The Lie ptII

I will freely admit that much of my life feels like I am in the shadows. Or better, that my life has become a shadow. It seems that very often light exists beyond the horizon. Other times, it seems to be just beyond my grasp; I can see it, enough to know the shadow, but…

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Faith the Second

Last week I began exploring how the bible uses the word faith and what it means by it. I began comparing Malachi 1-3 to Romans 9, and argued that the sense in which Paul is using faith in Romans 9 by quoting Malachi 1 is the same as that which Malachi is using it: the…

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Blog Location Update

In case you missed it, my blog has moved to http://nathanmyrick.blogspot.com/. Please update your RSS feeds accordingly. The cause for this move has been the awesome website redisign by the amazing Jared Moody and my fabulous wife, Lesley Myrick!

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The Lie

Have you ever wondered what makes a lie a lie? Or, what is a lie, exactly? This may seem like a stupid question, but I trust that is you ponder it with me you may see why I am giving it such thought. See, we naturally assume a two dimensional, oppositional position of a lie…

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Where The NT Gets Its Ideas About Faith

So a while back I was working on what it is to be faithful according to the bible. While it is common knowledge that faith and belief are different words with different meanings in English, most people are unsure about what the bible means by the word “faith.” In earlier blogs I have pointed out…

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Jacob I have loved, but Esau…

I have long struggled with this bit of scripture. How could it be that God, who is love (1 Jn. 4), can arbitrarily assign love and hatred to two brothers on no ascribed merit beyond choice? Two primary ideas have been derived from this bit of scripture. The first, famously, is that people are “predestined”…

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Volunteering

I am taking a break from my abstract pontifications about God, life, and reality, and am turning my attention to a practical matter of service: VolunteeringMany churches and ministry organizations depend entirely on volunteer humanpower. This is, I think, a wonderful approach to ministry, as it enables the lay person to be a valuable and…

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What Happens?

What happens when light is shone on the darkness?What happens to the shadows when they are revealed?What of the things done in darkness?What of the power of offense? What happens when sin is revealed?Does it change or do we?And which is redemption?Are the acts redeemed?Or the actors? I’ve often wondered what to make of the…

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The trouble with “Father God”

I’m a new father. My 3 month old son is a constant source of entertainment and challenge, and over the weekend I started thinking about the analogy of God as a loving father. There is something about the analogy that doesn’t quite fit when it all is put together. I know that analogies only hold…

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“An Honest Question to Difficult Answers”

Last summer, I was given the opportunity to write an article on music, worship, and anti-racism for the journal Liturgy. My task was to explore what it is to work towards racial reconciliation through church music in non-multicultural congregations. That article was published online on Tuesday and will be out in print next month! The…

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