by Kevin Bauder | Oct 23, 2020 | In the Nick of Time
To everything there is a season . . . a time to die (Eccl 3:1–2). It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the...
by Kevin Bauder | Oct 16, 2020 | In the Nick of Time
The book of Job includes a conversation, spread over several chapters, about what God needs from humans. Job speaks, then Eliphaz replies. Job speaks again, then Elihu answers. Job never replies to Elihu because God interrupts. God challenges Job with these words at...
by Kevin Bauder | Oct 9, 2020 | In the Nick of Time
One day a deacon from a church in my area phoned me to share his philosophy of creation-and-salvation history. He began his story by claiming that God, having lived forever without companionship, became lonely and needed someone to fellowship with. Thus compelled, God...
by Kevin Bauder | Oct 2, 2020 | In the Nick of Time
All people everywhere want justice. Even a hardcore logical positivist feels a sense of injustice if you step ahead of him after hours of waiting at the Department of Motor Vehicles. The universal yearning for justice has been expressed in documents from the Code of...
by Kevin Bauder | Sep 25, 2020 | In the Nick of Time
For me, learning to read was like being initiated into the mysteries of a secret society. The ability to look at marks on a page and to register those marks in my brain as words, sentences, ideas, and stories—well, it seemed magical. It still does. People who did not...
by Kevin Bauder | Sep 18, 2020 | In the Nick of Time
Pastors work with people, so they need personal skills. Pastors work with churches as organizations, so they need administrative skills. More than anything else, however, pastors work with ideas. They do the work of the mind. At minimum, they seek to grasp the meaning...