The ongoing heath crisis and cultural and legal events have sent many Christians into confusion and chaos. It has challenged and exposed my deeply rooted problems in American Christianity. Many are choosing to lash out in anger. Others turn to fear. While others double down on politics as their last hope to maintain life as they know it. However, Augustine (354-430) has some great wisdom on Proverbs chapter 6 that turns the familiar passage used to prod lazy Jamestownians and Pilgrims off their 17th-century log couches into a ballad of spiritual preparation.
Read More
Augustine, Aquinas, and our God of Love
I recently completed the comprehensive exams for my academic program. (Don’t worry, they were even more ‘fun’ than they sound). At the end of the verbal portion, one of my professors asked a surprising question: “How do you teach the trinity to your children?”
We had spent the last hour analyzing the East/West divide on the Trinity, parsing the importance of the periochoresis and filioque, and discussing how the divine monarchy informs present and past Trinitarian debate. But his last question, though out of line with the conversation, pressed to the heart of the matter.
In it was a subtle reminder that the Trinity is not an academic concept to be picked apart by ‘professionals’ in a sterile environment; rather the personal reality of our God engages our entire life, even our most fundamental relationships, and it is God’s personal identity we are called to teach to our children (Deut. 6:7).
Read More
“Because We Need Him:” Historical Sermon Illustrations from Matthew 9:12
“But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.” – Matthew 9:12 (NASB)
“I try to be as good as I can”
From Charles H. Spurgeon’s “The Great Physician and His Patients,” 1865
Read MoreA minister, when he had done preaching in a country village, said to a farm-labourer who had been listening to him, “Do you think Jesus Christ died to save good people, or bad people?” “Well, sir,” said the man, “I should say he died to save good people.” “But did he die to save bad people?” “No, sir; no, certainly not, sir.” “Well, then, what will become of you and me?” “Well, sir, I do not know. I dare say you be pretty good, sir; and I try to be as good as I can.”
Augustine the Pastor
Augustine, perhaps church history’s most towering figure, didn’t think his work would be remembered. In his widely read and celebrated autobiographical Confessions, he wondered: “But to whom am I telling this story? Not to you my God; rather in your presence I am relating these events to my own kin, the human race, however few of them may chance upon these writings of mine.”
Read More