Resurrection People- Day 4

“Resurrection and the Church” “If we leave him in the tomb we can systematize his teaching and sanitize his actions.  We can manage the church and keep things in order.  If we leave him in the tomb, then Christianity belongs to us to make of it what we will, to reform it in our image [...]

Pharisee Envy…

I wish sometimes that I got Jesus half as much as the religious leaders of his day. They at least saw he was enough of a threat to their way of life to kill him. I just turn on the tv and think about something else.

Resurrection People- Day 3

“Resurrection and Reality” “For the earliest Christians, to speak of Jesus’ resurrection was to speak of something that, however (in our sense) earth-shattering, however much it drew together things earthly and heavenly, was still an “earthly” event, and needed to be exactly that.  It had earthy consequences: an empty tomb, footprints by the shore, and [...]

A laugh with Judas…

I wonder if Jesus and Judas ever shared a laugh together.  Matthew 26 opens with another statement of Scripture regarding Jesus’ prediction of his upcoming death and of course his betrayal.  I don’t think I ever really have spent too much time thinking about the betrayal of Jesus.  I guess, perhaps, the Bible stories I [...]

Resurrection People- Day 2

“Resurrection and Hope” “Every year at Easter I get to preach on the Resurrection.  In my sermon I always say to my skeptical, secular friends that, even if they can’t believe in the resurrection, they should want it to be true.  Most of them care deeply about justice for the poor, alleviating hunger and disease, [...]

Resurrection People- Day 1

“United in Resurrection…” “Some things that should have happened to us, like death and punishment, happened instead to Jesus.  God considers us as if we really had experienced what Jesus experienced on the cross.  Conversely, there are things that happened to him that we did not deserve–like resurrection and receiving the approval of God.  Thanks [...]

Mission and National Self-Preservation

Hengel on first century Judaism*: “A universal missionary consciousness could not really develop freely in the face of this elemental impulse towards national self-preservation.” I’ll leave this without comment and let you ponder an application for today. (*Found quoted in Salvation to the Ends of the Earth, by Kostenberger and O’Brien)

Resurrection People (A Series)

This next week before Easter, starting Sunday,  I’m leaving a quote each day dealing with the Resurrection.  I hope you’ll take the chance to read them and think about what it is we are to celebrate on Sunday, April 4. (I know that traditionally the focus this last week is on the cross and sufferings [...]

Reading through the Bible? Encouragement from Bonhoeffer

I’ve been trying to read through the whole Bible this year, just about to finish Deuteronomy in my OT reading.  I’ve talked to many people who gave up trying to read the Bible after hitting the middle of Exodus (some multiple times).  I highly sympathize with them.  But I was encouraged by a quotation from [...]

Francis Chan and “The Blind Side”

On Sunday nights, some of our youth have been working through a video series by Francis Chan called “Crazy Love” based on the book of the same title.   In chapter 4, Chan turns up the heat in the book, going after what he calls “lukewarm” Christianity (other terms like “cheap grace” (per Bonhoeffer) mentality might [...]