Jeremy Riley: In a few words

The world is moving into ghettos.  No, not those types of ghettos.  The ghettos that place a border around people with differing opinions, and differing beliefs.  I certainly know that throughout history we have had enclaves where only certain types of people lived together.  Catholics on this side of the street, and this ethnicity near [...]

Loving God is important.  I think most Christians will come to this conclusion. But wouldn’t we say grasping a picture of who he is is pretty darned important as well?  While both you and I will never fully grasp his nature this side of eternity, we can know him a little more clearly than when we initially [...]

On Christmas Day, I want to leave us with two pieces.  Chew on these two pieces and I wish you a Merry Christmas. 46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.     For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; [...]

I wanted to post my first teaser piece in this blog’s illustrious history (cue fanfare).  My seminary, Fuller Seminary, posted a piece I wrote for Advent last week.  Below is a brief excerpt from the post and I hope you visit the site for the provocative conclusion. ‘Last Christmas I was listening to my Christmas station on [...]

Seminary is tough. I don’t mean just the assignments, tests, papers, and other work.  I mean the work of actually digging into Scripture and the faith, taking an honest look into it, and wrestling with tough issues.  Looking over the breadth of Biblical Studies and Church History as disciplines can cause discomfort. Big words like [...]

People have asked me from time to time how I interpret the Old Testament as a Christian.  There are a lot of commands to keep and festivals to partake in, making it incredibly confusing for a Christian to discern what the point of the Old Testament is.  I like to respond to them with a [...]

To continue on my recent musings about being in seminary, I suppose that it is possible to lose one’s faith in seminary.  However, I also suggest that it is possible to lose my faith in the course of being a carpenter, salesman or nurse.  Living in a blue-collar, white-collar or any other career can also [...]

The writer of Ecclesiastes deduced that the entire world was nothing but filled with vanity.  Sadly, when we are not in Christ, life is indeed full of vanity.  Life is meaningless when we attempt to do it our own, making plans and enjoying the fruit of our labor when our days are numbered.  For those [...]

Philemon is an epistle of Paul’s that is not often read.  It is stuck there within the canon of the New Testament, wedged in between better known works.  Yet, within this book lies a remarkable story.  A story that flips the social order of Rome and rightly gets to the heart of the gospel of [...]