Practical Faith in everyday life.

Grief During the Holidays

Posted on December 15, 2024December 15, 2024 by Michael Rose

AH! The Holidays!! – the gift buying, the busy social schedule, and financial pressures. These aside, for many people, the holidays seem to make the grief we feel with the loss of a loved one extra fresh. This grief can undoubtedly be a result of losing a family member or close friend to death, and…

Jesus, The Sex Pistols & Deconstruction

Posted on May 17, 2023May 27, 2023 by Michael Rose

It’s been almost 20 years since my BIG deconstruction, and since then, it has been a journey focused on reconstruction. Let me be a little more precise; it is more of a rhythm of gaining new insights, trying them out, and deciding whether I keep them or keep looking. Whether I keep them or jettison…

Easter: Good News for Zombies!

Posted on April 11, 2023April 4, 2023 by Michael Rose

Wow! More than a few years ago, we were visiting a Church in Arizona on Easter Sunday. The Pastor, an acquaintance, was tremendously creative with sharing the Gospel through pop culture and his Easter Sunday message was no exception. He was presenting the Easter story using various media and was at the part in Matthew…

Faith of the Everyday

Posted on January 27, 2023February 6, 2023 by Michael Rose

Once upon a time, there were two carpenters; framers to be precise. Each day they would arrive at the building site to pound nails, erect walls. The first, a glum man, was asked what he was doing. “I hammer nails,” he replied, looking sour. “Every day, hammer nails and more nails. Day in, day out,…

God Must Love

Posted on June 8, 2022November 21, 2022 by Michael Rose

Today’s post explores the Big Idea of Essential Kenosis and what it tells us about the nature/character of God.

Still Becoming: Renovation

Posted on June 2, 2022November 23, 2022 by Michael Rose

Open and Relational Theology has been a life saver for me, To be able to engage God and the world in ways that are consistent with my experience and intuitive sense of the God-who-is-love via the new eyes of good history, scripture, anthropology, philosophy, science and cosmology. It is affording me a way towards a more whole, very human life in the ongoing journey of becoming love.

The Dark Night

Posted on May 10, 2022May 10, 2022 by Michael Rose

We are raised to work harder, strive, stretch, brutalize the flesh and get what we want. Activity, or more accurately, productivity has become a sacred virtue in our culture.

The Slap

Posted on March 29, 2022March 29, 2022 by Michael Rose

Rock’s ‘joke’ at Pinket Smith expense prompted her husband (and that nights Best Actor winner) Will Smith to leave his seat, walk onto the stage, and slap Chris Rock. Returning to his seat, Will Smith told Rock in no uncertain terms that he was to stop the cruel jokes at his Jada Pinket-Smith’s expense.

Why Hate the Sin and Love the Sinner Doesn’t Work

Posted on March 6, 2022April 13, 2022 by Michael Rose

It surprises many to learn that the phrase hate the sin and love the sinner is not in the Bible. This idea seems to have originated with St. Augustine (c.424) in one of his letters when he used the phrase “Cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum” which translates as “with love for mankind and hatred…

Pluriform Love – A Review

Posted on February 22, 2022February 22, 2022 by Michael Rose

I enjoyed an advanced copy of Thomas Jay Oord’s latest book, Pluriform Love—a more academic read than Oord’s recent works, but that shouldn’t scare you off. Oord writes in such a way as to be accessible to a wide swath of interested readers. In Pluriform Love, Oord pushes back on some well-entrenched theological sacred…