The Contrast of God

Some time back we looked at the story of Jonah and how it illustrates God's preference for showing mercy. The book of Nahum is sort of a sequel to Jonah, and like a lot of sequels, it's a darker, grittier tale. But it's not all dark, and both the dark and the light tell us something important about God.

Who may live on your holy hill?

The old saying goes "familiarity breeds contempt." In my experience, though, it's more likely to breed complacency: We tend to take the people we know best for granted. We don't even notice street signs on roads we regularly drive.

And we rarely notice anything new in our favorite Bible passages. So it's nice, if a little jarring, when one of them jumps up and grabs us with something we've never seen before.

Meditations on Being Laid Off

I lost my job. I'm not needed anymore. Apparently I did such a good job I made myself redundant. Even though I tried not to, I find that I had based a lot of my identity in that role, so now I face the need to reinvent myself.

Don't worry about me starving; I have a source of income, but it's just a way to pay for what's important. What's important has become the question. What do I do with myself now?

Be Good for Satan's Sake

Does the devil want me to be bad?

There is an interesting quirk in Christian theology that is easily missed. The average man on the street, even the average believer in the pew, has a view of Satan and temptation that doesn't quite take in the whole picture. Let's poke at it a bit and see if we can get a more nuanced understanding.

The flannel board theology we were all taught is simple: The devil is bad. The devil wants people to go to hell. Sin makes people go to hell. Therefore the devil wants people to sin. I'm going to argue that this view is ... incomplete.

Our Proper Penance

What do you do when you've wronged someone?

Stereotypically, men who get themselves into trouble buy their wives flowers or, if they really messed up, a car. A wife may make her husband's favorite meal or buy him that fishing pole he's been eyeing. But what do we do when we really, really mess up?