Gary Neal Hansen's Blog, page 53

Best of 2014

Recently while I’ve barely posted at all, a bunch of new people have subscribed to my blog. Thank you! Partly to give new readers a window into what I’ve been doing here, and partly as a way to think about my own blogging, here are my ten most-read posts of 2014. They fall into four categories: Answers to timeLY […]

Join Me for My First Webinar! “A Prayer Life that Gives Life”

Thanks to the good folks at the Presbyterian Outlook I’ll be doing my first webinar on February 17!  The title is “A Prayer Life that Gives Life: Renewing Faith and Ministry in Lent.” (Get the details and sign up here.) Prayer is CRUCIAL Lent is a time to renew our connection to God. Prayer is […]

Join My Mini-Book-Launch Team!

Get free stuff… Have some fun… Learn with me about the publishing process… And most importantly, Help my new book help God’s people! I’ve been hinting about my new book for a while now. Very soon it is going to launch! I am really excited about this. The book is Love Your Bible: Finding Your Way to the Presence […]

Advent 4–Reading Isaiah (cont.)

Reading great chunks of Scripture can bring surprising gifts. Don’t get me wrong: I’m also a big believer in spending time with very small passages. I’m passionate about the value of classical lectio divina for instance. But I’ve been reading through the sixty-six chapters of Isaiah during Advent (Here are weeks 1, 2, and 3). Taking this book […]

Gratitude, Priority One (Heidelberg Catechism Q94)

Advent is a season of preparation for Christ’s coming. What better time for a little reflection on faith and life. If we were Puritans or Catholics in the Jesuit tradition we might call it “self-examination.” Me, I’m just a 21st Century Presbyterian with a penchant for blogging on the Heidelberg Catechism–that 16th century summary of Biblical […]

Advent 3–Reading Isaiah (cont.)

Reading through Isaiah in Advent provides some breathtaking moments. Yes, there is also some thick slogging: any number of passages are filled with ancient history and unfamiliar names. But scattered throughout the book’s 66 chapters are some of the most beautiful, inspiring, hope-filled moments in all of Scripture. Some of them are familiar as can be. Handel’s […]

Advent 2–Reading Isaiah (cont.)

Funny things happen when reading Isaiah if (a) you are a Christian and (b) you have a theological education in a mainline Protestant tradition. (a) As a Christian, there is a whole lot of Isaiah, like the series of oracles to the nations (see chapters 13 and following), that just seems like hard slogging. The references […]

Advent 1–Reading Isaiah

I’m setting out to read Isaiah again this Advent: 25 days to read 66 chapters. It shouldn’t be a problem but, what with a pile of grading running into preparation for the looming new semester, holiday gatherings, and a sinful nature I seldom seem to reach the end in time. My ancestors in the Reformed tradition jettisoned […]

Singing God’s Praise–The Old Fashioned Way

All my adult life I have been a Presbyterian. As often as possible during that same adult life I have worshipped among the Orthodox. It has not been that often in the sheer number of occasions–some glorious opportunities to hear the Liturgy St. Vladimir’s Seminary when I was in seminary and graduate school; a smaller number of visits […]

From Gratitude to Obedience: Can We Get There from Here?

You’ve probably heard the joke about the fellow who asked for directions only to be told “Sorry. You can’t get there from here.” In the Reformed tradition we think gratitude leads us to obey God’s expressed will. But as a comment in last week’s post on the life of gratitude asked “…it seems like a stretch to […]