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Jesus Has Been There, Too
It was the night that everything crumbled. Jesus had lost plenty of disciples in ministry before, but he hadn’t lost the twelve. They were both his team and his friends, and they had been through every struggle together. But they wouldn’t stay together for this one. Not this time. When the guards came to arrest…
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Brennan Manning, Evan Hansen, and Jesus
There are special moments in our lives where God speaks into us in such a surreal way that it can’t be ignored. One of my favorite authors, Brennan Manning, had such an experience and writes about it in his memoir. For three hours I found myself in terra incognita. It was the very heart of…
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Eating with Judas
Jesus had eaten with plenty of naysayers and people who meant him harm over the years, but his meal with Judas must have felt extra special. After all, Judas had been elevated to take on the position of one of his twelve closest friends and disciples. He carried a deep privilege and was about as…
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Jesus Sits in Our Stigma
In an often overlooked statement, we find Jesus hanging out at “Simon the leper’s” house. This isn’t explained further so we’re left trying to figure out the scenario. In our time we call Hansens disease “leprosy,” but in ancient times the term leprosy was applicable to many skin diseases. Regardless of what kind of leprosy…
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We All Know Good Works Are Important
We can all agree that we are saved by our faith in Jesus and that none of us can save ourselves. This is good, solid, basic, orthodox theology. In this sense, salvation is by faith alone. But we also all agree that works are important to salvation too—we just don’t like phrasing it that way,…
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Social Media Q&A: Ep 2
Can you explain what the crowns in heaven are, what they are given for? And does that not suggest works over grace? I think E.P. Sanders summarized the works vs grace conundrum best when he said, “Salvation is by grace, but judgment is according to works. Works are the condition of remaining ‘in,’ but they…
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Well Done
In 2018 a group of strangers came by our church to pray for us and they shared a lot of really powerful words that God had put on their hearts—words that went on to become experientially true. But there was one simple word a woman prayed in that moment that hit unexpectedly hard for me:…
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Two Thousand Years Later…
“Jesus is coming back soon!” my friend said as tears swelled up in her eyes like they always did when she got into this topic. “We need to be ready!” It’s hard to know how to react. After all, Christians have been saying this exact thing for two thousand years, and while I hate to…
Jamin Bradley 