Jews and Christians

How should Christians think about Jews? For that matter, how should Jews think about Christians? The relationship between Jews and Christians has been...

The Inward Man

Christian Holidays #9

Of all the Christian holidays, the one that surprises me the most is Pentecost. It surprises me that every Christian does not observe it. After all, i...

About Pentecost

The Power to Love

A man can live without food…for a while. He can live on short rations for quite a while. But sooner or later the body withers and dies. We know what i...

The Gospel of John #12

I can understand why Jewish leaders were concerned about Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ. If I were Jewish, I would probably feel the sa...

The Gospel of John #11

It’s fascinating that the longest discourse of Jesus in the entire New Testament is also the most private, the most intimate, the most personal. It is...

Everything Is Beautiful

I used to wonder at the decay of popular music in all of its forms. Why wasn’t anyone writing beautiful music? It seemed almost as though they had los...

The War for Your Children

Not a few Christian folk are beginning to worry. They’re thinking that they may be losing the culture war. The strongest evidence they see: their youn...

A Mother to Remember

What would happen to you if you were down and out and there was no one to help? Where would you be if you were sick and broke in a strange city with n...

The Land Speaks

Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause...

The Gospel of John #10

Have you ever wondered why it is that Christian people feel they are never alone? It’s true, you know—we are never completely alone. In the night of t...

The Gospel of John #9

One of the saddest things about the ministry of Jesus is the number of people who believed him, believed his message, believed what he said about who...

A Relationship with God

Not long ago, Someone I respect very highly commented that she did not have a relationship with God. She believed in God, she practiced her faith assi...

The Gospel of John #8

Jesus defies explanation. You can’t just put him in a category and then say you have him figured out. Nearly every conventional idea of Jesus is contr...

The Gospel of John #7

I must confess, I was a little puzzled at the reaction of the Jewish community to the movie The Passion of the Christ. But when I reflected on some of...

The Gospel of John #6

Jesus was a constant puzzle to the Pharisees. Sometimes he is a bit puzzling to us, too. And we have had a lot of time to digest what he was saying. A...

The Gospel of John #5

Considering all that Jesus did, and considering his personal charisma, does it strike you as strange that there was a point when many of his disciples...

The Solitary Man

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Everyone knows this verse by heart. But ther...

The Gospel of John #4

Of the four gospel writers, it is John who is the theologian. More than the others, he captures and reports for us those words and deeds of Jesus that...

The Gospel of John #3

Jesus of Nazareth was full of surprises. His disciples often had trouble figuring him out, but Jesus had an agenda. Everything he did was for a reason...

The Gospel of John #2

From here, it’s hard to imagine what those first encounters with the mature Jesus were like—for those who saw him for the first time. I have no reason...

The Gospel of John #1

The apostle John presents us with the most astonishing theology. And he does it right off the bat, without preamble. To the early theologians of the C...

The Days of Elijah

If you happen to enjoy contemporary praise music, you more than likely have heard These Are The Days of Elijah. (It happens to be one of my favorites....

The Gospel of Matthew #40

Did Jesus die of a broken heart, or was he brutally and violently killed? Now, you have to understand something about us preacher-types. Sometimes we...

The Gospel of Matthew #39

I know that Jesus had to die for my sins. But why did he have to die the way he did? Why the pain, why the shame? Why the spitting, why the humiliatio...

The Gospel of Matthew #38

It is hard to imagine why anyone would want to kill a man. I suppose, in some cases, people kill out of fear. A burglar, for example, might kill someo...

The Gospel of Matthew #37

Everyone wants to know about the end of the world. Just bring up the subject and everyone’s ears perk up. When Jesus’ disciples asked him about the en...

About the Messiah

What did the First Christians believe about Jesus? He was the Messiah, of course, but more than that. Jesus himself laid out the question before the P...

The Gospel of Matthew #36

If the world was going to blow up at noon tomorrow, would you want to know? I don’t just mean having an asteroid hit us, spread some dust and dirt aro...

The Gospel of Matthew #35

If you could ask Jesus, Lord, what are the signs of your second coming and of the end of the world? would you want to know the answer? It’s a teasing...

Unleavened Bread: The Basics

Christian Holidays #1

Are you ready for a quiz? Grab pencil and pad and write down the names of the two most important Christian Holidays. It should only take you a few sec...

Easter or Passover?

There is a fascinating story that links Easter and Passover, and most of the world goes on blissfully unaware of it. Most know that Easter and Passove...

An Appointment with God

Behold the Lamb of God

Why do you suppose God leaves us with so many unanswered questions? And why are some of the truths of the Bible so, well, obscure? If God wants us to...

Passover Service 2001

Who Killed Christ?

When the Pope viewed Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ, he is said to have remarked, It is as it was. The Vatican later tried to spin that...

Three Days and Three Nights

I love a good mystery. Puzzle solving is a favorite pastime of mine. So perhaps I can be forgiven for saying in a recent radio program that God also l...

About the New Covenant

What did the First Christians believe about the New Covenant? I’m talking about those Christians who were alive in the days when the New Testament was...