Peter Speaks to the Gentiles The fourth sermon in the book of Acts: Acts 10:23-48 (specifically Acts 10:34-43) Setting: Caesarea Speaker: Peter Audience: Cornelius, his family, and close friends—all Gentiles (that is, non-Jews) Preceding Events...
Did Queen Esther Live Happily Ever After? Applying the Fairytale Story of Cinderella to Esther Disrespects Her Situation I’ve always liked the story of Queen Esther. She’s an ordinary girl who wins a national beauty pageant and becomes queen. If...
A Lifetime of Reading the Bible Plan to Read Scripture to Feed Your Soul and Inform Your Life I’ve read the Bible most of my life. It’s been a huge part of my faith journey. To be clear, this started out with my parents reading to me: one Bible...
Happy Birthday Jesus and Merry Christmas Too Segregating the Two Sides of Christmas Is Christmas an important holiday to you? I suspect you’ll say, “yes.” And if you follow Jesus, you may say Christmas is the most important holiday because it...
Reflecting on Church #37: It’s Time for a Serious Church Cleaning With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #37. This small church likes to...
Be Ready to Speak The fifth sermon in the book of Acts: Acts 13:13-52 (specifically, Acts 13:16-41 & 46-47) Setting: The synagogue in Antioch Speaker: Paul Audience: Jews and God-fearing Gentiles (likely converts to Judaism) Preceding Events...
Warn One Another in Love I’ve talked about the need for theological diversity in our churches. While we need to embrace those who hold different understandings of Jesus, we perhaps need to adopt a separate view of the behaviors of people...
Victorious Christian Conference Update Fresh Perspective of the Bible and God Earlier this month I took part in the Victorious Christian Conference, hosted by Emily Louis. My session was a “Fresh Perspective of the Bible and God.” We covered that...
Praying for My Children Ever since our daughter was born, I knew I should pray for her, as well as for her brother, when he came along. I did pray for them—when I thought of it—which wasn’t very often. I felt guilty for not doing what I knew I...
Jesus’s Broken Church Reimagining Our Sunday Traditions from a New Testament Perspective Do you have a nagging feeling that something’s missing from your church experience? You’re not alone. And it’s time to discover a better way. Church-reform...
