Devotional
Real People, Real Places: Genealogies of the Bible
There are loads of genealogies in the Bible. The book of Genesis is structured around genealogies (ten genealogies, in particular). The opening chapters of 1 Chronicles is simply a multifaceted genealogy accounting for the families of the Jewish people going back to Adam. The most famous genealogy is that of Read more…
Christmas
Letting Go of Christmas
At Christmas time we celebrate that God became incarnate in Jesus Christ and walked amongst us. This is an amazing, world-altering idea. God in flesh. For years before Jesus, if you wanted to be in God’s presence you would have to go to the temple. The temple was the normative Read more…
Biblical Studies
Jesus is the Master, Even as an Infant
C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, reflects on Jesus’s incarnation with this: “Did you ever think, when you were a child, what fun it would be if your toys could come to life? Well suppose you could really have brought them to life. Imagine turning a tin soldier into a real Read more…
Ecclesiology
All Saints Day
All Saints Day is quickly approaching (Nov 1)! This is a Christian Holiday celebrated primarily within the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions (it’s less celebrated in Protestant tradition, as is often the case with events in the traditional Christian calendar). All Saints Day is where Halloween finds its origins Read more…
Biblical Studies
Whitewashed Tombs
Does the Old Testament have authority for New Testament believers as scripture? One of the most common questions that my students ask is “What’s the difference between the covenant in the Old Testament and the covenant in the New Testament?” Often times the underlying question driving this question is related Read more…
Devotional
Incline Your Heart
In this post I wrote about the phrase, “incline your ear” as an idiom meaning “please pay attention!” I said that this frequent expression in the Psalms reminds us that it’s okay to feel desperate in the Christian life and that God expects us to call to Him for help Read more…
Devotional
Jesus is the Bread of Life
Last week I wrote about Elkanah and his family situation as described in the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel (chapters 1–2). We looked specifically at the fact that Hannah, one of Elkanah’s wives, had both internal (she could not bear children) and external problems (she was ridiculed because of Read more…
Devotional
The Kingdom is Now, But Not Yet
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 history was divided into Read more…