God who is “all over” or “everywhere” does not wish to fill all the space in our universe. In order to make room for creation, God withdraws or limits himself. Then, having limited himself, God creates something “over against himself.” Only after the creation of the heavens and the earth can it be said, “There is something which exists which is not God.” Read the rest of this entry »
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The Apostle’s Creed teaches us that it is perfectly acceptable to boast about God. The first article declares, “I believe in God the Father Almighty…” Now “almighty” covers a lot of territory. It means that God can do simply anything! But “almighty” is just the tip of the iceberg. In attempting to describe the attributes of God, theologians have been heaping up superlatives for thousands of years. Read the rest of this entry »
The Apostle’s Creed begins “I believe in God the Father….” When Christians speak of God, we do not mean the generic “God” of the philosophers, nor do we mean the “uncaused first cause” of science. We mean the God of Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob; the God who called to Moses from the burning bush, and gave him the Ten Commandments at Sinai; the God who spoke to the people of Israel by the prophets; and who has, in these last days, “spoken to us by a Son.” In short, we mean “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Read the rest of this entry »
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church suggested four reasons for believing in Christ —a Quadrilateral of Faith: 1) The Bible, 2)The Church, 3) Reason and 4) Experience. In this sermon I would like to advance these four “warrants” of our faith from a personal perspective. Read the rest of this entry »
One of Luke’s most endearing minor characters is a man named Simeon. Simeon appears and disappears in ten short verses of chapter 2; yet the book would hardly seem complete without him. Not only is he the first of the “temple regulars,” to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, but his own life is a great example. He lived a life of no regrets! Read the rest of this entry »
One of the great things about this country is the way it can endure scandal and survive. Consider a few examples. John Adams accused Ben Franklin of wasteful living during the Revolution, complaining that he spent $50,000 a year out of the War Chest as ambassador to France. Franklin said he was wining and dining the French to gather their support. Later, Adams himself, one of my personal heroes, was accused of paying a bribe to a representative of the French Government. He said it was for the same purpose, to keep us out of war. Then Jefferson was accused of having children with a slave girl named Sally Hemings. Ulysses S. Grant was accused of a tax evasion scheme. Warren G. Harding was implicated in the Teapot Dome Scandal—-which was all about the oil, in Wyoming. King David endured scandal, too. Yet he was known as a man after God’s heart. Read the rest of this entry »
According to Carl Jung, the dream is:
…a fragment of involuntary psychic activity, just conscious enough to be reproducible in the waking state. {Jung, Carl G., trans. R.F.C. Hull, Dreams. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974, p. 68.}
The dream is an event in the unconscious mind that the conscious mind can, at times, just barely reproduce. The question remains: Is a dream a message from the unconscious mind directed to the conscious mind? Is it ever the case that a dream is from God? Read the rest of this entry »
