Emmanuel

O come, O come, and be our God-with-us O long-sought With-ness for a world without, O secret seed, O hidden spring of light. Come to us Wisdom, come unspoken Name Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame, O quickened little wick so tightly curled, Be folded with us into time and place, Unfold […]

Origin Stories

We are obsessed with origin stories. We have two Spiderman origin story movies, two hulk origin story movies, who knows how many Batman origin story movies. The Bourne movies are wonderful because we are presented with an origins mystery – where did I come from and how did I become like this? Science obsesses over […]

A Free Gift!

Ha ha, I made you look! I’m only giving away infinite joy and eternal acceptance and everlasting paradise, nothing “real”. It’s Christmas and let’s face it, we’re all thinking about presents. It’s OK, presents are a perfect metaphor for the gospel, and the more you dig into really enjoying that aspect of the season, the […]

The Point of Christmas, According to St. John

14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John *bore witness of Him, and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank […]

Only YOUUUUU!

Have you ever heard someone say that even if you were the only person on earth who believed, Jesus would have still come and died for you? Or that when He was dying on the cross He was thinking of you? I have always been skeptical of such statements, they kind of smell like something […]

Blessed are the Losers

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 “Blessed are the […]

Sure grace is awesome. Now tell me what to do!

Here’s a little excerpt from the ending of my upcoming book, “The Romance of Grace”: Once upon a time there was a wealthy young man that was looking for love. He could never trust that any woman he dated truly loved him, because of his wealth. So he moved into a small run down apartment […]

The blood of Abel vs. the blood of Jesus

I heard this on a Coral Ridge podcast, and it was so good I wanted to pass it along. I can’t figure out who is speaking but it is an episode entitled “In the Beginning … Grace Part 13”. It doesn’t sound like Tullian Tchividjian, but whoever it is, it is worth your while to […]

Cheap Grace is the only Real Grace

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote this: Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle today is for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace as bargain-basement goods, cut-rate forgive­ness, cut-rate comfort, cut-rate sacraments; grace as the church’s inexhaustible pantry, from which it is doled out by careless hands without hesitation or limit. It is grace […]