A Large Catch There’s a story in the Bible of Jesus instructing some fishermen to try fishing from the other side of the boat. Imagine that, a carpenter giving fishing lessons to commercial fishermen. The amazing thing is once they moved to the other side, they caught a boatload of fish. It was as if […]
Learn More about Barsabbas Barsabbas is by no means a familiar character in the Bible. In fact, he is only mentioned twice—both times in the book of Acts. What makes him an intriguing fellow is his character and integrity. You see, Barsabbas, along with Matthias, were both considered to become Judas’s replacement, to become the […]
Re-examine Our Church Practices from a Biblical Viewpoint Over the past few months, I published a series of posts about assumptions we should change about church. Here is a list of all nine: What perspectives should you change about your view of church? Pick the assumption that most convicts you and work to reform it, […]
Go into All the World and Make Disciples About two billion people in the world call themselves Christians, more than those who align themselves with any other religion. But how many will call themselves disciples of Jesus? The Bible never tells us to make Christians or even to be a Christian. But it talks a […]
Explore Jesus’s Parting Words A few weeks ago we looked at Jesus’s final instructions as found in each of the Bible’s four biographies of him. Melding these together, we came up with three steps. First is to follow Jesus, second is to wait for Holy Spirit power, and three is to go and tell others. […]
We all know that Jesus had twelve disciples, right? This number occurs repeatedly in all four gospels. And the first three list them by name. Unfortunately, the lists don’t match. Matthew and Mark list Simon Peter, Andrew, James (son of Zebedee), John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James (son of Alphaeus), Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and […]
The Disciples Walking to Emmaus Teach Us to Open Our Eyes and See God After Jesus is executed and rises from the dead, he appears to two of his followers as they walk down the road, but they don’t recognize him. They don’t see Jesus. Yet he listens as they talk about him. He pretends […]
Choose Labels With Care For They Reflect Our Identity and Theology By definition I am a Christian, but I’ve always shied away from that word. It means different things to different people, not all of which are positive. For too many, Christian is a negative label implying narrow minded, bigoted, or hate-filled people. Since these […]
Discover What Label Best Describes Our Faith Are you a Christian? Be careful before you answer. By definition I am a Christian, though I seldom use the Christian label. Why? In my book How Big is Your Tent?, I write: “Christian is a loaded term. It means many things to different people. To some, Christian […]
We are to go out and preach repentance under the power of the Holy Spirit After Jesus calls his disciples, he trains them and then sends them into the world. He gives them five simple instructions: Go Out To be effective Jesus’s disciples can’t hang out with each other. They need to go out into […]