Jesus’ care for women was tender and counter-cultural. His “heart was touched by their grief” (Matthew 8:14-17; 15:21-28; 26:6-13; Mark 5:21-24, 35-43; 12:41-44; Luke 7:36-50; 8:1-3; John 4:7-45; 7:53-8:11; 20:1, 2, 11-18). That is certainly evident in our text today with Jesus’ encounter with the woman who in life of Christ studies is referred to […]
Some say 12 is a perfect number. Thereare 12 months in a year and 12 hours on a clock. A dozen seems like the right quantity when we buy eggs or donuts. (The English term dozen comes from douzaine, French for a group of 12 items.) A holiday song celebrates “The 12 Days of Christmas,” […]
If Jesus can conquer death (last week’s lesson) then he can certainly calm a storm. And not just figurative, metaphoric, or spiritual storms, but real, physical, honest-to-goodness storms. When sin entered the world creation experienced a separation from its creator (Genesis 3:17b-19; Romans 8:22). The coming of Jesus into the world began the process of […]
Did you ever have a close call? Were you nearly involved in a serious accident, or barely missed getting hit by a car? Perhaps you narrowly averted a disastrous mistake on the job. It’s a relief to realize you avoided a serious problem. Jesus’ disciples had a close call on the Sea of Galilee. A […]
I have been blessed to serve 40 years in ministry, but I almost never got started. I was a shy church kid who was terrified to walk onto a stage with my Sunday school classmates and speak my name into a microphone. (No kidding; just my name!) My terror at speaking in front of people […]
