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 […]

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 […]