I am sharing with you what is now Chapter 7 of my book Biblical Ethics. This happens to be my favorite chapter because it’s chock-full of vivid explanations of God’s emotional life and flourishing. It’s also a topic that is not talked about much from the pulpit, which I believe needs to be discussed in…

When we live the way we are supposed to, God is glorified and we are blessed (happy)! Sadly, most well-meaning dutiful Christians take issue with the notion that happiness is for the here-and-now, delaying it for the afterlife. Too often they gorge themselves on an ethical diet of doing the right thing out of a…

When I was in graduate school at Biola, I had a professor who would call us “naturalists”! At the time I thought he was saying it in jest, but now I realize he was at least partially kidding. So how can self-professed Christians be naturalists? I think what my professor meant was that as Christians…

one should read the BIBLE as a mystery novel: a story of prideful irony (sin) and ironic pride (salvation) one should peruse its pages for the character development of villain and hero one should be prepared to personally invest into the proverbial love story that takes place between author and reader

A young man about twenty-five years old paddles out to his local surf break in San Clemente, California. The silhouette of something substantial yet sprightly in the murky water startles the surfer with no name. The still sea around him becomes agitated. Moments later, a creature scuffs his leg. He recoils his limbs and lies…

I am not a songwriter but I did attempt to write a song once, while I attended Azusa Pacific University as a transfer student back in 2001. The lyrics speak of a fellow transfer student who I became close friends with during the last few months of her life before a fatal car accident. (I…

Christ is the ideal soldier: he never leaves a man behind. Even under enemy fire he risks his own life to save the men and women under his authority. He puts the needs of his platoon before his own: they eat and then he eats; they sleep and then he sleeps; they shower and then…

As some of you know, I am writing my mom and dad’s memoirs. The excerpt (below) is taken from the work in progress, Flight to Freedom. (My father starts by reminiscing over his personal experience flying a wide variety of disparate aircrafts over a seven year period, from 1963 to 1970, in the Nicaraguan air…

NICARAGUA, my beloved homeland, has experienced more tumultuous revolutions than any other country in Central America. To better understand the current socio-political climate of Nicaragua, Alan Arnesto–long time family friend and proud Nicaragüense–gives us an up-close-and-personal depiction of Nicaragua’s longing for peace and prosperity, in the midst of governmental greed, scandal, corruption, and violence.  …

Worldly “happiness” is merely subjective (i.e., emotional) and non-virtuous, ergo, non-moral, not to mention superficial and fleeting. The world seeks it directly as a feeling but cannot attain it because true happiness is a byproduct of morality (e.g., justice and righteousness). By comparison, biblical happiness is character-based. That is, true felicity is virtuous, ergo, moral….