The Mockingbird Conference – The End of Scorekeeping

I’ve been in Birmingham Alabama over the weekend attending Mockingbird Ministries “Grace, Rest, and the end of Scorekeeping” fall conference. I have to say, it was wonderful! It was great to be with so many likeminded people and to be challenged to go deeper in my understanding and practice of grace. I met some great […]

Mockingbird Fall Conference in Birmingham AL

I’m at the Mockingbird Ministries Fall conference in Birmingham AL. I’m staying at the Advent house near the church where the conference is being held, and it sure is nice. I’m feeling very blessed indeed, they couldn’t have been more hospitable here. I’ve never been to Birmingham and it is a wonderful city. Here’s a […]

Parable of Spiritual Surrender

I’ve been looking at the story of Abraham and Isaac, and what it teaches us about spiritual surrender and release. Naturally I started to think about my son Jonathan and Batman. When my son Jonathan was younger, from about 18 months until he was around 10 years old, he was completely and absolutely obsessed with […]

Abraham and Spiritual Surrender

More meditation on the faith of Abraham. Genesis 22 God, in His love and favor over Abraham, gave him this bizarre task, to offer his son as a burnt offering. This is on the surface one of the craziest and most difficult stories in all of scripture. How could a good and loving God ask […]

Going with Abraham Beyond the Law

He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” From the first taste of forbidden fruit we have been imbued with firsthand knowledge of good […]

Steve Jobs, Secular Savior

I am a huge Apple customer. I work at a place that is swimming in macs, I have 4 on my desk alone. I am typing this on my beautiful 15″ Macbook Pro. I got my first mac in 1992, a Classic II. I still remember how excited I was to get that machine! I […]

Innocuous Seeker Sensitive Legalism

Most churches would hesitate to label themselves as legalistic or law-centered. I want to take a look at a typical ‘seeker-friendly’ helpful life-focused practical sermon meant to help normal average people lead better lives. Let’s suppose our friendly and kind of cool pastor has chosen to do a series on marriage. This is a popular […]

The Free Grace Alliance in the Wider World

On the Free Grace Alliance web site, the president of the organization recently posted a letter from a younger member of the organization which included this quote: ●The Free Grace Movement and FGA are not reaching the younger generation like the Neo Calvinist movement is. I sense there is a serious problem in the Grace […]