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…
The New Testament has a lot to say about our identity as Christians, including the fact that we have been adopted into the royal heavenly family as children of God. Our relationship with God is so intimate that we refer to him as Father. Stop and reflect on that: we are “children of God.” That’s…
By and large, I find that most Christians find Paul’s “new flesh” theology to be more of a metaphor and not really all that applicable to real life. Sure, our old flesh of Adam and Eve is dead and we’re remade new in the new resurrection flesh of Jesus, but few seem to think or…
The Great Commission was a popular passage many commit to memory, though now 51% of church-goers don’t know this term. But those who do know it, know well that Christians are to go out into the world and lead people to salvation and baptize them. Throughout the last century we have done plenty of that,…
We don’t catch a lot of glimpses of the resurrected body in the Bible, but when we do, it tends to operate in very strange ways. For instance, once Jesus’ body was put in the tomb, a bunch of soldiers were appointed to guard it to ensure that nobody stole his body. Since Jesus had…
In poorer communities, burial arrangements are sometimes just as last minute as the funeral. When someone passes away, the person may not have any arrangements made at all—no money for a casket, no plot of land to be buried in, and no life insurance to put things into place. They have to scramble for money…
When Saint Teresa of Avila died, the room was filled with a sweet scent of something akin to lilies—an odd, spiritual manifestation of smell that at least three friends of mine have experienced. But that wasn’t all that was reported to have happened with her passing. Apparently a nearby tree burst into bloom and a…
In her book, The Crucifixion, Fleming Rutledge fills in the fine details of the cross, reminding us of the full horrors Jesus had to endure on our behalf. First, the Romans would have stripped Jesus naked and tied him to a post (likely while making plenty of sexual jokes) and then flogged him with a…
Inaugurations are always spectacles. This was also true for Jesus’ inauguration as King of the Earth, but unlike the pomp and circumstance of most inaugurations, Jesus’ was a spectacle soaked in irony and insults. Yes, he wore a crown, but it was constructed out of thorns that jabbed into his scalp. Yes, he was given…
On August 2nd, 1990, Saddam Hussein ordered an invasion of Kuwait, which led to his soldiers breaking into Maurice Graham’s apartment, a missionary located in Kuwait City. Once the soldiers left, Maurice and his family managed a rather miraculous escape where they all crammed into a car and drove past soldiers who didn’t even seem…
After Jesus had been taken, Peter certainly went the distance to separate himself from Jesus. The third time he denied knowing Jesus, the Bible actually says he invoked a curse on himself. This often sounds dumb to us, as we imagine Peter wearing a witch hat and standing in front of a big boiling cauldron…
Jamin Bradley 