I had a professor in Bible college tell me that the Apostle Paul was the original Energizer Bunny. Maybe you remember those old battery commercials where a mechanical pink bunny would zoom across the screen beating a bass drum and it’d keep on going, not stopping for anything. The implication was it was using the power of Energizer batteries, which were long lasting. My professor’s implication about the Apostle Paul was that nothing stopped him; things like lashes, being beaten,... Read more
I wrote this poem two years ago. It’s a reflection I had about Monday, the day after Easter. It’s my thoughts of the feelings of hope that we have within us that the old has gone and the new is come. “This Monday Is Different” No one likes the day after Sunday. We cringe at the thought of this day. So we lay ever so still, wrapped in safety. With uncertainty and trepidation we crack open an eye. We peer... Read more
“Do not be alarmed… He has risen…” Words that calm the stormy seas of the human mind. They are words that bring anxiety and certainty and doubt and faith. Faith. Faith that even though we haven’t seen him, we believe in him to be trustworthy. “Do not be alarmed… He has risen…” Words that awaken the stillness of the human heart. They are words that bring fear and courage and despair and hope. Hope. Hope that our lives were created... Read more
The gospels say little about the day in between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. And there is good reason for that. The focus is on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, and rightly so. The gospel of Matthew mentions a few things that happened on that day in between; like the Pharisees breaking Sabbath to go talk with Pilate about their concerns of Jesus’ disciples stealing his body. It’s funny that the nefarious people in the gospel story understood... Read more
FRIDAY (April 3, AD 33) Peter Denies Jesus It’s Denial Friday. And no, denial isn’t a river in Egypt. My last two posts I used the word ‘Resonate,’ in my titles. To be honest, I really don’t like the word resonate. It’s an overused hipster word like the word ‘woke.’ I thought I’d be funny using it and I was trying to make my posts clickbait worthy. I didn’t really want to write about Peter denying Jesus because whenever I... Read more
THURSDAY (April 2, AD 33) Preparations for the Passover & The Farewell Discourse Begins I remember when my wife and I were in the beginning stages of dating; it would take us forever to end our phone conversations. We didn’t have cell phones then; it wasn’t a simple swiping of the touchscreen to hang up. Besides being in love and not wanting to say goodbye, laziness might have been part of the reason. Also, neither of us wanted to be... Read more
WEDNESDAY (April 1, AD 33) The Plot against Jesus Pandemic shelter in place aside, I do a lot of self-reflection on this day during Holy Week. Maybe I have a guilty-bone or something, but I feel like I’m always up to no good, even when I am not. I have a lot of police friends, and when I am around them I feel like they’re out to get me. When I see a priest or a pastor and I feel... Read more
A few days ago, I posted a chronology of Jesus’ final days that my friend Brian Mavis shared on Facebook. Brian then posted his timeline for Jesus’ final hours. His hope is to help us prepare our hearts and minds to focus on Jesus. (Brian also included in his Facebook post, his educated guess at this timeline, which I have added at the end of this post). *The line breaks were added by me to help with readability. JESUS’ LAST... Read more
My mind is swirling with all that has been happening because of the Coronavirus. I feel like I am living in a bad dystopian novel. Is it me or does it feel like we’re in perpetual winter? The sky is grey; the chill is lingering in the air, and the roads are always wet. There is a lot of unexpectedness the Coronavirus has stirred up that I was never expecting. You might’ve noticed I used the root of the word expect twice in the previous sentence. We,... Read more
This was put together and shared by my friend Brian Mavis. Here is a very plausible chronology of Jesus’ final days: SUNDAY (March 29, AD 33) Jesus Enters Jerusalem Jesus Predicts His Death Jesus Visits the Temple MONDAY (March 30, AD 33) Jesus Curses a Fig Tree Jesus Cleanses the Temple TUESDAY (March 31, AD 33) Jesus Teaches His Followers a Lesson about the Fig Tree Jesus Teaches and Engages in Controversies in the Temple Jesus Predicts the Future WEDNESDAY... Read more
Joe Puentes
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