Like all Americans, I grew up looking at a flag with my hand over my heart as I pledged my life to it at schools, sports, and even church. It had the word “God” in it, so I figured I was on the right track, but as I grew up, I started to note too…
“In Jackson as it is in Heaven.” That’s the mission statement of our church, and it comes straight out of the short prayer Jesus himself taught us to pray. The Kingdom of Heaven was Jesus’ favorite theme to preach on, but he rarely spoke on it in the way that we think. For him, it…
The first time I fasted was a total waste. I made a deal out of it everywhere I went. I went out for pizza with some friends and stared at it longingly and said, “I wish I could I could eat that but… I’m fasting.” I went to church and emitted hunger groans. “Oh how…
Martin Luther King Jr. was out for more than winning an argument—he was out for winning people. That is to say that winning a debate and proving people wrong (as necessary as that was) wasn’t at the heart of his movement—converting angry white racists into black advocates through pacifistic enemy love was the highest goal…
I think the first time I really saw pornography was on a fuzzy TV channel that would occasionally straighten out into something visually comprehensible. When the image finally broke through, it felt like I was hit by a powerful force. It was like every good and bad emotion in existence were all lit up inside…
Pastor and theologian Jack Deere spent the week in group therapy with others who all had a similar story: abusive mothers, passive fathers, and traumatic childhoods. Jack followed the therapist’s instructions, bringing his mother into his imagination for a conversation. He soon found himself screaming in front of the group. Then he did the same…
The Old Testament law has a strange place in Christian tradition. On one hand, we know we’re dead to it and alive in the Spirit. But on the other hand, we know that as Christians we can’t just do whatever the “hell” we want—that’d be a blasphemous nonsense. So what then? Is being dead to…
It weirded me out the first time I realized it. I was familiar with the concept of Jesus being “the light of the world,” but I was less familiar with the Bible passage that identified Christians as “the light of the world.” But sure enough, there it was, staring me in the face the whole…
People often mix politics and Jesus together. I do the same, but with a specific understanding of how to blend the two together: (1) Jesus is my King and I am a citizen of his Kingdom. (2) I follow his politics whether or not it meshes with the kingdoms of this earth. (3) I prophetically…
They left their dad in the boat. People always make the disciples out to be stupid fishermen who gave up a crappy life for something better, but you actually had to be a pretty successful (if not shrewd) businessman to survive the thriving fishing market on the Sea of Galilee. This is where Jesus found…
Jamin Bradley 