Did Matthew introduce the Magi to emphasize the Good News to foreigners? It’s not new for people to see their own kind as important, and to see foreigners as unworthy—maybe even to hate and persecute them. The Lord of the Bible sees that as a problem. When the Lord tells his people to care for the […]
To judge by the current content of our media, the hope of the world is that we destroy our perceived enemies, whether they be our own politicians or given sides in European or Near-Eastern wars. It’s us against them, winner take all—a fallen world view that has been inflicting suffering since Cain murdered Abel. A more Heavenly […]
The biggest obstacle to understanding the gospel of salvation is that we assume it is a religious answer to religious question: What must I do to deserve eternal life? Christ’s death for the undeserving is the obstacle we can’t get around.
“I had a church background, but the emphasis was on your sinfulness and your need to improve yourself. It was heavy-handed. It felt impossible and really didn’t offer any hope.” A recent graduate was telling me how her life was impacted by a Bible study she joined with friends. “For the first time I was […]
Christmas means God cares intimately about the details of our human struggle. A friend of ours is returning home to Asia after nearly a decade here with her family. Reflecting back on things that shaped her understanding, she said, “The first time I went to a church they said to welcome your neighbor. I wanted […]
One of my joys is to hear students say, “I had heard of the Bible before I came here, but I never knew how the whole story was connected. Now I understand why people believe it.” I develop studies to give students an overview of the Bible and its core message, because students ask for […]
In view of the Wednesday before Resurrection Day, this sermon goes into the reactions to Jesus in John 11 and 12. Find under the Sermons menu.
Psalm 23 speaks into the weary, the abused, the worried, the grieving. This may be the most familiar Psalm, but every time I meditate on it I see more. It’s about what it means to have the the Lord shepherding me so that I’m not missing something. to read this post tap here: Psalm […]
. . . This context is given not to upstage the good news, but to emphasize it. The Savior and Lord who brings joy for all has come to the neighborhood! He is the Glory in the most glorious of places, yet he comes to the least! He is the Fulfillment of the world, so […]
. . . This means that we’re talking about history, not mythology. It means that God is interested in the lives of real people. And it means that men such as Caesar Augustus have purposes for what they do, while God has other purposes for what they do. When we begin things, we may have […]
. . . God was creating again. He created a new man to get right what every other human had missed. He would be the fulfillment of the story begun in Genesis. God is the Savior, and this new man would save his people from their rebellious failure. To do that, God was entering his […]
. . . Matthew points to three divisions in the story: Fourteen generations from Abraham to David tell the story of a God unlike any known in the pagan world. This is a God known not by his demand for child sacrifice, not by sex rituals, not by someone’s ability to enslave others, not by […]
The fourteen generations from David to Jechoniah are the story of people who repeatedly reject the grace of God. Instead, they choose gods they think they can control to give them wealth and power. The gods they chose were gods of human sacrifice and ritual abuse of young women. These generations were not wavering between […]
. . . The genealogy from Abraham to David is a story of God’s surprising grace to one marginalized person after another. We don’t get far into the generations from Abraham to Jesus before our attention is called to the names of four remarkable women. Their mention in this list is not a small matter. […]
. . . Abraham left the great civilization, the life of trying to build stairways to heaven, and walked faithfully with God on God’s earth. “Son of Abraham” is a term for those who live by faith in God. They believe that God is good and purposeful. They believe that God knows what he is […]
To read this post click here: Good News 3.1 Anointed About this series of reflections If God were to come to us in the flesh–if the Main Character of the story were to walk into our lives–we should recognize him from what he had revealed already. Matthew wrote his Gospel to a people group who […]
To read this blog click here: Good News 2.5 Caring About this series of reflections . . . in his months of silence, Zechariah noticed what God had been saying all along. God works in power to deliver his people out of fear and shame, out of sin and hate. God works in grace to […]
To read this post click here: Good News 2.4 Status About this series of reflections . . . Both Elizabeth and Mary were vividly conscious that God was working these amazing changes in their lives. They knew they were a part of something God had been doing from ancient times, and that they were experiencing […]
To read this post click here: Good News 2.3 Important About this series of reflections . . . Mary was upset and confused by this messenger. She wondered what was really going on. But the messenger said, “Mary, you can stop fearing. With God you find grace.” God is not the kind of authority who […]
To read this post click here: Good News 2.2 Living About this series of reflections . . . The messenger said, “John will announce God, so that the devotion of the ancestors will be poured upon a new generation, and apathetic minds will be fascinated with God’s ways, in order to get a whole community […]
To read this post click here: Good news 2.1 Story About this series of reflections . . . Names had meaning in that culture. Zechariah means “God remembers.” Abijah means “God is my Father.” Elizabeth means “God is my promise.” The names themselves are introducing us to the kind of God who is making […]
To read this post click here: Good News 1.2 John 1 About this series of reflections First, the Meaning already was. And Meaning was inseparable from God, who already was. And Meaning was this God who already was. Meaning is a Person, and He was inseparable from God from the first. Everything was made through […]
Good News 1.1 Gen 1 About this series of reflections . . . God was going to begin something with that formless, silent stuff. He was going to give shape to a place, and He was going to give movement to the lifeless. We get our first orientation from our surroundings, and from the experience […]
To read this reflection on the Lord’s Prayer click here: Kingdom Conversation . . . Do we initiate anything, or does everything simply happen to us? What if those are not the only options? What if neither of those accurately describes the relationship into which God calls us? What if we need a middle voice in which […]
To read this reflection on Mark 4 and Matthew 13 click here: Kingdom Living Here’s the challenge, Jesus seems to be saying: Whenever I start talking about the Kingdom, you start picturing earthly kingdoms of industry, weaponry and political power (Right-handed power). When I call it the Kingdom of Heaven, you start picturing a far-off […]
To read this reflection go to Bible Studies or click the link below. http://www.jackofalltribes.com/bible-studies/what-kind-of-kingdom-does-jesus-reveal/ photo by:
The Story of Halloween Some people pit Halloween against Christianity, as if they were opposing political parties vying for votes. But history is not that simplistic. Halloween as we know it is a blend of folk traditions and economic opportunities. Ancient Celtic peoples in Europe had four primary holidays marking the beginning of spring (fertility […]
To read, click here: Defensive Thinking . . . Jesus is not standing on the sidelines with a clipboard grading us on our failures. We default in that direction, but Jesus doesn’t. He gave fair and blunt warning to the teachers of the law that continuing down that path does not get you to Heaven. […]
To read this post click here: Trouble with Grace part 2 . . . Applying the muscle is the best way to get some things done. (“Sure, power corrupts,” Jack Handey says, “but it also provides for our electrical needs.”) Sometimes directly attacking a problem is most effective. But not always, and especially not when […]
Honor and Shame: How culture limits our understanding and ability to communicate the good news How do different cultures shape the way people think? How can we better understand their way of thinking in order to clearly communicate the gospel to them? How does the Bible itself speak in cultural terms different from our […]
To read click here: Trouble with Grace part 1 Whenever I talk about grace, it seems, someone is sure to get rattled by the idea. Some people think that grace means lawlessness–a world of anarchy in which there is no justice and evil runs rampant. In a world as messed up as this one, chaos […]
To read click here: Gen 15. Faith which God Affirms One of the most common conversations about God that I have begins like this: “I love God. Or, at least, I thought I did. And I thought God loved me, since, in Jesus, He died for me and forgave my sin. . . But now […]
If the Bible is true then, first, we’re all guilty of inflicting suffering, and, second, we’re all the victims of injustice. If we believe the first, it follows that we would be humble, not eager to judge others. If we believe the second, it follows that everyone is deserving of some sympathy. Obscure either and […]
This has been a brutal week: racist murders, terrorist beheadings, tourists gunned down, hate mail, and another brother forced to resign from his ministry. It was the mail, and my grief over what this brother and his family are going through, that prompted this psalm, a cry from my own fractured soul–and a glimpse at the hope that […]
to read click here: Deuteronomy . . . . At first glance we mistakenly view the Hebrews as aggressors. We forget that they had been so afraid of these enormous Canaanites with their walled cities that they would have preferred to return to slavery in Egypt. God made it clear that they could NOT overthrow […]
Click here: Exodus 14 The card read: “Do not be afraid. Stand firm, and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. . . The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still” (Exodus 14:13-14). I have needed those instructions again and again since then. . . photo by:
To read this page click here: Judges 11 Jephthah’s story looks at first glance like a nightmare of conflict, betrayal, mistrust and human sacrifice. What is going on? For those with eyes for the good news, it is about far more. photo by:
On Packers and Seahawks No player is safe from second-guessers. What does that illustrate, apart from 20-20 hindsight?
Browning’s Christmas Eve Christmas Eve, 1849, England. A cold, wind-whipped pedestrian seeks refuge from a rainstorm by slipping into the back of a stone chapel during a sermon. A mere nine people are listening to the preacher, whose logic and grammar are abysmal. The poet, already cynical about the holiday, pours out on paper a […]
This is part of a series on Luke’s Gospel that will be published shortly. Luke 3 People were expecting the ultimate king. Luke jumps ahead another 18 years. He clarifies the date by naming those in power at the time: emperor, governors, kings, high priests–but the Lord gave his words to an obscure prophet in […]
