Despite what I said in a recent article — In a recent article, I discussed why I believe the Bible is not the final authority for the Christian. The premise of that article was that Jesus is the final authority, and we know this because the Bible tells us so. When we truly love something, we want it to…

How one movie forced me to look at myself — I recently watched the movie, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. If you haven’t seen it, it’s not a movie with a happy ending. That’s the whole point of it; it left me just staring into space, shaking my head at the horror of our inhumanity towards each other. I’ve…

And why saying it is means you’re committing idolatry — I grew up in a strong evangelical church that emphasized the importance of the Bible as the Word of God. The Bible was central to these good people. Even though my theology has changed a fair bit since my formative years, my love of the Bible has never left me…

It’s never really worked anyway — It’s over. My attempts at being ‘spiritual’ over the decades just haven’t worked. They’ve left me disillusioned and confused. And I’ve had enough. I remember when I first made a conscious decision to be a Christian back when I was a teenager. I started doing spiritual things like reading the…

Do you have it or does it have you? — I feel like I’ve been making a few confessions lately. Well, here’s another one: I’m too attached to money. It’s true. When I fear losing it, I get deeply anxious. Earlier this year, when I was struggling financially, I felt incredibly anxious for some weeks. I tend to struggle with…

It’s the opposite of what you might think — When I was a young Christian, I was taught that the kingdom of God meant one thing and one thing only. It was the place where those of us in Christ go to spend eternity with him when we die. It’s a pity that what I was taught is not…

It’s about one thing in the end — My greatest passion in life is to be more like Christ each day. That will often take me further away from what much of the church says being Christian is all about. At the funeral of Australian preacher John Smith in 2019, U2 singer Bono recalled in a statement that…

Would you give up everything to get a piece of it? — When was the last time you made a huge investment by selling something you really valued to buy something better? How much of a sacrifice was it for you? Did it hurt? Jesus’ parables about the pearls of great price talk about this. In these short couple of parables in…

It still gives me goosebumps — On a cold and dreary February day in 2018, I climbed the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. I found the exact spot where, about 55 years earlier, Martin Luther King had prophetically and majestically defined his dream for his country and for the world. As I stood…