Tag: Michael Bird

  • Dan

    Political and spiritual involvement

    One of the words we toss around without understanding the definition is “secular.” When it comes to being in the public square, it is a misunderstood (and abused) word. In Jesus and the Powers, Wright and Bird draw a clear picture of true secularism, where government is useful to allow religious voices to be heard but not dominating, and non-religious…

  • Dan

    Downing Street doesn’t ‘do God’

    NT Wright and Michael Bird in their new book, Jesus and the Powers, deal with living out faith in government life as one aspect of faith and faithfulness to the Kingdom of God. They tell a story of Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of Great Britain. In one interview, a journalist was asking Blair about his faith and before Blair…

  • Dan

    Resurrection Life

    We are now in Eastertide. Let us live… truly live… in the power of resurrection life. 7 The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:7-8, NRSVue)

  • Dan

    The Kingdom of God is FOR this world

    I am currently working my way through NT Wright and Michael Bird’s new book, Jesus and the Powers. It is some “prep” for this election season. More than that, it is necessary prep for how to lead in the church in a time when we face serious upheaval. We will have deep divides. The nastiness is very real. How do…

  • Dan

    Some things need to be torn down completely

    There are things to deconstruct. There are things to burn down. Just don’t forget reconstruction as well. If your version of Christianity means waving a confederate flag, saying that Trump is the new Cyrus, complaining that free healthcare leads to death panels, arguing women can’t be police officers, CRT is nothing more than Marxist race-baiting, and you’re doing that with…

  • Dan

    Our continued hardness of heart

    The past few years have done everything possible to crush the “eternal optimist” in me. Politics. Racial justice. Women in ministry. Sexual abuse in the church. I’m grateful that I cling to Christ. Yet, in my search for what the Church can do in Kingdom work, I continue to be crushed and disappointed. All we are getting is a continuing…

  • Dan

    Hysterical “Hipster” Bible

    While I am a HUGE fan of the Bibliotheca project he pokes fun at, this video from Michael Bird is truly “hipsterical.”

  • Dan

    Gospel definitions

    I am in the first pages of Michael Bird’s Evangelical Theology. He opens early on with definitions of gospel because all theology must be rooted in gospel. He uses N.T. Wright: The gospel is the royal announcement that the crucified and risen Jesus, who died for our sins and rose again according to the Scriptures, has been enthroned as the…