T. David Beck: The Simple Way of Jesus

I just did something I haven't done for a long time... held 8-year-old Nathaniel down and kissed him a bunch of times. "Stop! Stop!" Love means doing what your kids don't want you to do but, underneath it all, really want you to do.

Last time I posted, I promised that I would draw the connections between the incarnation of Christ and God’s love. It’s been a couple of weeks since then, but I wanted to follow through on my promise. I am going to draw from the writings of John for this post. Here are my thoughts… Incarnation is: God becoming human . Did John hold a theology of the incarnation? It seems so. If the Son came “into the world,” it means God entered the world in some unprecedented way. That phrase “into the world” indicates full immersion in the world. In his Gospel, John explains, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (Jn 1:14). The meaning is pretty clear. The Son, otherwise known as the Word, came into the world by becoming human. When John says the Word “made his dwelling among us,” he means that the Word became one of us. There are many places in John where Jesus talks about being sent by the Father into the world (not least of which is Jn 3:16). Love is: preferring others ove...

Here is an insight that came out in the midst of our small group discussion a couple of days ago. I am a theology geek -- a systematic theologian. But I am also a pastor who wants to see how theology gets lived out. In seminary speak, I cross the lines between systematic theology and practical theology. (Many of us think such a line should not exist!) So there we were, discussing the entire letter of 2 John in one sitting. Okay, so it's only 13 verses long. :-) The first thing we noticed is that John brings up the word "truth" five times in the first four verses. Truth is a major theme in this little epistle. Then John transitions seamlessly into love. Here are verses 4-8: "It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his comma...

I'm not a huge country music fan, but sometimes you need a good country song to get your sentiments across. This goes out to all the moms out there who belong in the Mamas' Hall of Fame... especially mine! :-)