Spiritual Gluttony – Listening to the Saints (St. John of the Cross)

John of the Cross was a Spanish mystic who lived in the 1500s.  He worked with Teresa of Avila in reforming the communities of monks known as the Carmelites.  One of his best known works, Dark Night of the Soul, is a commentary on a poem, of the same name, that he wrote.  The poem is about the [...]

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Weekly Word – Persecution, stumbling blocks, spiritual death and us

(Every week, give or take, I send out a brief email to the students with some thoughts from Scripture and I offer it here also in case it may encourage anyone else who comes across it) Last evening we studied Matthew 18:1-14.  When Jesus tells his disciples to have faith like a child, he is [...]

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Weekly Word – Opposition, Grief and Silence

(Every week, give or take, I send out a brief email to the students with some thoughts from Scripture and I offer it here also in case it may encourage anyone else who comes across it) The first time Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to die on the cross, they opposed him. [...]

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When Atheists sound like Prophets…and Jesus?

I just finished a book called Suspicion and Faith: The Religious Uses of Modern Atheism by Merold Westphal. The author argues that rather than simply seeking to refute the atheistic criticisms of religion of Freud, Marx and Nietzsche, Christians should realize that much of what they say may ring true. If we know our scripture, [...]

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Summer in Thessalonica – The Second Letter

Paul had preached the message that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior in the city of Thessalonica (Acts 17). While there he faced persecution, soon leaving for the nearby city Berea. He left a very small community of Christians behind. After traveling to Athens and then Corinth, he wrote a letter to this tiny church [...]

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Summer in Thessalonica 4 – Transformation

13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe. 14 For you, brothers, became imitators of God’s churches [...]

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