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

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 [...]

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 [...]

Show Me Your Glory - Moses, Elijah, & Jesus

The transfiguration is one of the most fascinating stories in the entire New Testament. When Jesus was transfigured on the mountain God sent Moses and Elijah to speak with him. What did they talk about on the mountain? I am really not sure but I have an idea.
The first clue that connects these three figures [...]

Bible Study - Seeing the Big Picture

I have always been one for details. When I study a passage I tend to break things down as small as possible. When you do that there is only so much information you can handle at a time. What is the background? Who is speaking? Where are they located and how might that affect the [...]

Maybe Simon Peter Needs to be Given a Little More Slack

We often view Peter as the bold and brash one who went around sticking his foot in his mouth. Sure he cut off Malchus’ ear, walked out on the water with Jesus but began to sink, and offered to build booths for Jesus, Moses and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration. I wonder if he [...]

Should We Pray for the Hands of Doctors? Praying Too Small

I always thought the prayer, “Lord, please be with the hands of the doctors…” was a strange prayer. We are asking for God to intervene without having to ask Him to do it all himself. It’s like saying, “God if you have time could you help this person?” We are asking for the doctors to [...]

Small Group Curriculum - Ministry of Jesus

This was a series I wrote over a year ago on the ministry of Jesus. I think it has some good content as well as a layout that allows the teacher to find things quickly and shift to new sections if time is an issue. I will add more lessons to this at some point [...]

When the Kingdom of God Breaks In

Do you know what Jesus taught about more than anything else? Not money, sin, evangelism, or sacrifice. The subject of most of Jesus’ recorded teaching was the kingdom of God. The coming of the kingdom of God was about a new day that was dawning. The old, broken way of doing things was no more. [...]