Jesus, Seeds and our DNA
I have been writing small group material on the parables and I was surprised to see how many of Jesus parables are about seeds. You have the parable of the sower, the mustard seed, the growing seed, the wheat and the weeds and so on. In these parables, the seed usually represents God’s Word. When […]
Jesus Paid It All…All to Him I Owe
There is an old hymn that we sing from time to time that says “Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain…he washed it white as snow.” I am struck by just how much Jesus was willing to give. Here is a sampling borrowed in part from Robert […]
Turns Out Jesus Wasn’t Married After All
The fragment of papyrus that appeared to talk about Jesus’ wife is now believed to be fake. Thanks to Daniel Wallace – Jesus’ Wife Fragment Judged a Fake & Craig Evans for getting this information out – Update on the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife. Also have a look at Jim West’s reaction. The fact that […]
Jesus is Willing
In Matthew 8:1-4 we get this story, “8 When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2 A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” 3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. 4 Then Jesus […]
Was Jesus Married? Several Scholars’ Take on the New Papyrus Finding
If you have heard about the new papyrus discovery that some area saying is proof Jesus was married then you really should read Alan Boyle’s article “Reality Check on Jesus and His ‘Wife’”. When I heard about this I had a few problems with it on the front end. First, there is no context to […]
John The Baptist’s Baptism Was for the Forgiveness of Sins
You have undoubtedly heard that John the Baptist’s baptism was a baptism of repentance and that the difference between John’s baptism and Jesus’ baptism was that Jesus’ baptism took it a step further by adding the effect of the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). Well, was anyone even reading Mark 1:4? “And so John the […]
David Platt: The Sinner’s Prayer is Superstitious and Unbiblical
A friend of mine just pointed me to this video from David Platt on the sinner’s prayer. I have always had a problem with the sinners prayer. It is not that I have a problem with faith. It is not that I have a problem with responding to God through faith and even prayer (I […]
Evangelistic Study of Mark
We are about to implement a better plan to increase the number of one-on-one Bible studies we are engaging in as a congregation. In doing so we are needing material to pull this off. So I have started writing an inductive study of Mark and it is really pretty exciting stuff. What I mean by […]
Changing The Way We See “Steps” of Salvation
Many of us have been trained to read the Bible like a legal text rather than a relational document. When we do that we usually look for the actions God wants so that we can fulfill them. I have no objection to obedience! The problem is, it is entirely possible to fulfill the “to do’s” […]
Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus
There is a video going around facebook and twitter you may have seen. It is called Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus. Young people resonate with this kind of thing. That is why the video has 5 million views and 60k comments. Young people don’t want a shallow faith. They don’t want to go […]