We don’t use the word “joy” a lot these days. The Google Ngram below shows that the words “joy” and “happiness” occur with about the same frequency, but if you add “happy” and “happiness” together, then they occur about 3 times as often as “joy”. They can mean the same thing, but I think of…
In a recent conversation a friend spoke about the need to trust that God is in control. I’ve heard it before, and often in the context of a reassurance that even if your situation looks bleak, it is supposed to be comforting to know that God is in control. I don’t believe it. The God…
A recent article by Charles M. Stang (*) notes that “Thomas’s acclamation [in John 20:28] is the only place in the New Testament where Jesus is called ‘God’.” I think that’s pretty remarkable. Elsewhere Jesus is called Son of God, image of God, and other similar epithets, but only here is he plainly “God”. More…
During last week a friend and I watched The Wallat the wonderful Avoca Beach Picture Theatre, not quite knowing what we were going to see. Was it going to be a remake of the original movie or a documentary reflecting on the album that was first released 37 years ago? It turns out to be…
