“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (4:7). Everyone who loves. Well, then. If someone…
Perhaps there are times when it seems, feels, like my preaching gets preoccupied with fallen humanity—those are the times, I guess, when it sounds like I’m ranting, judging, condemning,…
Paul gives an overview of the life to which Christ calls us here and hereafter. Jesus speaks of himself as the way to the hereafter. Paul calls us to…
When Jesus takes time to explain things, it’s time to listen and reflect, not listen and reject. Jesus begins to explain what will happen (16:21). Peter doesn’t like it. Well,…
We’ll hear about Nicodemus again. He’s the one who, along with Joseph of Arimathea, helps to put Jesus in the tomb. What needs be understood about Nicodemus is that not…
In Matthew’s timeline, Jesus has just returned from his time of temptation in the wilderness. We’ll get to that in about a month. In the meantime, John had been taken…
Today is a day for wrapping up. Next Sunday, I’ll start telling the story from the top once again. What crowns the story, its conclusion and vision, is Christ…
One of my hardest ministry moments so far was when a very involved member (not here at Bethel) told me that I only appreciated her for what she did, not…
How are we supposed to do church? How are we supposed to be church? Those are good questions, even though we are nearly two thousand years into this. We have…
None of us are immune from the Us/Them mentality. Our interpretation of Scripture, in a way, permits such thinking: Jesus tells us there will be a final accounting, where those…