Thanks to all of the local 1208 Greenwood artists who made our sometimes-playful, sometimes-serious, multi-genred, Narnia-themed, Christmas album! It was so much fun to make. Here’s a look at the tracks: Tell Me a Myth | An acoustic song about finding God in the mythological parts of the Bible and Narnia. Green Green Christmas |…
I often tell the church I serve that we wouldn’t be around today if the Holy Spirit hadn’t shown up in the incredible supernatural ways He did in John Wesley’s ministry. As Free Methodists, we come out of the Methodist stream which Wesley kickstarted and his ministry was full of the supernatural. It took John…
While only those of the Levite clan could serve as priests in the Old Testament, things change in the New Testament when God takes the non-levitical Jesus and makes Him a king/priest forever. As Hebrews says, Jesus “has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the…
Psalm 110’s allusion to Melchizedek is a reference back to a short story from Abraham’s time. After war broke out across the land (seemingly between humans and the giant descendants of the Nephilim) and Abraham’s nephew Lot was kidnapped, Abraham headed out with his servants to rescue him. He entered into the war and won,…
While being a royal king, David also operated in the prophetic, as noted by the Psalms he wrote that foreshadow Jesus. Even Jesus Himself acknowledged David’s ability to write things “in the Spirit” (Mt 22:43). David also speaks to his prophetic gifting in his last words, saying, “The oracle of David, the son of Jesse,…
If we understand the Garden of Eden to be a sacred space for God to dwell, we can begin to see Adam as a king and priest over all humanity. This language, of course, is not related to Adam in the Bible, but he does seem to fit these roles. If he has such intimate…
The “glory” of the Old Testament carries with it the idea of “weightiness,” which is almost literally seen during the dedication of Solomon’s temple when “the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God” (2 Chron 5:13-14). The thing about this weighty…
A lot of times when we think about Jesus being tempted we think about his time fasting in the desert. But if we pay attention we can see temptation continue on throughout his ministry. We even see Satan’s temptations come at Jesus in his final moments as he hangs upon a cross. Check out this…
In the last few days we’ve talked about how God’s presence was found in the temple of Eden, the Tabernacle, and Solomon’s temple. With all of this as our backdrop, we can now get to the symbolic reports that followed Jesus’ death, starting with the curtain. In all of God’s manmade temples the Holy of…
Eventually God’s presence moved into a permanent structure that King Solomon had built. After this new glorious temple was built, a worship service was held in which the ark of the covenant was brought into the new Holy of Holies. Songs were played by a giant band and sacrifices were made beyond number as the…
God’s presence eventually migrates from the temple of Eden to a new temple that will take on the mobile form of a tent. Sure, a tent may not seem all that glorious, but could anything human hands ever build compare to Eden, let alone God’s Heavenly temple? And so, God instructs Moses on how to…
