Thanksgiving is almost upon us…which means it’s time for my annual review of the ETS conference. This year’s Evangelical Theological Society annual meeting was held in Denver, Colorado. After spending 6 years in downtown Dallas and visiting 8 other conference sites, including Baltimore, Chicago, and New Orleans, it turns out there were more panhandlers in Denver than anywhere. But the city was fairly nice, public transportation was very helpful, and the weather gorgeous for mid-November. The Rockies were only visible to me on the train ride in and out of town, but overall it was a nice venue. The theme for the meeting was the Holy Spirit. While I only…

I used to write song lyrics all the time, but I never wrote much poetry. I enjoyed it when I did, but writing songs was usually more interesting to me. However, sometimes the poetry comes out instead. As it did with this piece I wrote after hearing about a friend’s death. I stumble across it every few years and I thought this time I should share it in her memory. 1/29/2010 I recall the cushy chairIn attic spaceYou first in placeSmall cadreDark corners I recall the old manDancing zydecoBefore MenanderYou joined unbiddenBefore us all I recall the yellow lightYou, Bret, DavidASL, IPAFamiliar and foreignBoth dancing in your eyes I remember…

I began 2018 with the desire to “tell myself something true in public every day.” I was pretty solid for a month, but with a new baby in the home, little disruptions can turn into a big deal. While a lot of my friends are dealing with influenza, it only took a common cold to derail my plans. Then throw a few birthdays and holidays into the mix, and it’s “blog? What blog?” But I haven’t forgotten. In fact, I’ve been eager to get back. Even though it’s a sacrifice to set aside the time, I did find that the discipline improved my thinking. And my writing. (You may quibble…

In my last entry on this series, I talked about something Paul calls the defiled conscience, or the conscience of a person who can’t help but see good things in an evil light. These are false teachers who claim that you can’t come to God unless first you’ve renounced everything that defiles you—when in reality the sin is in the way that you use it, in your intentions and actions, and not in the thing itself. Today I’d like to talk about another category of conscience, one that is very similar but with one crucial difference: these are not false teachers but faithful Christians. It’s a familiar category: the weak…