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Notes on the questions of the faith I’m still living — doubt, trust, weariness, grace. The press gathers trusted voices across the Church’s traditions on one hard question, so you aren’t left to re-invent the faith alone.
Friend,Three in the morning, and I was simply awake. I wasn't worried, wasn't afraid. This has been happening more since we moved back to Tennessee. So I got up and reached for a novel instead of something useful, then my Bible, then a question I couldn't shake. Usually, I'd use the early hours to create something useful. And by useful, I mean something I could sell. I always have that drive to provide. But lately, I've felt a bit like I'm treading water, with something weighing me down. So I...
Friend, I was raised as a missionary kid, going to church at least three times each week, so I’m fairly attuned to the threads of thinking going around the Church. We react to current issues. We disagree about doctrine. We apply Scripture to the news and to daily life. Much of our current writing and teaching can be reduced to slogans or memes recording our outrage about moral, political, and social transgressions against Christian values. Don’t get me wrong — that outrage is often justified....
Friend, I sat with Owen’s first chapter again after sending you the sample. Two things struck me. First, the language can be hard. Words like “intendment,” or “improve” in the older sense of making something clear and applicable. You have to slow down. That is not a failure of the text — it is the cost of reading a seventeenth-century teacher carefully. Second, the argument is remarkably clear. Owen cuts to the bone: mortification from self-strength, for self-righteousness, is the soul of...