There are two ways that the soul can resist the truth of God’s sovereign governance over all evil that is implied in Genesis 50:20—“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”

1. The soul can resist with an unbelieving and rebellious spirit that willfully resists God’s right and power and wisdom in “meaning evil for good.”
2. The soul can resist with a humble mixture of love for God’s holiness, justice, and love, on the one hand, and mental perplexity as to how these could be consistent with God’s “meaning evil for good,” on the other hand.

#2 brings God’s patient, merciful displeasure, leading eventually to greater light.

#1 brings God’s punitive displeasure, …

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Eric Johnson’s magnum opus has just been published by IVP Academic. It is titled Foundations for Soul Care: A Christian Psychology Proposal. Knowing Eric and his love for God, and his allegiance to Scripture, and his deep appreciation for the worldview of Jonathan Edwards, and his own walk with Christ through dark valleys, I am encouraged by the conclusion of this book. Don’t stumble over the academic terms (modalities, analogical, theocentric). Penetrate to the amazing claims made here. Then consider pondering the 600 pages that go before.

In concluding the chapter (and the book), it would be good to summarize its major underlying assumption: the different modalities of Christian soul

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Tyndale House is where I did my sabbatical last year. It is an evangelical study center in Cambridge, England. Bruce Winter was the "warden" then (like a president). I saw first hand what a crucial role that was. Now after Winter's many fruitful years there, Peter Williams is stepping into that strategic place as warden. Meet him and get to know about Tyndale House over at Justin Taylor's blog. You will be encouraged. I am.

Last Sunday, for the first time in my life, I sang on request in a Sunday morning worship service. Another one of those milestones I said I could never do. The pastor saw me in the audience and said that he loved the song I sang to Talitha (that I mentioned in my article last week) and wondered what the tune was. Would I sing it?

Gulp.

I did. Admittedly, there were only 40 people in the congregation.

So according to the request, here’s my shot.

I wrote the words, and I sing them to the tune of "If Thou but Suffer God to Guide Thee" (listen).

Come rest your head and nestle gently,
And do not fear the dark of night.
Almighty God keeps watch intently,
An…

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Lots of people know that Wayne Grudem and I are the deepest of friends. We love to room together at conferences. We love to do things together with our wives. We were both in seminary together for a season. We have co-edited a book together. We taught together at Bethel College. And at this very moment I love him and would fly to his side in a crisis. But, Wayne, Wayne, Wayne, why did you rewrite page 983?

Justin Taylor drew our attention to the fact that Wayne revised section F1 in his new edition of Systematic Theology (pp. 982-983). The section is titled, “Do Churches Need to Be Divided Over Baptism?”

In the first edition, Wayne answered that question no. In the new edition, he…

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One of my goals in our ministry to children at Bethlehem is to help parents teach them the truth and model the truth, so that when a family goes to the Science Museum in St. Paul and watches a dizzying documentary on Katrina in the Omni Theater (like we did a few weeks ago), which ends with the environmentally loaded lament,

When I get to heaven
I will shed a tear,
Because it won’t be as sweet
as what I have right here.
This is my home.

a five year old will suddenly look up to daddy and say, “That’s not right. Jesus is better than what we have right here.”

From 11 to 12 this morning, Gary Eichten of Minnesota Public Radio interviewed Rabbi Harold Kushner about the collapse of the 35W bridge. Kushner is best known for his book When Bad Things Happen to Good People. There were several astonishing things about this interview—not unusual for religious talk shows on public radio, but astonishing still.

1. The most astonishing thing is that God’s grace is so great neither the Rabbi nor I was struck dead by God during the interview—he, because of his blasphemous belittlings of God, and I, because of my contaminated anger at what he said.

2. Another astonishing thing is that Gary Eichten, as far as I heard, never challenged the Rabbi to supp…

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My plan for this fall—and I want to stress it is a plan, not a promise—is a 7-part series on historically significant sins. It will be entitled “Spectacular Sins and Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ.” The first message, on August 12, will be an overview of where we are going and why, as it relates to our life as a church and our witness in the city and the world.

Here are some goals for this series:

• To show that the Christian faith is not like Hinduism or Buddhism or vague New Age Spiritualism but is rooted in and made up of objective historical reality outside ourselves: God, Satan, creation, human beings, sin, fallenness, providence, and divine puposefulness in all thing…

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Torchbearers International began in the heart of a young Englishman, Ian Thomas, who at the age of 19 came to understand that “it is no longer I but Christ who lives in me.” This timeless flame of truth has been spreading around the world through the ministries of Torchbearers International, calling all people of all ages from all nations back to the reality that the Christian life is not just a religion but a relationship with the living God made know in his Son, Jesus Christ.

So writes Chris Thomas (Ian’s eldest son), the General Director of Torchbearers from Estes Park. That “young Englishman” completed his course on Tuesday, July 31, 2007. There will be a memorial ser…

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I wrote this poem when I heard of a newlywed waiting for her husband after the bridge collapsed.

Listen

O God, please let him be unconscious,
With his wallet lost, unknown
In some draped cubicle, with nurses
Near, and scrolling through his phone.

You never stayed so late. O Jesus,
I would give this house, and weep
With joy to know he stayed at
Work, until he fell asleep.

It’s midnight. I’m afraid to call, or
Even look too closely at the cars
Above the water, with the broken
Windows, glimpsed between the twisted bars.

I sleep. And you are there, the current
Of the Mississippi in your hair,
Caressed, so still, so still, so breathless,
Love, as when last night I touched you there.

I wake…

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