a blog by Keelan Cook
"The gospel is the only thing we have to offer the world that it does not already have." ~Leander Keck This quote got stuck in my head a few weeks ago, I cannot shake it. The gospel is the only thing we have that makes us different from any other movement or organization. But the…
It is the first day of a new year, and you can tell by looking at social media. Twitter and Facebook are clogged up with quick motivational messages and reminders to make 2014 the best year of your life. These messages may be sentimental, and some are spot on. However, a constant thread runs though…
"You must purge the evil from you" (Deut 24:7). This is the constant refrain given in Deuteronomy. As Moses revisits the statutes set before Israel going into the promised land, he provides the above statement as grounding. However, it begs the question, "Why?" Why is it necessary for Israel to purge the evil in their…
The message of the kingdom is the mission of the church. Over the last three posts, I have discussed the significance of the kingdom of God, pointed out some common misconceptions, and provided a rough description of this kingdom. The kingdom has already come in one sense, yet in another, it is waiting on its…
I am currently staring out the third floor window of my new home, overlooking the busy, downtown streets of Washington, DC. Well, it is my new home for half the week, at least. This is why: Since the dawn of modern international missions, this task has largely seen people leaving the United States in search…
This post is the conclusion to a two-part series. It will probably not make much sense unless you go read the first post: Will I be dumping Starbucks? I concluded the last post by asking if there was a better way to approach cultural issues than this ban on Starbucks. This is how I answered:…
Continue reading ➞ A better way: An alternative to dumping Starbucks
Probably not. Now, I can sense the blood pressure rising in most of the people reading this. That is, if it is the usual crew. Yes, I did hear what the CEO of Starbucks said, and I do understand their stance on same-sex marriage. And no, my views on this issue have not changed. My…
You are a slave to something. That was the point of my last post, and this post will make a lot more sense, if you go read that one first. In sum, we are created to serve something. Everyone has a master, and they serve it with their life. Last week, I stated that even skeptics,…
I wrote the following two posts a few years ago, but I stumbled across them and decided I wanted to share them again. Before you read them, let me say they are a little reductionistic. That is on purpose, so that I can make a point about much that we say and do concerning missions…
God likes community. How do I know this? Well, it is written all over the place. In Genesis, God creates everything from nothing, and as the pinnacle of that creation he makes man in his image. As soon as he does, God creates woman because it is not good that man be alone. In Abraham,…
