The NU Blog Page

Virtuous Exegesis: Stan Reid, President of the Austin Graduate School of Theology, spoke recently on the general subject of Attending to Spiritual Growth in an Academic Environment.  Building on the two great commandments found in Mark 12:28-34, Reid emphasized that the study of scripture in an academic setting (or any other) should be an expression…

Most of us are familiar with the two “great commandments” taught by Jesus, i.e., love God and love our neighbor as our self.  I have been thinking this week about what these mean in real life, actually in MY real life.  What does it look like to love God?  What does it look like to…

Prayer of Meditation: Jeff Johnson is a talented Christian recording artist.  I have been taken by the lyrics of one of his pieces. It plays on my iPhone each morning as I am preparing for the coming day.  May it bless you this week as it has me. Have a blessed start to your New Year.…

Experiencing Joy! I have been hearing a lot in recent weeks about the anticipatory joy associated with what much of the Christian world celebrates as the season of Advent.  The New Testament relates how Elizabeth experienced the joy of learning that she would bear a child in her old age. Mary experienced joy at being…

Are you getting to know God, your Father in heaven, in an intimate way? My father was a world-class craftsman.  He could build anything!  In addition to being an airplane mechanic and pilot, he was always building something around the house. After retiring he built two houses by himself.  Wood, metal, electrical, he could do…

There are no words, is how many folks respond to great tragedy. Neal Katz is a Jewish Rabbi in Tyler, Texas has words of wisdom he recently shared.  I was particularly struck by the words he shared after this week’s shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.  The one sentence that stands out most to me…

Three messengers from God told Abraham that his aged wife, Sarah, would have a son. Overhearing them, Sarah laughed at the very thought. My sense is that her laugh was less of an argument but more  something like, “You have to be kidding!  Surely, you speak in jest!”She simply could not so quickly take in…

(I share this Reflection, Brilliant Autumn Leaves, each year in the early autumn, about the time the leaves in the northern hemisphere begin to change color.  So, here it is!) A few years ago my wife and I enjoyed a ten day trip to New England where we were able to experience the brilliance of…

Christian marriage, at least in the West, has undergone a dramatic shift during the past fifty years.  What at one time was a spiritually driven covenant has more and more in recent times become only a civil contract with little attention to how God plays into the relationship. “What God has joined together, let not…

The Center of Our Lives: this week we have two trains of thought, one regarding a life centered in Christ and a second on the general subject of the development of religion. “When Christ is the center of our lives, unambiguously and without competition, the rest of our lives tend to fall into harmony around…