Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of the earth belongs to the tireless. The kingdom of the earth belongs to those who can walk the fine line between self-promotion and humility. The kingdom of the earth belongs to those who embrace certainty. The kingdom of the…
Up to this point, Jesus was on pace to be an A-List celebrity in no time. Not more than a few months into his public ministry, he already has a solid inner circle of loyal followers. Even if you account for the unusual choices among them. More impressively, he had already preached in the synagogues…
Ok, so now that we have established that we have every bit as much (if not more) capacity to be wrong as our fathers before us, let us get into the questions surrounding the discussion. The first issue is the nature of hell. If Jesus descended into hell, what did he descend into? Was it…
He descended into hell. Troubling. Confusing. Mysterious. True? For two millennia the answer from the church seems to have been “yes.” Today, we are not so sure. Did Jesus not say to the thief Today you will be with me in paradise? Did he not cry out with his dying breath It is finished? How,…
Do you remember the old days when we could only come into the presence of God once a year? And even then, only one of us was allowed to step into the place of God. That would have been a bad time in history to be a bull or a sheep or a goat- or…
Once sins are taken care of for good, there’s no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them. -Hebrews 10:18 Sounds simple enough, right? If you were to pay my car insurance bill before the first, I might do a lot of things but paying the bill anyhow would be the last reaction you might…
Love. Friendship. Sacrifice. These are words that bring warmth to our hearts and a song to our lips. Somewhere deep, deep down, these words resonate with us like an ancient melody. We know they go together. We know that the one who really loves sacrifices. We know that the one who puts his life on…
