Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
I believe hymnals should be shorter than they are. Much shorter. 100 hymns at most, let’s say. I imagine that this will be a hard one to swallow for most of my readers, so I will attempt to bolster my argument as best I can. I can’t think of any…
Joshua is never called a king in the Bible. Yet while lacking the title, Joshua possesses the trappings of biblical kingship to a degree that it seems warranted to consider him a royal figure. There are lots of reasons for thinking this. In a 1981 Journal of Biblical Literature article,…
God speaks. He is not silent. He has designed humanity for reception of such communication and also to speak on His behalf. This speaking is not simply happenstance. It is not just a curious quirk about humanity. It is intrinsic to who we are that we speak and shape the…
One evening, years ago, home from college for Christmas break, I dreamt that I was playing the piano, passionately and well, in the church sanctuary beneath the parsonage in the renovated mansion in rural New Hampshire where my father was the minister. It was something of a lucid dream because…
I’m a big worrier. Always have been. Some of my earliest memories are of being anxious to the point of getting sick, sometimes for trivial reasons. My mind moves a million miles a minute, wondering what will happen in 5 minutes, or tomorrow, or next week, or in ten years.…
“The sun had gone up on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. And the LORD rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD from heaven, and he devastated those cities and the whole valley and all those dwelling in the cities and the growth of…
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Sermon Outline for January 25: God and Mammon, Luke 16:1-17:10 INTRODUCTION Though Jesus begins a new parable in Luke 16:1, and is speaking to the disciples, in many ways chapter 16 is a continuation of what Jesus said in chapter 15. There is no change of scene, so Jesus is…
Eucharistic meditation, January 18: Luke 15:23-24 As the church has always recognized, the Lord’s Supper was instituted by Jesus Christ as a blessing to the people of God. In it, we memorialize Jesus’ death, celebrate His victory over sin and Satan, and are refreshed in the power of the Spirit.…
Exhortation for January 18: The parable of the prodigal son has many levels, but one layer is that the story of the prodigal is the story of man. It is the story of Adam. Like Adam, the younger son has a great inheritance, but he despises it. Worse still is…
The elder brother in the parable of the prodigal is a piece of work. He enjoys the abundance of his father’s house, and obviously also enjoys his father’s affection. Yet, he is simmering with bitterness and anger, which breaks to the surface as soon as he hears the sound of…
Jesus describes the sinners who gather around Him as repentant sinners. What signs have they shown of being repentant? In the context of Luke 15, there are several. First, the chapter opens by saying that tax gatherers and sinners are coming near to “listen to Him” (v. 1). Hearing and…
In telling the story of the shepherd searching for a single lost sheep, Jesus is undoubtedly playing off the prophetic indicments of Israel’s shepherds in such passages as Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34. That gives his parable a much sharper edge than is usually recognized. Jesus’ question in Luke 15:4…
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