Book Review: Subversive Jesus

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…

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…

Some Thoughts on Mark 1, the Church, and Repentance

Part 1 of 3: What the Church Needs to be Doing. Now. Been thinking about church. I do that a lot for some reason. It's not like I have anything else to do with my time. (/sarcasm). The truth is, I'm fairly heavily involved with my local church through helping lead worship (singing, playing guitar,…

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…

The Book of Daniel in Perspective: The Overarching Points

I was in Sunday School this morning and we were talking about something in John's gospel. Somehow or other the conversation drifted to the book of Daniel–a book I am currently making an extended study of for purposes that are my own right now. Nevertheless, we got there (to Daniel) and somehow started talking about…

The Daily Office: June 22, 2010

The readings for June 22, 2010 are as follows: Numbers 16.20-35, Romans 4.1-12, Psalm 94, Matthew 19.23-20. What I hope to do is provide a thought or two on the daily readings as a means of keeping myself accountable to the daily practice of reading from the Scripture. Numbers 16.20-35 In the early days of…

Skycast: Kingdom of the Cross, Luke 9

Friends, This is a special episode of the Life Under the Blue Sky podcast. This is the audio from the sermon I preached on January 25, 2009. I have already published the print version here. The sermon takes about 37 minutes and is based on Luke 9–the entire chapter. Download here: Kingdom of the Cross…

The Kingdom of Crucifixion

Friends, here is the text for tomorrow’s sermon from Luke 9. The gist is that Jesus has given us power and authority to do something. That something is defined by Jesus himself as ‘proclamation of the kingdom’ and ‘healing the sick’ and ‘authority over demons.’ It seems to me that sometimes we church folk have…

90 Days with Jesus, Day 9: John 3:1-8: You Must Be Born Again

John 3:1-8 1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with…