Why Was Jesus Baptized?
Baptizing the spotless lamb of God and savior of the world seems like an odd sort of way to begin Jesus’ ministry. He didn’t need to be made righteous. He didn’t have any sins to repent of, which was part of John’s baptism. Jesus didn’t need to be baptized in the since that you and […]
Best Thoughts I Have Ever Read on Bible Geneaologies by Walter Brueggemann
In talking about the biblical exile and how the Western church finds itself in its own sort of exile Brueggemann writes, “The enormous popularity of Alex Haley’s Roots came about, I suggest, not because of fascination with our guilt about slavery, but because of resonance with the need to recover connection and genealogy…The scriptural resources for […]
The Holy Spirit’s Role in the Coming of Jesus
We often associate the Holy Spirit with the beginning of the church in Luke’s second volume, the book of Acts. What is interesting is that the Holy Spirit also played a key role in kicking off Luke’s first volume, the Gospel of Luke: Luke 1:15 – John the Baptist will be filled with the Holy […]
Living Inside Out: Guest Post by Adelle Gabrielson
“If thou indeed derive thy light from heaven, then to the measure of that heaven-born light, shine…in thy place and be content.” ~William Wordsworth Every Sunday morning, my family would go out to breakfast before church. I remember one of those Sundays in particular when my father suddenly looked up at me across the table […]
Focus on Discipleship Has Created a Resurgence in Baptism
It used to be pretty unusual to hear people teach the importance of baptism. In Churches of Christ it wasn’t unusual. We talked about it all the time but outside our fellowship it was pretty infrequent. If you did hear it, it was one of those things done to infants or done to join a […]
Frank Viola’s Post on Water Baptism
Frank Viola posted a good piece on water baptism today. It is worth a read. Rethinking Christian Baptism
Seeking Simplicty
When we lived in Memphis we used to knock doors on Saturday mornings for the bus ministry at an apartment complex in Millington called Flag Manor. One door we knocked on a regular basis was the apartment of an older couple who had an adult son who was mentally challenged. His name was Ricky. Ricky […]
The Sinner’s Prayer is Making the Rounds
I am seeing more and more blogs discussing the sinner’s prayer these days. There is this saying in the Churches of Christ that says we are usually about 20 years behind what other churches are doing. In this instance it seems they are 200 years behind us! I kid when I say that because it […]
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 […]
Studying With the Newly Baptized – Needing Your Input
We had marked the finish line in the wrong place. When someone was baptized we talked about that moment like their spiritual journey was complete. They had crossed a line but not the line. The reality was the finish line was still in the future. The ugly result of that was the newly baptized were […]