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Chameleon Evangelism
So often the church takes Biblical truth and shoves it in people’s faces without first submerging themselves into the world of those they’re trying to reach. Such evangelism requires little sacrifice on our parts and ignores Paul’s only evangelistic method to “become all things to all people.” If we truly want to reach people, it…
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Prevention Advocacy
Out at the state Capitol for Michigan Prevention Advocacy day. Be spending the morning and afternoon with friends from “Drug Free Jackson” to help make state representatives aware of our city’s current state in relation to drugs and to growing opioid epidemic. I hear stories of people saving their friend’s lives from overdoses as commonplace…
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Judging Angels
In today’s podcast Paul rhetorically asks, “Do you not know that we are to judge angels?”—as though we would nod our heads in agreement and understanding. But truthfully, most of us would put our hands up and respond, “Actually, Paul, we don’t know what you’re talking about.” To understand what the apostle is saying, we…
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You Can’t Kill a Sinless Man
This week I’ve been blazing through Greg Boyd’s The Crucifixion of the Warrior God so that I could be prepared for the lessons he’d be teaching tonight at my alma mater Spring Arbor University. There was one paragraph in particluar that blew my mind and gave me theological goosebumps. While Boyd reflects on Jesus’ death…
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Making God in Our Own Image
“God created us in God’s own image, and darn it, we’ve returned the favor,” says Richard Rohr. He’s right—especially in modern Christianity. We’ve made experience the cornerstone of theology and it’s created so many anti-Jesus ideologies to chase after. Recently I skimmed a book about God gifting Christians with wealth—not because I wanted to, but…
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A Heavenly Reward
In today’s podcast, Paul offers a metaphor that interprets in a rather surprising way: While Christians are saved only by faith and belief in Christ, our works as Christians play a part in a reward to come in Heaven. Working with this metaphor, I survey similar explanations of the afterlife through Jesus’ teachings and then…
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Visions, C.S. Lewis & Narnia
Sometimes a vision is nothing more than a visual thought. In other words, maybe you didn’t receive a “word from the Lord” via your thoughts, but instead you just got a “picture from the Lord” via your mind. This won’t feel anymore spectacular than any other image that pops into your head, for we have…
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The Bradley Bunch: Episode 1
In this new side podcast with my kids, we talk about all things virtual reality, Moana, Tiny Toon Adventures and the ABC’s.
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The Scene of the Resurrection
There are a few interesting Biblical callbacks it seems John is giving us as he paints for us Jesus’ tomb—that is, the scene of the resurrection. As we look at these possible references, we retrace the presence of God throughout history and pinpoint it on Jesus. Furthermore, we come to see Jesus’ role in…
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Know Your Neighbor
A few weeks ago I watched several people take the mic at a city council meeting to comment on the lack of street lights in our city. Their concern was understandable in relation to recent crime, so our church bought a bunch of bright light bulbs and spent the last two weekends going door to…
