And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. — Matthew 3:16 The Holy Spirit’s descent upon Jesus as he’s coming...
Living the Christian life without the Holy Spirit is like having the wind knocked out of you: painful and scary. Our spiritual life and health are entirely dependent on a constant, unwavering dependence on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, like...
The day that God poured out the Holy Spirit on believers—Pentecost—marked the beginning of a new ear. On that day, God changed the normative way in which his redeeming presence manifested in the world. At Pentecost, the tabernacling glory of...
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...