For both the legalist and the lawbreaker, the experience of grace is agony. But it is a sweet agony for those who know they need it. So: are we fundamentally self-presuming or fundamentally self-despairing? Is...
Read moreWe are often told (or tell ourselves) to “find our identity in Christ.” And rightly so, because living out of our new identity in Christ is the defining root of true sanctification. But it can...
Read moreWe are here at the hospital for the birth of our daughter, Naomi Hannah Ortlund. She was born safely at 1:06 PM on Monday afternoon, 7 lbs, 19.5 inches. She is beautiful and tiny and...
Read moreLife has been busy lately. Our daughter is due soon, I am taking my comprehensive finals next month for my PhD, I’m writing/editing stuff, and I’ve taken on expanded responsibilities at our church. I’m sensitive...
Read moreSometimes it’s helpful to state the obvious—to step back and remind ourselves of the forest so that we don’t get lost in all the trees. Within academia, hyper-specialization and the tyranny of the pedantic often...
Read moreSomewhere amidst all the Christmas music and advent readings over the last several weeks the story of the shepherds in Luke 2:8-20 has gotten lodged in my mind. We hear this story every year, so...
Read moreThe 1973 MacMillan edition of C.S. The Great Divorce quotes Lewis in large font on the back cover of the book as claiming: “Blake wrote of the marriage of Heaven and Hell. . . ....
Read moreInstitutions, like the weather, have different seasons. There are springtime harvests, summer droughts, autumn wanings, and winter freezes. They have “a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep,...
Read moreIn the past year or so I have had a few moments where I wondered how I would be able to make it through my PhD. Trying to get through both my languages and my...
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