Today we begin an eight-week series from the Gospel of Mark. This series will lead up to and beyond Easter. The first four lessons emphasize following Jesus. The last four lessons emphasize trusting Jesus. Since we cast a vote in our salvation, what better words than “following” and “trusting” can we use to describe our […]
“When deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive. . . . Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future” (Mary Karen Read, last journal entry before being shot to death in the Virginia Tech shootings, April 16, 2007). Lack of granting forgiveness is a major hindrance […]
Sometimes God is just off-the-charts good—like in his creation of the world (Genesis 1:31), in blessing the just and unjust (Matthew 5:45), in his plan to save Jew and Gentile (Romans 11:33-36), in supplying all our needs (Philippians 4:19), and in giving us everything that pertains to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). No wonder […]
The website for futurologist Leonard Sweet is called “Preach the Story.” The thesis of the website is that in all the little stories of the Bible there is the embedded big story of God’s plan to rescue the world through Jesus. That is very much in evidence in our text today where Judah’s speech to […]
A Sunday school children’s song contains the lyrics, “Every promise in the book is mine, every chapter, every verse, every line.” Cute song. Bad hermeneutics. The fact is that we participate in the promise that God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and we experience its blessings (Galatians 3:9). But the promise itself was unique […]
