The Trinity is for Life, not Curiosity

Fred Sanders passes along this gem from Edmund Hill’s notes on Augustine’s De Trinitate: But the dramatic scope of the De Trinitate was not even suspected, and so its essential significance was lost on the Latin theology of succeeding ages. The work was indeed much copied and diligently mined…. But the central point was missed entirely, and that is that Augustine is proposing the quest for, or the exploration of, the mystery of the Trinity... Read More

What is the Fear of God?

A good friend of mine and member of the church where I am the associate pastor asked me for my take on what it actually means to “fear the Lord” . Since I suspect there are many who have this question, and since we should probably get it right (it is the “beginning of wisdom”, after all), I thought I’d pass along my answer. ———————————— Dear [friend], I... Read More

I’m a Legalist When I Pray

Paul Miller, A Praying Life, 31-32, discussing prayer and Jesus’ call to come to him as a child (emphasis mine): The difficulty of coming just as we are is that we are messy.  And prayer makes it worse.  When we slow down to pray, we are immediately confronted with how unspiritual we are, with how difficult it is to concentrate on God.  We don’t know how bad we are until we try to be good.  Nothing exposes our selfishness and spiritual... Read More

Work Out Your Salvation

I’ve been camping for a few days, and since I don’t have an iPhone or anything, I have been behind on blog reading.  So maybe my linking Mike Bird’s excellent post about the need to obey once we believe is totally needless because you all have already read it. But supposing you haven’t, go read it.  It is great, and it hits on a recent hobby horse I’ve been riding, namely that the young Reformed movement is so overly... Read More