Good Faith Reads

Time is a form of currency that each of us is afforded a set amount. No one has any more or any less time. Everyone is granted the same 1,440 minutes in a day. How we use them, however, is our decision. This book of devotions recognizes that reality and offers a resource to make those moments we carve out of our busy schedules the most meaningful.

Based on the Christian year, these brief reflections invite readers to enjoy the rhythms of the various seasons of the liturgical calendar so that they might align their lives with the broad redemption story of Scripture and make commitments that will promote faith’s flourishing, one day at a time all the way through to eternity, when faith will become sight and time will be a constraint no more.

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Those of us who write, do so armed with wisdom, commentary, and insights gleaned from a lifetime of study and influence. Most of what is presented in each day’s devotion is simply my personal reflection on the text, hopefully inspired through the work of the Spirit, and my musings on how to best apply the wisdom of God’s word to daily life.

Morning Conversations on the Creation of a People and Place is the first volume of a set that follows the natural order of the Old Testament canon, and spans the Biblical narrative from the opening chapter of Genesis to the end of the book of Ruth.

As you read through these volumes, my hope is that you will take the time, not to simply read what I have written, but to reflect with me on what the ancients have written. Let me challenge you each morning to take a moment to read the suggested focus chapter from a trusted translation before you dive into my words. Read and reflect. As you make your way through this book, and those that will follow, you will discover a lot of my life story written into these pages. But more importantly, I hope you will discover a lot about God’s story… the one carefully crafted and persevered for you. For in hearing God’s story, you will hear the echoing refrain of God’s desire to know you, to love you, and to redeem you. Welcome to the conversation.

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Exploring hope through thoughtful meditations that distinguish between our life-hopes and our hopes for the world, Day guides the reader through understanding the phenomenon of hope, hope’s many challenges, and our literary view of hope. Many of the anxieties racing through us are not wed to current events or twenty-first-century novelties. Apprehensions have always been nibbling at our peace, dangling us over “the drop edge.”

Perhaps, as someone has suggested, it’s not that things are getting worse: rather, they are just getting uncovered. Yet, there are moments when what is within us meets dilemmas and demands that are beyond us, moments when we must choose hope or wilt in despair. Today feels like one of those moments. And this is a book about this moment and that choice.

The book’s main title comes from scripture, specifically from the venerable 1611 King James translation of 1 Peter 1:3, which says God has “begotten us again unto a lively hope." So, this is a book about hope, but it is not intended to be an exhaustive treatise. These are but meditations upon chosen aspects of hope about which the author hopes will say something helpful to readers.

“I want to explore lively hope, the kind that sings songs in the night and stares down long odds in clear daylight, the kind that dares to dance before the fiddler has even picked up his bow and won’t stop talking until the right has been done," Day writes. "Anything less isn’t worth your time or mine.”

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Spinks rethinks atonement by giving careful attention to the words of Jesus, abandoning entirely the concept of "the atonement" held as the most popular view among conservative evangelicals today.

Most of the classic theories of the atonement propose what the authors intended to be literal, often legal, explanations of what Jesus did for us on the cross. These theories proposed the idea that the cross of Christ provided "the atonement" -- an event that made it possible for God to forgive us and make us his children.

The New Testament shows that Jesus did not preach any "theory of the atonement." In fact, Jesus never used any word that could be translated "atonement," nor did he preach any concept that could be so construed. Jesus proclaimed the metaphor of the loving Father. Jesus taught how we are to reconcile (although he never used that word, either) with the Father, not how the Father reconciles himself to us.

The view presented here does not claim to be Jesus' theory of the atonement, for the New Testament evidence does not indicate that he had one. Instead, Spinks sets forth what Jesus proclaimed as his good news of the kingdom of God. Once we understand the gospel Jesus preached, we do not need any theory of the atonement because Jesus' message, as communicated through his favorite metaphor, stands sufficient on its own.

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This book considers three ways of thinking about God: in relation to the Bible, in relation to philosophy, and in relation to science.

Thinking about God in relation to the Bible includes numerous beliefs about God. Thinking about God in relation to philosophy involves an emphasis on human reason, usually reason apart from special revelation such as the Bible. Finally, thinking about God in relation to science considers some traditional beliefs about God in view of various scientific discoveries and accounts.

As we become more deeply involved in thinking about God, it would be good to remember that the thinking is about God but is done by humans. We should be careful. We should not have too high an opinion of our own thinking. We might recall the statement of Isaiah 55.8-9: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

With the reminder that human thinking about God has important limitations, we should still try to think about God as carefully as possible.

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