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What Jesus doesn’t say
I continue to walk in wonder as I read through the Gospel of Luke. I’ve been on this journey with Jesus for decades and the longer I walk with him, the more I am in awe of the Kingdom of God. It is a learning process still. And, it is an unlearning process. In all of it, I am still…
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The gospel is action
Luke 3:7–14 (NIV) 7 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise…
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The depth of our existence
NT Wright has been instrumental in reconfiguring my theology on the Kingdom of God. How I think about heaven and eternity and the depth of my existence has been deeply formed by NT Wright and Dallas Willard in the past few decades.
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Let’s reintroduce Christ to our culture
This article intrigued me. Of course, it threw me off initially, but I’m used to “church” a certain way. Really… what are we used to when it comes to “church?” What I’m blown away with when I ready the New Testament is this: God isn’t bothered by small beginnings. Acts 19 is probably my favorite chapter in Acts. There was…
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The risk of the gospel
Recently I preached on the passage in Matthew 10:16-25. The focus was on the RISK of sharing the Gospel. Our “risk” here in the U.S. is anxiety that people may not like us. They may not respond the way WE want…
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We keep striving for greatness and power while Jesus constantly calls us to service
I am not a fan of the phrase “servant leaders.” I think it’s a cop out phrase in large part. Just serve. If people notice and follow in that path, then you’ve led in some way. Just not the way that people who throw out the phrase “servant leader” meant to say “lead.”
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Christianity is not an “add on” in my life
For what we need more than goods is God; more than a living is life. Even though we build with our own hands a new world, if we find not God, our lives still are voids darkened by the lurking shadows of our own selfishness and echoing to the whimperings of children who won’t admit they are lost. — Clarence…
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We want the transactional Jesus
One of my favorite gospel passages is John 6. Over the years, the depth of Jesus’s words sinks a little more into my heart. This is a place Jesus gets to the heart of what it means to follow him. This is one of those places where Jesus works intentionally to shrink the crowd. He has chased almost all of…
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Three key verses to identify my life
The more I read through the Bible, the more I want to strip down all the periphery we have made Christianity and come to its essentials. I have loved Paul and his writing more and more over the decades of walking with Christ. There is a vision he truly saw beyond his time that I have found compelling. There have…
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The deepest connection
My reading is currently in Galatians. The reading in Galatians 2 again highlights what I’ve been drawn to in my overall Scripture reading: what IS and what is NOT included in “being a follower of Christ.”