Posts from May 2023
May 24, 2023
Dear Friends, Have you ever stopped to think about what you’re really praying when you pray “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors?” You might want to pause for a minute and ask yourself if you really want to pray that familiar petition from the Lord’s Prayer. When you do, you’re asking God to forgive you in the same way that you forgive everyone who has sinned against you. Augustine called this “the terrible petition.” He said if we pray this…
May 17, 2023
Dear Friends, In June of 2020, Tim Keller announced that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He faced the diagnosis with characteristic honesty and resolve. He knew that 80% of the people who receive that diagnosis are dead with a year. He has battled and beaten those odds. But he has also been aware that like all of us, his condition is terminal. That’s why when he received the diagnosis, he quoted Psalm 90. “Teach us to number our days.” I…
MAY 10, 2023
Dear Friends, In 1956, Johnny Cash was backstage waiting to perform at a concert in Gladewater, Texas, when he picked up his guitar and started picking out the chords to a new song. These now familiar lyrics began to wrap their way around those chords. I keep a close watch on this heart of mine,I keep my eyes wide open all the time,I keep the ends out for the tie that binds,Because you’re mine, I walk the line. I find it very,…
MAY 3, 2023
Dear Friends, Are Christians called to be bold? Before you jump right to the “sometimes” answer, let’s think about this for a minute. It’s not that “sometimes” is the wrong answer. But maybe we need to think this through a little more carefully. I think we may have a caricature in our minds about what it means to be bold. What comes to mind for me is the speech given by President Thomas J. Whitmore, played by Bill Pullman, in the 1996 movie…