I was almost immediately turned off by this book when one of the first things I saw was a quote by Shane Claiborne. I pressed on because that's the deal and eventually arrived at page 24-25. What I read on those two pages inspired me to press on further: From the time of the murder… Continue reading Book Review: Subversive Jesus
Tag: Gospel
Some Thoughts on Mark 1, The Church, and Preaching
Part 2 of 3: What the Church Needs to be Preaching. Now. In part one of this short series of posts, I talked about what I think the church needs to be doing now, namely, preparing the way for the coming of Jesus. By preparing the way, I mean: calling people to repentance. It may… Continue reading Some Thoughts on Mark 1, The Church, and Preaching
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… Continue reading Advent Day 12: Matthew 12: Something Greater
Advent: Day 1: Matthew 1 and the Genealogy of Jesus
Read: Matthew 1; Romans 1:1-7; Hebrews 1; Isaiah 9:10-25 Advent is upon us and I am glad. It is an important time of the year for Christians to reflect upon the First Coming of Jesus and his subsequent ministry and, perhaps, to begin preparing ourselves for his Second Coming. You see, if the First Coming… Continue reading Advent: Day 1: Matthew 1 and the Genealogy of Jesus
What the Bible is Telling Us
In his book Simply Jesus, professor Tom Wright lays out for his readers his case that the Bible is, ultimately, a book about Jesus. “So if, as the Jewish people believed, they were the key element in God’s global rescue operation, it was doubly frustrating, doubly puzzling, and doubly challenging that the Jews’ own national… Continue reading What the Bible is Telling Us
500 Words Per Day: Grace
Grace. "It's a name for a girl" (U2). Grace falls all over us and colors us clean. Grace marks as children of the living God. Grace prevails upon us when we have no clue who we are, what we are doing, or where we are going. Grace guides, teaches, sustains, and reveals to us the… Continue reading 500 Words Per Day: Grace
500 Words with John’s Gospel: Greater or Lesser
I came across a startling idea when reading John's Gospel and it has to do with greatness or greater. Great. Greater. Greatest. We have fun ways of delineating hierarchy in the English language. I always enjoy seeing words like 'greater' in a text because it makes me wonder what's just 'great.' It happens in John's… Continue reading 500 Words with John’s Gospel: Greater or Lesser
500 Words with Luke’s Gospel: Praying
I will be honest: I struggle with prayer. Eugene Peterson wrote in one of his books that's quite OK if we struggle and that when we don't have words the Holy Spirit prays for us. Many people struggle, yet for some reason I find little comfort in that. For some reason this is the one… Continue reading 500 Words with Luke’s Gospel: Praying
500 Words with Matthew’s Gospel: God with Us
"So Dark is our situation that God Himself must enter and occupy it in order that it may be light. We cannot fully understand the Christian 'God with us' without the greatest astonishment at the glory of the divine grace and the greatest horror at our own plight."–Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, The Doctrine of Reconciliation,… Continue reading 500 Words with Matthew’s Gospel: God with Us
Book Review: Mark
Title: Mark Author: RC Sproul Publisher: Reformation Trust Publishing Date: December 12, 2011 Pages: (e-pub version): 434 [The FCC has made it perfectly clear that if I do not abide by their rules, then someone may end up in trouble one way or another. So I am advised to tell you that I received this… Continue reading Book Review: Mark
Book Review: Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris
Author: Joshua Harris Title: Dug Down Deep Pages: 232; +study guide & endnotes (study guide written by Thomas Womack) Publisher: Multnomah Books Date: 2010, 2011 I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for my review by Waterbrook/Multnomah Publishing. "A religious person is trying to put God in their debt through hard… Continue reading Book Review: Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris
One Line Thoughts: DA Carson
“To believe in Jesus in the Christian sense means not less than trusting him utterly as the One who has borne our sin in his own body on the tree, as the One whose life and death and resurrection, offered up in our place, has reconciled us to God.” –DA Carson, Scandalous: The Cross and… Continue reading One Line Thoughts: DA Carson
Sermons on the Unity of the Church & Christians
Friends, During Lent, I am preaching a series of sermons on the essential unity and oneness of the church, forged in the cross of Christ. I will be providing excerpts of those sermons here and also links back to my box.net account where they might downloaded in full. The sermons are drawn from 1 Corinthians.… Continue reading Sermons on the Unity of the Church & Christians
90 Days with Scripture: Jesus pt 4, John 20
Friends, This is part 11 in the 14 part series that traces the meta-narrative of what God is doing from Genesis through Revelation. In this part, Jesus part 4, I am dealing with the Resurrection narrative in John’s Gospel. I began with SM Lockridge’s ‘it’s Friday but Sunday’s coming…’ sermon and ended with a video… Continue reading 90 Days with Scripture: Jesus pt 4, John 20
Beginning at the Beginning
Friends, Christian posted a short exercise in theology at Church Voices a few days ago. That I think you should take 60 seconds of your time to read. He wrote: I’m currently reading the book Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey. In it she proposes Creationism as foundational to communicating the gospel. I have to agree.… Continue reading Beginning at the Beginning
Life Under the Blue Sky: The View From Below 