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Stay Salty!
-Jesus was brilliant with metaphors. In a discourse about the cost of being a disciple, Jesus asks audience rhetorically, “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again?” Then he teaches, “Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.” (Mark… Read More -
Things That Made Jesus Mad (and still do)
-Jesus was a remarkably patient man—perfectly patient you might say—because he was perfect in every way. He was especially patient and kind toward those who were slow to understand or had any form of incapacity. He explained things repeatedly, he told stories, he gave illustrations, as we do with children… Read More -
The Parts and the Whole
-While on my recent trip to the Eastern Sierras in California, I noticed a very interesting thing. I was hiking in one of the prettiest places I’ve ever seen—so pretty that it hardly seemed real, more like a painting. My eyes kept looking out at the panorama of charcoal-colored mountains… Read More -
Looking for Signs
- -We rely on signs often for various reasons. They point us in the right direction. They warn or guide. They help to keep the intersections of our complex lives and civilizations in order. The Bible is full of signs—signs in nature, signs of God’s blessing, signs of judgment, signs of… Read More -
Accommodation for Receiving Christ
- -As I read through gospel accounts of the ministry of Jesus, I can’t help but notice how ignorant, spiritually immature and emotionally unstable his disciples often were! They were all over the place in their reactions to what they saw Jesus doing and what they heard him teaching. They exhibited… Read More -
Astonished by Belief and by Unbelief
-There were a few occasions when Jesus was amazed and moved by a person’s faith. The centurion with a sick servant is one example. The woman who’d touched the hem of his robe and received her healing is another, and the foreign woman who asked him to heal her child… Read More -
Alone
-My Mom used to love solo travel. Friends and family would marvel as she hung some clothes on the pole she installed in the back of her Dodge Caravan, checked out some books on tape from the library, and just hit the road. She was fearless that way. Mom also… Read More -
New Creatures with a New Nature
-I’ve been studying 2 Peter 1, a passage I’ve returned to many times because I never quite plumb its depths. This time I’m sharing my study with a group of women, so it is even richer for us to converse as we interact together with the passage. I highly recommend… Read More -
“Let Him Now Come Down from the Cross”
-This title comes from the account of Jesus hanging on the cross. The Roman soldiers were mocking him, and the Jewish leaders decided to chime in. In the Passion translation, their full sarcasm reads: “He saved others, but he can’t even save himself! Israel’s king, is he? He should pull… Read More -
Upside-Down and Right-Side Up
-Those of you who have been reading and learning the gospel of Jesus Christ--and especially those who have been trying to live it out--have learned this: Jesus doesn’t measure things the same way the world does. Not success, power, wealth, honor, justice, sin, forgiveness, or even love. Sometimes it seems… Read More -
Sheep Among Wolves
-“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matt 10:16, NIV). Now, remember, it is I who sends you out, even though you feel vulnerable as lambs going into a pack of wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes… Read More -
Say the Word from Where You Are
-A Gentile Roman centurion—the commander of a troop of one hundred soldiers—amazed Jesus with his faith. He had a beloved servant at home who was dying. The centurion had heard of and perhaps had even witnessed Jesus’ power to heal and sought him out. When Jesus heard about the dying… Read More
The Scripture Comes to Life Blog
One of my greatest joys is reading and studying the Bible. While I do so, I pray that God will give me supernatural insight I’ve never seen or heard preached before. He has faithfully done so. A teacher at heart, my study is driven by a desire to teach and share the wonderful truths he reveals.
I’ve written on a wide variety of themes and topics. The blogs are searchable by topic and with keywords.
As you read, may Scripture come to life for you in many marvelous and helpful ways.