Lord, would You please give me an increasing vision of Your majesty? Would You grant me the ability to know Your presence, power and wonder? I long for that, Lord. Instead, my eyes become caught up in all the things to do, the issues at hand, and the concerns of life. It can overwhelm me. …
Imagination and Temptation
During this past year, I read through Alan Jacobs' book Original Sin: A Cultural History. Jacobs was a professor of mine at Wheaton College and is an astute cultural commentator and author. In the midst of Jacobs' comparison of the original innocence of Adam and Eve with our own original sinfulness, he makes an interesting …
The ‘If’ of Temptation
The devil said to him, 'If . . .' (Luke 4:3) The serpent said to the woman, 'Did God really say?' (Genesis 3:1) The accuser brings questions of truth. In the time of temptation, the beginning point is a questioning of what we would otherwise know to be true: Is it really that big of …
See – Good – Take: The threefold movement of sin
In my readings of Genesis this week, I was struck by two different stories about sin. Adam & Eve with the Fruit (Genesis 3) When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. …
Continue reading "See – Good – Take: The threefold movement of sin"
First Week of Lent
This past week, we have entered the season of the church year known as Lent. Lent is more than a worn-out old tradition of the church, but a way to enter more deeply into Jesus’ death on the Cross in order that we might enter more fully into the joys of Jesus’ resurrection. During this …
Matthew Erickson 