Spiritual Formation

I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. (Ps. 119:99) Some of my favorite seminary classes were the electives I took with the learned, insightful, near-legendary Dr. Peter Gentry, including the Hebrew exegesis of Isaiah. The set text was Isaiah 1–11 and 54–56. We were required to read the…

My grandparents once had a wall of pictures in the long hallway at the top of the stairs in their home. I can remember my mom and aunts standing around the pictures after a new cousin was born, talking about how much the new addition favored one older relative or another. These days it seems…

While this past year has brought many unexpected difficulties, it has also brought some surprising gifts. One of the surprising gifts of the pandemic came for me when an old seminary friend asked if I wanted to be a part of a Zoom book study. Thursday mornings have now become a place to dig deep…

Have you ever prayed for something that didn’t happen? You poured out your soul before God, begging him to come through, and your prayers seemed to go unanswered? I think that’s the experience of a lot of Christians. There are some today who would even teach that if you have enough faith and you pray,…

When I talk with Christian teenagers and college students, discerning God’s will for their life is a big concern. They all seem to want their future to be perfect—or at least as perfect as they can dream it should be in light of the things that matter most to them. So often for young Christians,…

There’s a lot of books out there on how to read a book. You might want to start with the one called How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler. Another great one is the book Lit! by Tony Reinke. These books exist because reading is a lost art. We know how to read words…

On the first Sunday of every month, our local church, Christ Covenant Church in Atlanta, Georgia, offers a class we call, “First Sunday.” It’s an orientation to our church. Like a new member’s class, it’s required to join our church, but our hope is that the class would help everyone who attends—even those who don’t…