Fasting and Discipleship
Fasting is a key part of discipleship. It is something that I haven’t practiced enough but am learning more about and also correcting some of my past misunderstandings. I thought of fasting through the lens of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6 but never put it together with Acts 13 and 14. In Matthew 6 Jesus […]
Connecting the Creation Dots in the Larger Biblical Story
This is video from a class I taught back in June. Someone recently asked for more discussion on the 24 hours days of creation. If you zoom out a bit in order to read Genesis in its context and through its intended purpose and genre these things become consistent with an older earth approach to […]
Five Reasons You Need to Read The Old Testament
The more I study the New Testament (NT), the more I understand my need to study the Old Testament (OT). The Jesus’ story is a story of two testaments, not one. The Gospel is best understood when one has some comprehension of the whole Bible in order to get the full meaning of what is […]
Worship and Suffering: Praising God from the Ashes
In scripture, suffering and worship go hand in hand. The greatest book on suffering ever written, the book of Job makes this connection at the very beginning when everything begins falling apart in Job’s life, “20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in […]
Why are Biblical Lament and Celebration Extremely Important Today?
They are important because they are rooted in history. When you look at both biblical lament and biblical celebration, especially in the psalms, they are rooted in historical context. They reach back into their history. They remind themselves and their listeners (their co-mourners/co-celebrants) that what they are experiencing has deep roots going back generations. There […]
Did David Prophesy the Deaths of His Own Children?
After David had an affair with Bathsheba and subsequently had her husband Uriah murdered to cover his tracks the prophet Nathan came and rebuked David for his sins in 2 Samuel 12. Nathan tells David a story about a man who only had one little lamb that he treated as his own child. He cared […]
An Important Principle in Reading the Old Testament as it Relates to the New – Fulfillment
We teach a lot more Old Testament to our children than to our adults. At least that is my experience. The Old Testament is so full of great stories that work well with the imagination of our kids. We don’t ever need to graduate out of the Old Testament. Instead we need to understand just […]
How is the Old Testament Useful Today?
The word “graphe” in Greek is used 49 times in the New Testament and literally means “writing.” In the New Testament the kind of writing that is being discussed is inspired writing which in basically every case is the Old Testament and so the word is translated “scripture.” When the New Testament writers refer to […]
Ironing Out Our Conflicting Message on the Usefulness of the Old Testament – Part 3
Next we turn to Acts 15. The Gospel had been preached among the Jews up until Acts 10. In Acts 10 we get the story of the divinely orchestrated encounter between Peter and Cornelius. Peter acknowledges God’s acceptance of non-proselyte (Jewish convert) Gentiles by the evidence of the Holy Spirit coming upon Cornelius and those […]
Ironing Out Our Conflicting Message on the Usefulness of the Old Testament – Part 2
It is important in this conversation that we stick with scripture itself for our guide. In Churches of Christ that is one of our mantras – that we stick by scripture even over tradition. But in the case of how we read and use the Old Testament we skip right past what the New Testament […]