Monday: Read Matt 16:1-20 The passage begins with the Pharisees and the Sadducees asking for a sign (1). They were primarily concerned with whether Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah. If He was, this was a matter of serious concern for them. They would have to give an account to Rome. Thus, they needed to decide if they were going to back Jesus or not. Of course, their concerns were self-centered. They did not like Roman rule. But, and... Read more
I live in Arizona which is one of the many states that has legalized sports betting. It seems that we are being inundated during sporting events (and oddly my TV only gets sports channels. Really weird. As a result, this is all I get to watch) with sports betting commercials. And I mean inundated. If this were a theology discussion, we would say that sports betting commercials are omnipresent. Now, I suppose that many turn a blind eye to sports... Read more
Amidst the fervor of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting chaos that many societies are experiencing, there are always some who are using this as an opportunity to cry out that the end of the world is coming! According to some, and I am relieved that it has only been a few, Covid-19 is proof that the plagues of the book of Revelation, in particular the seven Seals of Revelation 6:1-8:1, are happening and the imminent return of Jesus is... Read more
Monday: Read Matt 11:1-30 John the Baptist’s inquiry, “are you the Expected One?” (2) is quite amazing. It is not, however, if we were to understand the Jewish expectations of the coming Messiah and then compare that to the ministry and work of Jesus. If we did, we would see that Jesus could not have been the Messiah since He clearly did not meet their expectations. Jesus showed no signs of gathering an army. There was no message of any... Read more
We all know and agree that our media is biased and that it is hard to know what is true. We all know it. But very few of us believe it. What do I mean? I mean that we still get our news from somewhere. And we tend to trust the “somewhere” from which we get our news. In other words, we still believe what we read, hear, and see because we only read, hear, and see from places we... Read more
Week 2 [1] Monday: Read Matt 6:1-34 Well, I am not sure there is a more important passage of Scripture than this! Read slowly! Jesus now moves from describing what the new people of God look like and explains what it looks like when we give to the poor, pray, and fast. These were three distinctive practices among Jews living outside of Judea (i.e., away from the Temple). Since they were unable to offer sacrifices, it was giving to the poor,... Read more
In my last post, I noted that evangelicalism is a diverse movement that spans a wide range of Christianity. When we speak of “evangelicals” in an American context, we most often have right-leaning, or far-right, evangelicals in mind. Even then, however, there are a wide variety of evangelicals within America. I also noted that there are traditionally four pillars that define evangelicals: biblicism, cross-centered, conversionism, and activism. This does not mean that all evangelicals believe in all four of these... Read more
A devotional guide to the Gospel of Matthew [1] Week 1 Monday: Read Matt 1:1-25 The second word in the Greek text of Matt 1:1 is the word geneseos, which might be woodenly taken as “Genesis.” The word is used as a title for the book of Genesis (Gen 2:4; 5:1). This suggests that 1:1 is likely a title for the Gospel of Matthew and not just the intro to the genealogy that follows. A good translation for Matt 1:1... Read more
NB: apologies for those who read this blog regularly. This post is essentially the same as last week’s. Somehow it was reduplicated. A new post will be posted next Tues. User error I’m sure! Evangelical Christianity is one of the most popular types of Christianity in the American landscape. Statistics vary as to how many American Christians identify as evangelicals but it is a significant number. Evangelical Christianity is neither a religion nor a denomination. Instead, it is a faith... Read more
Monday: Read 12:41-14:9 The larger context for Mark 12:41-14:9 includes the fact that Jesus entered Jerusalem and the temple and He found no fruit (11:11-14). As a result, He pronounces a coming judgment on the Temple by overturning the tables in the temple courts (11:15-18). The episode of the woman giving her two “copper coins” (note Mark always translates Judean language for his Roman readers: thus, he says, “which amount to a cent”; 42) has been widely misunderstood. Jesus is... Read more
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