As we explore what it means to live God's ‘Story’, I begin by proposing two problems and a solution. Problem #1 We don’t know God’s...
The New Testament opens with a genealogy that is “shorthand” for God’s ‘Story’ up to that point (Matthew 1:1-17). Knowledge of this...
As you read or listen intentionally to the Historical Backbone of the Bible do you ask what it means for your life? If you've reached...
A tour of an unfamiliar place can make all the difference. I’ve traveled to many foreign cities. Some of them are just blurred in my...
As we approach 1000 B.C., God’s ‘Story’ shifts from the turmoil of Judges to the potential of Kings. In our survey of 1 and 2 Samuel...
Solomon represents glory days for Israel; the Exile, a desperate time. Between these two are four centuries of national decline...
I have a confession. The first time I read the Bible from cover-to-cover it was hard slogging for me. I found that finishing the Old...
"How to assemble a jigsaw puzzle” is another title I could have used. One of the Christmas traditions of our family is a communal...
Beginning a new year is a time for reflection and resolve. January is named after the Roman god Janus. Janus had two faces: one...
Turning the page from Genesis to Exodus takes us forward almost 400 years. The descendants of Jacob, renamed Israel, have multiplied...
Being “in Christ” is the pre-eminent factor of self-identity for the followers of Jesus. That was our conclusion in our previous post...
The young woman pronounced that it was her body, and she would use it anyway she wanted. In our modern western culture, “it’s my body”...
Brian felt dejected. He had just finished leading the adult Bible study at his church. He had studied the topic thoroughly, followed...
If you knew your future, wouldn't that change your present? Recently, I was chatting with some Christians when the topic of future...
In modern Western societies, it is fashionable to dismiss the good news of Jesus Christ as irrelevant. Other things appear more real...
Why do bad things happen to good people? This is an age-old question. Many people attempt to answer this conundrum with simplistic...
Have you ever been angry with God? What caused that anger? How did you deal with it? If you answered “yes” to the first question,...
What is this heresy? What can we do about it? A notable heresy A. W. Tozer writes in I Call It Heresy (pp. 9-10): “… a notable...
To hit a target, first locate the bull's-eye. For the Christian, the target is being a disciple, and making disciples, of Jesus...
How do we make disciples? In the last few posts we’ve asked some big questions about discipleship: What is a disciple? How can...
How can you recognize a disciple of Jesus Christ? In some circles, discipleship is measured by activities such as reading the Bible...
“Why should I make disciples?” As I examine my own reasons, I listen again to Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20. Here are five areas to test...
Two action words describe how we make disciples. The first is baptizing which we dealt with in the previous post. The second is...
Dallas Willard’s The Great Omission and Frank Viola’s Discipleship in Crisis capture something of the overall malaise in the current...
My conviction has been stated before: Matthew’s gospel is a paradigm for making disciples of Jesus Christ. This raises the question,...
The second lesson for a disciple of Jesus Christ is in the second section of Matthew’s ‘Story’ (Matthew 1:18-25). “What’s the first...
Have you ever met a leper? I haven’t. You probably haven’t either. So, how is this relevant to you and me? Let me show you. Three...
Here is a basic principle for interpreting the Bible. Early in a book of the Bible, the author educates his readers to read the text...
Why measure? In the process of making disciples of Jesus Christ we come to the vexing issue of accurately assessing both the growth of...
Measuring genuine success requires first having the right target. In their early years, a doctor examined each of our children,...
Although modern tools for measuring spiritual growth have some uses, they are deficient in several areas. Does the Bible provide us...
We have a new question. Our old question was: Is it ever right to lie? We answered that in the preceding four posts: Part 1:...
The previous post stirred the pot by getting us to ask questions and think about the adequacy (or inadequacy) of how we make important...
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