themattmcguire

January to June of this year has been a fruitful time of reading. Here are some truly outstanding titles that I have enjoyed in the first half of this year (in no particular order): A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken This book was written by a dear friend of C.S. Lewis, and it preserves several … Read more

When my good friend Merrill Greene sent me a first draft copy of his Weirdness of God, I knew I was in for a treat. With his unique combination of scholarly credentials and personal experience as a Spirit-filled believer, this brief book had everything it needed to surpass my expectations. Don’t let the brevity deceive … Read more

A Review of Mystical Union by John Crowder Hyper Grace—also known as “finished work” theology—has taken root in churches around the world in the last 10 or so years, particularly in charismatic circles. Its closest historical equivalent would be the sinless perfectionism theology of Wesley and the holiness movement, though with several important differences. One … Read more

Suffering. Pain. Evil. Often—in both my personal conversations and in my observation of others’—these rank as the greatest difficulties in reconciling the state of the present world with the notion of a “Good God”. How can so much evil exist if God is Love? And more poignantly, How can any evil exist if God is … Read more

For those of you who grew up in the average evangelical church (in my case, an independent Baptist church), you might have come across what’s called a “spiritual gift test”. The typical test will include a listing of gifts—called charismata in the New Testament—that derives primarily from two chapters in Paul’s Epistles: Romans 12 and … Read more

A Tongue-in-Cheek Guide to Yerba Mate For those looking to skip the written guide and head directly to the instructions, Click here to jump to video guide If you know me well—or even if you’ve simply glanced at my license plate—you will know that I am quite the proponent of yerba mate, a wildly popular … Read more

My Experience Since graduating high school, foreign language learning has been a constant love of mine. Before going to university, I entered a gap year program at a Bible school in Argentina, where I joined a group of 20-or-so Americans in the midst of a 400-student campus. The experience was unforgettable and I left with … Read more

Welcome to my postage stamp of the blogosphere. I am a mid-20’s Mainer, married with children, and interested in all things Christianity. I grew up in the IFB movement, and have crossed paths with myriad other traditions of my faith, some more directly than others. I have been through the whole gambit of Sunday School, … Read more