I did not know for a long time that Christianity didn’t start out as a new religion. The original Christians were Jews and they understood themselves to continue to be Jews. What set them apart from other Jews was that they believe that Jesus was...
Most of the time, people read the Psalms as independent poems that have been gathered together (rather haphazardly) through history to make up a collection, or anthology of poems, prayers and praise hymns. People tend to read it almost like a...
We recently celebrated Memorial Day. Memorial Day in America commemorates military soldiers who gave their lives in defence of American freedom. Few people would argue the point that self-sacrifice is the most noble act one could commit. The Bible...
One of the fundamental teachings of Christianity is that Jesus is our model for life. One of the better-known Bible verses that talks about this is Philippians 2:3–5ff which says, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking...
Easter and the resurrection of Jesus reminds us that the Kingdom of God is both now, and not yet. How does this work? The resurrection of Jesus ushered in a new era in the larger scope of human history. Jews during Jesus’s time believed that human...
“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Co 15:54–55) God is so powerful that He was able to take the ugliest and worst part of human existence and made it beautiful. The resurrection of...
Psalm 1 (along with Psalm 2) introduces the book of Psalms as a whole. It does so by implying a comparison of the five books of the Psalms (Book 1: 1–41; Book 2: 42–72; Book 3: 73–89; Book 4: 90–107; Book 5: 107–150) with the first five books of the...
I love blue claw crabs. I grew up eating them at my grandpa’s house. Every summer, he would take us out on his pontoon boat to fish in the Delaware Bay, and then on the way in from fishing, we would snatch up the crab traps and have fresh...
In the mid 19th century, the death rate among birthing mothers in certain hospitals in Vienna was five times higher than that of those giving birth at home or in midwives’ clinics. Something was really wrong. There was something killing these...
Before Jesus’s ministry, came John the Baptist. John, like Jesus, had disciples. John’s disciples would have looked up to John. This makes sense because many believed that John was sent by God. John was a spiritual giant. John had the courage to...