At first blush, the Synoptic Gospels (Matt, Mark, and Luke) are so different from the gospel according to John. Two of the three Synoptics start with the genealogy of Jesus (Matt and Luke). Mark jumps right into the story with John’s ministry...
Dr. Brent Sleasman preached a great message in EBS chapel today. He talked about how Jesus turned human culture on its head by challenging the social protocol of reciprocity. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus not only changes the Mosaic law (as the...
The placement of Isaiah 6 is a tough nut to crack. Why is the call of the prophet not in chapter 1 but in chapter 6? The question is whether this is chronological placement or thematic placement. That is, does the call of Isaiah come after the...
When visiting churches in the US I notice that lots of pastors and preachers have exchanged the eternal truth of the Gospel for mere psychology and sociology. Rather recently I visited a large protestant evangelical church of a denomination for...
I had an interesting discipleship opportunity that came up yesterday here at EBS in Haiti. To make a long story short (by the way, discipleship opportunities often time come out of complex circumstances), there was a miscommunication between...
Why did God let Pharaoh think that he was in control? This is one of those parts of the Exodus account that intrigues me. Certainly God could have freed Israel in one fell swoop. Are all those plagues really necessary? If it was the death of the...
God meets our needs to prepare us for greater things. Often times we make the mistake of thinking that God meets our needs for our purposes. He certainly meets our needs because he love us, but his meeting of human needs is never the end game...
This is from Stacey’s blog about the message Junior and I preached yesterday. She’s an excellent writer. Enjoy! Sunday’s when Matt and Junior preach together are my very favorite, always. Neither of them were planning on...
The powers of the world are relentless. This comes out in the story of the Exodus. It’s a story we all know so well. One of the more memorable parts of the story is at the end where the walls of water come crashing down on Pharaoh’s army...
This is from my wife’s blog. It gives an update on ministry in Haiti and some much needed time off for our family. Alright. I’m going to try to catch everything up of the sweet craziness of life in one fatal swoop. We still have some...