sin Archives - Keith Shields

With God as Our Father

The Bible repeatedly refers to God as father and his followers as his children. Dependent upon our relationships with our earthly parents, this can either be a calming thought or one that leads to tension. Some of us were taught that our heavenly father was mostly a judge who showed his disappointment and anger when…

The Music of the Ainur

J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion is widely recognized as a great writer. He was also a faithful Catholic whose theology appears in his writings in poetic ways. His description of the way evil came into the world, as seen in the opening chapter of The Silmarillion is a work of art…

Billy Graham and Forgiveness

In light of the recent passing of Billy Graham, a reprint of a previous blog is in order. The Crown, Season 2, Episode 6: Vergangenheit Written by Peter Morgan Directed by Philippa Lowthorpe This post contains numerous spoilers and explanations of a current episode of The Crown. You may want to watch the episode before reading this article. The…

The Crown

The Crown, Season 2, Episode 6: Vergangenheit Written by Peter Morgan Directed by Philippa Lowthorpe This post contains numerous spoilers and explanations of a current episode of The Crown. You may want to watch the episode before reading this article. The German word, vergangenheit, has many uses [1] in the German language. Its simplest meaning is “the…

A Note About Privacy

A recent article in Wired Magazine reviewed and critiqued the various Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered devices known as home assistants or homebots. Tucked into the innocuous article was “A NOTE ABOUT PRIVACY.” It is perhaps the most relevant part of the article and reminds us of something we have all been thinking for more than a…

Advocacy

In the eighth chapter of the Gospel of John, we read of a woman caught in sin. The religious authorities bring her to Jesus to judge her. He does challenge her, but first he acts as her advocate. Hugh Halter in The Tangible Kingdom (p.45), has this to say about the passage: ”The powerful revelation…

Restorying Canada

The University of Ottawa, Institute of Canadian and Aboriginal Studies, put on what they called a conference and public event in May of this year entitled Restorying Canada: Reconsidering Religion and Public Memory in 2017. They invited several participants to present papers and/or speak at the event. The focus of the conference was religion and…

Broken and Sinful from the Start

Yesterday, I quoted Scot McKnight saying, “sinfulness has spread throughout the human race from its first beginnings and … each individual has contributed their own share to it.” Adam and the Genome (Venema and McKnight, 2017, BrazosPress). It made me think of this song by Jonathon Foreman: Broken from the Start (words and music by Jon…

Substitution

“For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be.” – John Stott, The Cross…

Broken

I am damaged on the inside My soul don’t quite work true There are foul spots on my right side And my wrong side’s looking cruel I am broken on the upside Spirit’s broken down There’s downsides to this arrangement But I’m hanging in for now Broken, damaged, injured, Wounded, cracked, beat-up Somehow we are…