Vocation, the way I was seeking it, becomes an act of will, a grim determination that one’s life will go this way or that whether it wants to or not. If the self is sin-ridden and will bow to truth and goodness only under duress, that approach to vocation makes sense....
Paul actually expects Christ to be encountered as his people share with one another a whole range of verbal ministries in the congregational. For example, as they “sing psalms, hymns and spiritual song,” with gratitude in their hearts to God, they will fulfill the...
I am not an evangelical and don’t want to be one. But my life was made immeasurably better by some of the truths evangelicals taught me. The power of those truths stayed with me even though I never signed on again. The same is true for many people. And so I am not...
The road to faith passes through obedience to the call of Jesus. Unless a definite step is demanded, the call vanishes into thin air, and if men imagine that they can follow Jesus without taking this step, they are deluding themselves like fanatics. …The following two...
Being born-again is a new life, not of perfection but of striving, stretching, and searching—a life of intimacy with God through the Holy Spirit. There must first be an emptying and then refilling. To the extent that we want to know, understand and experience God, we...
There has never been a time when I have not been really happy in the relationship of the parish ministry. The church can really be a community of love and can give one new confidence in the efficacy of the principles of brotherhood outside the family relation. The...
I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word....
Christmas is about those God moments when we muster enough courage to greet, embrace, and even step into the darkness that is killing us. It is to risk seeing that glimmer of light. It is about stepping into that dark room between or within us and to risk stumbling...
An angel appears to Joseph in a dream to explain the situation. When Joseph wakes, he must make decisions about marrying Mary and caring for her and the child. He acts on complete faith and trust. Acting on faith and trust is a tremendous challenge today. In our...
Christianity is mainly wishful thinking…Dreams are wishful thinking. Children playing at being grown-up is wishful thinking. Interplanetary travel is wishful thinking…Sometimes the truth is what sets us wishing for it.