Are the Red Letters Any More Important Than the Black Letters?

If scripture is inspired and from God are the words of Jesus any more or less important than all the rest of the Old and New Testament? And for a related brain teaser - who is speaking in John 3:16? Does John the apostle begin to narrate his own commentary about the events or is [...]

Summing Up the Law and the Prophets in One Post

Love
Matthew 22:37-40

From Complex to Simple

There is a move in churches from the complex to the simple. We have spent so many years discussing fine tuned doctrines and what makes this church distinctive from that church. It seems to me that many churches and Christians are moving from the complex web of doctrines to a more simple approach to Christianity [...]

If Jesus Had Come to America in the 21st Century…

In the midst of our litigious society I wonder what it would look like if Jesus had come to America in the 21st century? As a test example we will have a look at Mark 9 where we have the story about the father who brought his demon-possessed son to Jesus. Now I know we [...]

Crucifixion of Jesus Christ - The Bigger Picture

The temptation when teaching about the crucifixion is to talk about the Romans, Roman courts, Pilate, Crucifixion, and prisoner release customs when dealing with the first 15 verses. Then in the verses that follow to discuss the suffering of Jesus and how he died for our sin (15:16-47). I want to suggest an alternative approach [...]

Rethinking Relevant Church - Taking on Goliath’s Challenge

What is it that makes the church/Christianity relevant? Some Christians must think being loud and obnoxious is what it takes to be relevant. I am very thankful that is a small handful of people. Some Christians think we are relevant when America is considered a Christian nation. I am glad that God’s kingdom is much [...]

Gospel of Mark - Feeding 5000 and Walking on Water (6:31-56)

Jesus Feeds 5000
We go from a Markan sandwich to Jesus feeding 5000. How ironic. The better parallel is pointed out by Witherington (Gospel of Mark, 213) of the two meals - one that led to John’s death and another that shows the miraculous and powerful nature of the kingdom that John preached about and prepared [...]

Gospel of Mark - Common Mission & Message (6:6b-30)

Mark is certainly a delicious book with all of the sandwiches he leaves throughout the narrative. We have another sandwich in Mark 6.
Crust - Jesus Sends out the Twelve (6:6b-13)
Meat - John the Baptist Beheaded (6:14-29)
Crust - The Twelve Return (6:30-30)
The inner part always illuminates the outer part. What does that have to teach us [...]

Thoughts from the LeadNow Conference in Orlando

Missy and I went to the LeadNow conference for leaders of 20 and 30 somethings and I have to say it was pretty phenomenal. Speakers included Dan Kimball, Donald Miller (author of Blue Like Jazz), Erwin McManus, Todd Phillips and several others. I want to deal with what was presented in several posts but first [...]

Disc Golf, Resurrection, and Realizing the Possibilities

One of my favorite past-times is playing disc golf. How much better can you get than a free sport that lets you take a walk through nature while challenging yourself to improve? I played yesterday with a couple of guys who were really, really good. They play on a regular basis with the “champ” Ken [...]