Jesus did not arrive safely, comfortably, or legally secure. He fled by night, crossed borders, and lived in fear of returning home—because a politician wanted him dead. The Gospel doesn’t leave us room to sanitize this reality. If how we treat refugees is how we treat Jesus, then the question isn’t whether Christ was a…
Despite growing up in the church, I never inherited the obsession some Christians have with Israel and the end times. Now, decades later as a pastor and theologian, I still don’t understand it—because this theological system isn’t really found in the Bible. In this post, I explore how modern Christian Zionism has shaped American eschatology…
I’d like to specifically speak to the church’s heart on migrants for a moment, because I’m struggling to square up some of the wider church’s actions and beliefs on migrants with Jesus. While I understand that no country can simply have open borders, that the crimes anyone commits should be justly processed, and that migrants…
We all know the verse—ask and you’ll receive, seek and you’ll find—but what if we’ve been asking the same things over and over? In this message, we talk about what it really means to trust that God is a good Father who wants to respond to us. Sometimes he answers right away, sometimes not, and…
Here’s a song I wrote in Scotland while mesmerized by nature. I worked the lyrics off a simple statement a friend felt the Spirit impress on her heart while in prayer: “Shoes separate my creation from each other and from me.”
The Witch-Queen of Underland always gets my attention in C.S. Lewis’s Narnia book, The Silver Chair. With a little bit of magic, she uses conversation to slowly enchant the protagonists to believe the most ridiculous things: There is no Overland, just the Underland beneath Narnia. There is no sun; you just saw a lantern and…
While worshipping at a Charismatic Baptist Church in Scotland this morning, I felt the Holy Spirit pulse through me out of nowhere during a song. I wondered what was going on when a congregant caught me off guard seconds later. “Hi. I think the Holy Spirit gave me an image for you when you walked…
What if the new creation isn’t all harps and horses, but instead features redeemed technology glowing with divine purpose? In this imaginative reflection, we explore how the tools of our modern world—computers, cars, synthesizers, even AI—might find their place in God’s restored Kingdom. Drawing inspiration from Narnia’s lamppost, born from a crossbar thrown in fear,…
Jamin Bradley 