Let Us Now Go…And See

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. Luke 2:15

I’ve heard this story so many times and continually [...]

The Context of Deconstruction

I came across this while looking up something else:
“Most Bible-readers of a conservative stamp will look askance at decontructionism. But its proposed model is in fact too close for comfort to many models adopted within (broadly speaking) the pietist tradition. The church has actually institutionalized and systematized ways of reading the Bible which are strangely [...]

The Vision Goes Through The Church

Over the past however many years, I’ve engaged in dozens of conversations with people about the role of the church in the life of a believer in Christ.
I, myself, was without a church "home" for eight years.
In fact, to this day, if I look backwards at what I would call my own spiritual growth, [...]

Revelation Meditations 9

Try this one on for size.
Yesterday, I covered the line in Revelation 1:17 where John said, “And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet, at though dead.”
This is hard to understand and yet pivotal to the flow and the tone of the first chapter of Revelation. When we meet Jesus, we will most [...]

Revelation Meditations 8

“And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet, as though dead.” (Revelation 1:17)
There is an attitude among certain people that goes like this: Jesus is my friend.
I certainly think that is true…and yet.
It is almost too familiar.
Familiarity can be dangerous. We become comfortable and complacent when we surround ourselves with only what is [...]

Revelation Meditations 7

Last week, in Revelation Meditation # 6, I mentioned that the voice that John heard was behind him.
I needed to get past casting that idea in a negative light.
It is not so much “What was John doing (or not doing) that the voice came from behind him?” as much as it is “What does it [...]

Revelation Meditations 6

Yesterday I mentioned that John was doing something subversive. What he was doing was dangerous and exciting. He was—by using the language he used in the opening chapter of Revelation—tweaking the nose of the Roman emperor. His “insolence” was calculated; it was deliberate and, we think, it got him thrown in jail.
John became the first [...]

Revelation Meditations 5

It is a liturgical prayer or maybe a hymn:
Grace to you, and peace,from the One who isand who was and who is coming and from the seven spiritswhich are before his throne; even from Jesus Christ the faithful witness the Firstborn from the dead and the Ruler of the kings of the earth.
To Him, [...]

Revelation Meditations 4

I know this is taking some time to develop, but it’s important. I wish to return to  ground we covered last week, to the blessing in Revelation 1:3:
"Blessed is the one reading, and those hearing, the words of this prophecy, and keeping the things having been written, for the time is near."
There are three things [...]

Revelation Meditations 3

Eugene Peterson, again, said it this way:
…the revelation is about Jesus Christ; the revelation comes by means of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is both the the content of the revelation and the agent of the revelation.
Jesus Christ  is to be kept in view during a reading of the Revelation.
The blessing, then, appears in the third [...]

Revelation Meditations 2

It’s the very first line that gives the book of Revelation its name: “The revelation of Jesus Christ…”
Notice: Revelation is singular, not plural.
It is one revelation. God gave the revelation to Jesus. Jesus gave the Revelation to John, who then, in turn, gave it to us through this book.
A “revelation” is a revealing or an [...]

Revelation Meditations 1

Whenever I anchor an hour as leader for 24 Hours of Prayer events, I invariably read aloud from the book of Revelation. The book is stunning at 5:30 in the morning. In that quiet half-sleep state words embed themselves in slumbering gray matter, germinate and grow.
I’ve always wanted to blog my way through the book. [...]

A Thought on the Acts of the Apostles

I have another three weeks left in my “busy” season at work. I’ve had very little extra time the past couple of days for blogging or writing or even conversation. I suppose that I’ll have to deal with more “busyness” after the first week in May, but it’ll be a different kind of “busyness.” At [...]

Gazing into the Future

The past couple of weeks, a commercial has been airing on television. This T. V. spot is promoting the services of a bank—I’m not sure which bank and for our purposes today, it doesn’t matter. The premise is that the bank’s logo stands at the side of busy city street. The logo is a kind [...]

More on Tongues and Prophecy

One of the insights we uncovered as we discussed 1 Corinthians 14 was, to a certain extent, unsettling. It’s not so much the “supernatural elements” within the gifts of tongues and prophecy that unsettles us; it’s more that we have become spooked by the supernatural elements so much so that we don’t exercise those gifts [...]

Speaking in Tongues

Our Home Group/Life Group has been studying Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth. We’ve been engaging in this study since before the first of the year, with a few breaks. The study has prompted some interesting conversations. Last night was no exception.
We were discussing chapter 14, Paul’s treatise on and differentiation of the [...]

Using the Intellectual Appeal?

Yesterday’s Lenten reading has been haunting me. Part of the reading was from the latter part of John 7.
I don’t have much time today to go into detail, but when the Pharisees asked the officers, “Why did you not bring him?” the officers replied, “Never did a man speak the way this man speaks.”
The Pharisees [...]

Jeremiah the Ignored

My reading track this week, among other things, has taken me through the first five chapters of the book of Jeremiah. I’ve noticed that Jeremiah is pretty much ignored as much now as he was in his day. Sure, there are the beautiful passages, like we see in chapter one:
“The word of the LORD came [...]

Geneology of Faith

Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.
Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come. (Psalm 71:17-1
I’ve not posted my [...]

Mastering Time: The End of Time

I have something to say about last night’s home group meeting which was focused on a discussion about the end of time. It was a discussion that, for whatever reason, caused much laughter. Usually discussions about the end of the world are serious affairs. But, we had good time talking about the end. I’m wondering [...]