The Hermit and the Blackbird
By Donavon Riley
03/27/26
11mins

The Hermit and the Blackbird

Lent exists because we are forgetful creatures. We forget how hungry we really are.
Getting Over Your Moral Superiority
Daniel Emery Price
Daniel Emery Price
03/26/26

Getting Over Your Moral Superiority

The Pharisee valued fasting and giving tithes, but could not find value in his fellow sinner.
The Original Sin of Preaching: The Constant Craving for a Useful God in Pulpit and Pew
Magnus Persson
Magnus Persson
03/25/26

The Original Sin of Preaching: The Constant Craving for a Useful God in Pulpit and Pew

God is not a tool in our hands. He does not exist to serve our goals, our metrics, or our platforms.

All Articles

Donavon Riley
Donavon Riley
12/27/16

Where There Is No Gospel...

Can one still find a church that teaches that Christianity, and the Christian life, can be summed up as: "We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone?"
Paul Dunk
Paul Dunk
12/12/16

Grace Came Down

God coming to us at Christmas encapsulates the essence of Christian faith: we don't make ourselves strong and then work our way up to a strong God.
Bonnie Petroschuk
Bonnie Petroschuk
12/07/16

In Our Time of Need

Have you ever grown despondent from trying so hard to stop behaving in certain destructive ways, but always failing?
Larry D. Hughes
Larry D. Hughes
12/07/16

"God Said, 'Take'"

The devil is effective with this attack because it calls out all the things a Christian sinner experiences as simultaneous sinner and saint.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
12/03/16

Two Ways to Launch Your Career in the Self-Salvation Business

Sometimes we try be the bad god, sometimes the good god, oftentimes a freaky hybrid of both. The result is the same: Jesus the savior just gets in our way.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
11/30/16

Gospel Phobia

If the devil took over a church, I suspect it would be bursting at the seams every Sunday, with smiling faces, clean noses, straight morals, conservative voting, institutional fidelity
Scott Keith
Scott Keith
11/03/16

Philip Melanchthon: The Method of the “Loci Communes” - 1526

by Philip Melanchthon, translated by Scott L. Keith, Ph.D.; edited by Kurt Winrich
Dominick Santore
Dominick Santore
10/04/16

The Other Criminal’s Demand: “Save Us!”

There was another criminal next to Christ the day he died. He was aware of who Jesus was, and why he was there.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
09/27/16

My Favorite Dirty Word in Church

You became, for a time, ritually unclean. Not sinful. Not immoral. To be unclean meant you bore in your own body the effects of a creation in bondage to decay.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
09/23/16

The Beast of "Should" at the Zoo

All our little laws reveal that we are, by nature, trying to justify ourselves before others, and before God, based on what we do and who we are.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
09/15/16

Will Believers Be Judged? Thoughts from the Weirdest Parable Jesus Told

We fly away to the judgment seat of God. There we shall appear before the One who knows all, before whom nothing is hidden. Do you really think you can conceal anything from Him?
RJ Grunewald
RJ Grunewald
08/19/16

Calling "Bull" On Theology

It’s time to call bull on a theology the dominates Christianity.
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