There is such a love, a love that creates value in what is loved. There is a love that turns rag dolls into priceless treasures. There is a love that fastens itself into ragged little creatures, for reasons that no one could ever quite figure out, and makes them...
Offering whatever you have and whatever you are is enough. Too many people don’t believe that, so they don’t get involved. Because we can’t do what we think would really make a big difference, we don’t offer our own gift—whatever that is. …Jesus taught his disciples...
Our checkbooks are probably our best theological statement about our real values. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)
Healing prayer is part of the normal Christian life. It should not be elevated above any other ministry in the community of faith, nor should it be undervalued; rather it should be kept in proper balance. It is simply a normal aspect of what it means to live under the...
Sacred Choral Music in America Pristine colonial meetinghouses, frontier brush arbors, African-American churches, rural singing schools and ornate urban cathedrals have all been seedbeds for the potent partnership of fervent faith and choral singing. During the last...
The arts are not simply skills: Their concern is the intellectual, ethical and spiritual maturity of human life. And in a time when religious and political institutions are so busy engraving images of marketable gods and candidates that they lose their vision of human...
We must not worship without study, for ignorant worship is of limited value and can be very dangerous. We may develop “a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” (Rom.10:2) and do great harm to ourselves and others. But worship must be added to study to complete...
The gospel ought never to be entirely at home in any culture. If gospel and culture fit together as easily as hand-in-glove, then the likelihood is that the gospel has capitulated to the values of the culture… There must always be some tension between gospel and...
Tradition hands on from one generation to another those things found useful. Tradition doesn’t attempt to suppress new experience or insight. Tradition is a treasury of experience from which we may draw for our benefit. Traditionalism, on the other hand, is rigid and...
The bedrock of my faith—mind you, I didn’t get to it easily—is that we are loved by God. He loves us as we are, but too much to leave us that way. We are loved by God, and that’s what gives us value. We don’t achieve value. It’s not because we have value that we’re...