The English writer G. K. Chesterton once wrote: «Nothing taken for granted; everything received with gratitude; everything passed on with grace.» These reflections are the author's effort, as an older father, to pass on to his daughter, with grace, what he believes is truly important in life. When his daughter was young, he used to tell her that his constant prayer was to live long enough so that «I can get you raised!» Thankfully, ...
Fruit of the Vine: A Biblical Spirituality of Wine is designed to help the reader grow in spirituality through reflecting on biblical vineyard stores, wine making, and wine as a metaphor for life. A spirituality of wine–categorized as a spirit–connects the spirit in wine to the universal spirit all share. Wine appeals to all five senses. Its bouquet can be smelled; its complexity, often compared to fruit, can be tasted; its shades of red, design ...
The ancient rhythm of night becoming day becoming night again has always set the tempo of our everyday lives. The daily spin and tilt of the Earth rules our clocks and calendars as well as our human bodies. Yet our minutes and hours and days all too often slip away completely unnoticed. For generations and cultures around the globe and across the ages, though, the moments surrounding sunrise and sunset have been noticeable exceptions: believers ...
Paul obtains a thirty-day leave from house arrest in Rome to «attend to business in Spain,» but must promise to return for sentencing. He plans a «mission blitz» of Hispania. But the plan changes when, in the provincial capital, Paul meets Quintilian, a young pleader who invites him to his family's estate up the Rio Iberus, in La Rioja, outside Calagurris (Calahorra). Paul accompanies Quintilian to Calagurris, along with Luke. Zenas, the ot ...
In Painstaker, Galbraith takes stock of life, building an inventory of faith, regret, travel, parenthood, and hardship both physical and mental. These poems live in cities but remember the farm, with subjects ranging from fatherhood and machinery accidents to the uncertainties of faith. Galbraith calls on a number of absentees who are deceased, divine, distant, or too intimately known, including loved ones, lost friends, and a lobster soon to be ...
These twenty-two meditations on the songs, prayers, and stories of the Bible invite readers to imagine themselves as part of a world in which human beings may fully live into their sufferings and joys as part of a vibrant while still critically searching faith in God. Here we see prophets and poets, as well as ordinary men and women, embrace the realities of life without apology or fear. Each meditation opens with the author's fresh tra ...
The workplace can be very rewarding for the Christian worker. But let's face it–the workplace can also be the most challenging place to be «salt and light» as Jesus commands in Matt 5:13-16. It is daunting to consider that on average, we work 90,000 hours over the course of our working lives. Living Salty and Light-filled Lives in the Workplace gives Christian workers some practical ways to be «salt and light» in the workplace. It will help ...
Looking for deeper insights into an age-old debate on the question of the issue of free will in the theology of Calvin and Arminius? You've come to the right place. When the general question, «does man have a free will?» is directed to John Calvin and James Arminius, the received and oft-repeated answer is that Calvin, jealous for the glory of God, opposes free will and that Arminius, being human-centered, advocates for free will, thus robb ...
"These theological paradoxes … have been deduced well or poorly from St. Paul, the especially chosen vessel and instrument of Christ, and also from St. Augustine, his most trustworthy interpreter." These are some of Martin Luther's words that introduce his Heidelberg Disputation (1518), a collection of doctrinal theses that serves as a manifesto of Luther's theology. The German Reformer claimed that his theses were a faithful expo ...
