Book Review: Surprise the World

Me and a friend have been working our way through some pretty good books. I'm just a little more ahead of him, but he is plowing his way through slowly and making some amazing discoveries in the works of Scott McKnight and NT Wright among others. We have both had our theological worlds shredded–and for…

Advent Day 12: Matthew 12: Something Greater

Read: Matthew 12; Exodus; 1 Kings 1-11 In his short little book simply titled Following Jesus, NT Wright waltzes through several New Testament books and explores their main themes and ideas. Among the books explored is the Gospel according to Matthew. Of Matthew he writes: Matthew's whole gospel is, in fact, a Coronation Anthem. And…

Book Review: Accompanied by the Instruments of David

One day I was scrolling through my twitter feed and this person I follow posted a link to this book. The link said the book was free. I wrote to the person who posted it, never heard back, waited a few days and downloaded the free Kindle version of this book. Turns out the book…

Advent Day 11: Matthew 11: Being Offended by Jesus

In case you don't want to open your book, here's Matthew 11. I have only a couple of thoughts today. After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee. 2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah,…

Book Review: Life is______. Forty Day Experience

I know that the popular thing to do when getting free books in exchange for reviews is to write a wildly favorable review that causes readers to swoon and books sales to accelerate. Every time I write a review for one of these publishers, and the review happens to be negative, I sit on my…

Book Review: Smile & Succeed for Teens

I was contacted by the author of the Smile & Succeed for Teens and asked if I would be willing to read and review the book on my blog. I agreed and several or a few days later I received a small packet in the mail from the author which included the book, a bookmark,…

Advent Day 10: Matthew 10: Following Jesus is an Upside Down Business

Eugene Peterson wrote, in his book Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, "Jesus' imagery, to be followed soon by his sacrifice, is totally counter to our culture of more, more. Could Jesus have made it any clearer? We don't become more, we become less. Instead of grasping more tightly to whatever we value, we let…

Advent Day 9: Matthew 9: The Things Jesus Says

I'm still thinking about chapter 8 to an extent–that Jesus we follow who mixes and mingles and heals people that we typically reject. Jesus didn't consider himself better than them–which is exactly how we tend to think of most people. We tend to stick with our own because it's comfortable for us. I'm not necessarily…

Advent Day 8: Matthew 8: The Jesus We Follow

The eight chapter of Matthew, close on the heels of the Sermon on the Mount, is a spectacular introduction to the Jesus we follow. What is probably most amazing is the variety of people that Jesus meets along the way after he came down from teaching. This is probably significant. It probably means something amazing…

Advent Day 7: Matthew 7: The Kingdom of Love

If you have to force something, you really need to ask if it is love. If it isn’t love, you really need to ask yourself if you are of Messiah.

Advent Day 6: Matthew 6: Continuing to be Different

Read: Matthew 6 Let's be short today. Maybe. Matthew six is a chapter that has been abused and misused by preachers throughout the ages. And by pew-sitters too. I'll be honest when I say that it is not a terribly complicated passage of Scripture to understand, but it's not necessarily easy to understand either. It's…

Advent Day 5: Matthew 5: The Things We Often Forget

Read: Matthew 5; Galatians 5; Exodus At its very core, Advent is a time to think about the first coming of Messiah and, perhaps, to telescope that thinking into the future and his Second Revelation. When we take the time to pause and think about the Advent of our Lord, we are pausing to note…

Advent Day 4: Matthew 4: Jesus Preached the Kingdom

Read: Matthew 4; Daniel 7; Isaiah 52-53; Romans 10 "Nowhere in scripture is it set out more clearly that the kingdom of the one true God stands over against the kingdoms of the world, judging them, calling them to account, condemning them, and vindicating God's people" than in the Book of Daniel. (NT Wright, Simply…

Advent Day 3: Matthew 3: Things to Come

Read: Matthew 3; Psalm 2; Isaiah 42; Genesis 22; 1 Peter 1:1-12 It is quite impossible for me to overstate how important it is for us to see the big picture in the Bible. We are so accustomed to reading the Bible to find either how to be saved (in some way that we usually…