The Three People They Were Looking For in Jesus’ Day
We talk a lot about messianic prophesies in the Old Testament, as we should. What often gets missed is that they weren’t just looking for the Messiah. They were looking for two other people mentioned in the Old Testament and you see this reflected in the Gospels. Matthew 27:46-49, “About three in the afternoon Jesus […]
Fascinating Story Order in the Gospels
Sometimes the Gospels have stories that are ordered in such a way that it just blows my mind. Because these connections span multiple stories it can be easy to miss because we often study one unit of the text at a time rather than looking at the whole or at least big chunks to see […]
John the Baptist Preparing the Way of the Lord
In Matthew 11:11 Jesus made a shocking claim about John, “Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.” I may have guessed Abraham or Moses but Jesus picks John. It is puzzling until you read the rest of the verse, “yet whoever is least […]
Losing Our Way in Churches of Christ and Finding the Answer in the Gospels
I intend to spend a lot more time in the Gospels this year and I would like to tell you why. In 2015 I tackled N.T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God. I started it while on jury duty via my kindle app and when I first downloaded the book it told me I […]
Jesus in Context – One of the Most Helpful Biblical Background Books Around
I recently came across the most helpful resources on the historical backgrounds to the Gospels that I have ever seen. It is called Jesus in Context: Background Readings for Gospel Study by Darrell Bock. This book works through the synoptics and John and pulls just about any relevant extra-biblical text in full quotation to help you see […]
New Free Study Uploaded – Parables and the Kingdom of God
I just uploaded a new 13 lesson series on the parables of Jesus entitled “Parables and the Kingdom of God” Here are the stats on free curriculum on this blog: 937 total lessons 2996 total pages 75 lesson series 20 contributors 60,000+ pdf downloads!
Launching Missional Communities – Thinking UP, IN, OUT
In their book Launching Missional Communities, Breen and Absalom point out that Jesus had three great loves and thus three distinct dimensions to his life. UP: deep and connected relationship to his Father and attentiveness to the leading of the Holy Spirit IN: constant investment in the relationships with those around him (his disciples) OUT: […]
If You Had Three Years to Change the World…
If you had three years to change the world, would you spend as much time away alone with God as Jesus did? If I knew I had three years to change the world I know I would be tempted to never slow down and solitude would be pretty far down on the priority list. Not […]
Summaries of the New Testament Books
To follow up on this post summarizing the books of the Old Testament, here is the list for the New Testament. Here is this list in pdf. These are just quick helps to help people get a feel for these books and see how they connect with each other. Bible Study Helps – New Testament […]
The Crucifixion of Christ
We don’t like to leave Christ on the cross for very long. Our theology often gets in a rush to the resurrection. But the resurrection lacks its own possibility if you exclude the crucifixion of Christ. Anyone who has watched the movie The Passion of the Christ was moved by the brutality of what Jesus […]