians, to make of such a statement? The statement often occurs in the context of opposing self-righteous judgementalism. When we hear someone say, ‘Only God can judge me,’ we are meant to infer that ‘since only God can judge […]
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What is Beauty?
This Saturday our meetup discussion group is discussing BEAUTY together. I’ve enjoyed preparing for this discussion and thinking about it a bit. Here’s some of the questions we’ll be thinking through together: 1. When we say a thing is beautiful, what do we mean?2. What makes a thing beautiful and a thing ugly?3. Is beauty […]
