Sabbatical Reflections: The Pursuit of Happiness (Part 3 of 3)

There is a recurring theme in the Scriptures: “Blessed (happy) is the nation whose God is the Lord.”  Both corporate and individual happiness has little to do with “hap” and everything to do with recognizing God as the center of personal and national life.  This is what the Founding Fathers of the United States understood [...]

Sabbatical Reflections: The Pursuit of Happiness (Part 2 of 3)

What does the Bible have to say about happiness? How does it use the word happy?  How does the creator of the universe describe the conditions for happiness?
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word asar means happiness or well being.  It is used to describe the “prudent man.”  “Blessed (happy) are all those who put their [...]

Sabbatical Reflections: The Pursuit of Happiness (Part 1 of 3)

As part of my sabbatical reflection, I am reading Marva J. Dawn’s book The Sense of the Call: A Sabbath Way of Life.
An early quote in the book captured my attention. Dawn wrote:  “We can easily give into our culture’s craving for happiness and miss the true joy of genuine faithfulness” (3).  It seems to [...]

Is America a Christian Nation? Part 1 of 2

A few weeks ago, our good friend Ana from Brazil sent us a note with a video clip of Barack Obama’s comments on whether the USA was a Christian nation.  The tape, titled Obama and Religion, was from a message that he delivered at the June 28, 2006 keynote speech at a “Call to Renewal” [...]

The Power of Words: Redefining Marriage (Part 2 of 2)

Today, over 50% of marriages in the U.S. end in divorce.  Could the skyrocketing divorce rates and broken lives left in their wake be caused, in part, by the redefinition of marriage from a legal and religious contract instituted by God to a form of “social and legal dependence?”
In the U.S., the number of cohabiting [...]

The Power of Words: Redefining Marriage (Part 1 of 2)

My friend and mentor Darrow Miller speaks of the power of words to shape culture.  ”When God spoke,” Darrow is fond of saying, “He created the universe.  When man, who is made in God’s image, speaks, he creates culture.”  Our minds and our words have the power to form and shape not only the world [...]

The Cornerstone

In my reading this morning, I was reflecting on Paul’s words in Romans 9:33.  He speaks of Christ as the stumbling stone when he writes:
“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”
Evidently the [...]

Global Economic Crisis – Part 3 of 6

As mentioned in the previous blog, the current global economic crisis is really a moral and metaphysical crisis. All social, economic and political institutions are founded on what might be called a “mental infrastructure” or set of ideas and ideals. To put it differently every culture has a “story” that frames the life of the [...]