Those who follow Jesus used to be called “disciples” but that term has fallen out of favor. Now the common label is “believer.” It is easy to believe; it takes a lot more to be a disciple. To believe is essentially a one-time act, a singular decision made at one point along life’s path. To […]
Perhaps you’re one of the 18 million people who’ve viewed the viral YouTube video, Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus—and if not, check it out. It is simply a video of a young man reciting his poem. In it, he creatively contrasts Jesus with religion. He does so with passion and conviction, avoiding overproduced […]
Jesus said that his yoke was easy; that his burden was light. What exactly does that mean? From a simple perspective, we understand a yoke to be a means to harness a draft animal in order to pull a load. Therefore, an easy yoke, one with a light burden, would be something that was not […]
My typical day is divided between three activities: writing, job, and personal (which includes work around the house and leisure pursuits). To make matters more complicated, each of these three tasks takes place at home. Sometimes I am self-disciplined enough to attend to each undertaking in its apportioned time, but not always. I too often […]
An increasing number of people say that they are “spiritual but not religious.” For some this is merely a trendy thing to say, but beyond making them sound hip and appear insightful, it is an empty platitude. For others, claiming to be “spiritual but not religious” is an attempt to abdicate responsibility for their behavior […]
The book of Joshua opens by confirming the death of Moses, followed by a curious instruction: Now you go into the Promised Land. Imagine that, an entire nation was put on hold, unable to move—until Moses died. Moses had to die for them to receive what God had promised to give them. What if Moses […]
In the post, “Who is Jude?,” I speculated that Jude might be Jesus’ brother. Aside from that, we only know one other thing about him. Jude views himself simply as “a servant of Jesus.” Today, in a time when religious people parade their titles and promote their education as if they were badges of godly […]
The apostle Paul writes to the church in Galatia about being “crucified with Christ.” In his letter to the church in Corinth, he states, “You are in Christ.” That is a hard concept for me to grasp, yet, the phrase “in Christ” occurs some 90 times in the Bible. It appears in about half of the […]
Early church leader James wrote, “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.” It seems that to James, a faith without action is worthless. His statement, however, did not end this debate between faith and works. In fact, he seems to allow at least the possibility of […]
In studying the short letter to Philemon, we’ve looked at the central players of Paul (the author), Philemon (the recipient), and Onesimus (the subject). There are also brief mentions of eight others: Timothy, Apphia, Archippus, Epaphras, Aristarchus, Luke, John-Mark, and Demas. The foundational character, however, is Jesus. He is mentioned more often than any other […]