One of the most memorable stories in the Old Testament is the story of Moses and the burning bush (Ex 3). According to the story, Moses was shepherding his father-in-law’s sheep when God showed up in a burning bush with a big, world-changing job for...
Disruption of God’s Creation Project Leaven comes up a lot in the Bible. We first see it in the story of the exodus when God tells Israel not to put leaven in their bread the night before he delivers them from the captivity in Egypt (Ex 12). God...
In this post we said that while God’s presence pervades the cosmos (immanence), he also reveals himself in special ways within the creation. In this chapter, we will see that from the very beginning, God’s plan was to fill the entire creation with...
On Palm Sunday we read about how the people shouted “Hosannah!” while Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. This proclamation is directly from Psalm 118 and means “save us!” This cry for rescue is the perfect introduction to Holy Week. Holy...
Today we celebrate Palm Sunday, which is the last Sunday before Holy Week and Easter Sunday. Palm Sunday commemorates when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and the people celebrated and praised him as their long-awaited Messiah. In their act of...
Without the Holy Spirit’s help we can’t understand God any more than a chicken can understand a human being. We need the Holy Spirit’s help to both illuminate our minds and calibrate our hearts to understand him, to relate to him, and to know...
It is typical in the church calendar for preachers to start sermon series on the Holy Spirit after Easter. This is because Pentecost chronologically follows Easter. Jesus is crucified, is buried, resurrects, ascends to heaven, then sends the Holy...
Another passage under consideration as we prepare for Holy Week is Matthew 27:46, which records Jesus saying while on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Not a few preachers and other interpreters of the Bible have concluded that...
One of the passages that comes into focus as we approach Holy Week is Isaiah 52:13–53:12. This is the poem of the suffering servant which foretold Jesus’ substitutionary death. One of the things that often gets overlooked in the passage is the...