The Original Bo Jackson

Lawyers say you shouldn’t ask a question in court unless you already know what the witness will answer. Much to their consternation, the Pharisees ran into that scenario here, when questioning the man born blind about his healing: “So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.” He then answered, “Whether He is a…

Is the Church supposed to grow? Should it be expanding, fulfilling its mission to spread love to EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE? Church in America seems different, somehow, than the one mentioned HERE: “Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they [the church] were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having…

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” (John 14:26, NASB) A Bit of a Mystery There’s something mysterious about the Holy Spirit. Jesus compared Him to the wind, because we see him more by his influences than we can by his pure substance. How do we hand over control of our life…

Solomon King of Israel, was given a mission, ordained and blessed by the God of the universe. Since you’ve also been given a mission, I thought it would be instructive to see what Solomon did with his! Any life hacks that Solomon’s story provides? Any ancient YouTube DIY videos we can follow? Here’s what Solomon had to say about it: “I intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of the…

The Story of how Balaam received a message from God is pretty unusual, and if you haven’t read it before, right now is a great time to do it. If you’ve read it, and it left you scratching your head a little, it’s certainly worth a deeper look. Newer editions of the Bible describe his animal as a donkey, but the KJV does indeed use the older common term, designating him as Balaam’s ass. (And yeah,…

Redemption is defined as, “the action of regaining or gaining possession of something in exchange for payment.” We might think of redemption about stuff in a pawn shop, but not necessarily in terms involving people. It might come up if someone is kidnapped, but otherwise we probably don’t walk around thinking we need to be bought back. The fact is, however, that everyone needs redemption. The…

Do you remember The Prayer of Jabez,  the best-selling book from a couple of decades ago? It had wide circulation among evangelicals, and it certainly stimulated some thoughts about praying for results. Let’s take another look at the man made famous for his prayer: A Famous Prayer? “Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in…

Wherever standards are set or laws are proclaimed, people will break them. When that occurs, we humans inevitably like to judge other humans Why? For one, we are glad it’s not us who broke the law, and two, we like to feel superior to somebody else. Legal standards create those dynamics, and where religion is based on legalism, it gets even worse. The two big legalistic religions are full of…

Since the Three Wise Men are part of the story of Jesus’ birth, you have to ask, “why were they considered wise?” (Ok, maybe it’s just ME who has to ask…) Christmas cards say, “Wise men still seek him”, but it begs the question: why don’t all men whom the world considers wise, seek Jesus? In point of fact, some men the world considers wise don’t care a fig for the Christ or the season in which we…

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God with reverence and awe, for “Our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 10:28-29, NIV) Playing With Fire? This whole verse seems hopelessly out of date in some ways. It claims that we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, when it seems like Christianity is less accepted and more…

A Different Approach “Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.” (Philippians 2:14-16 NIV) Do you ever grumble? Argue? Does it do any good? We live in a society characterized by grumbling and…

If there is anything to be learned from history, it’s that we should learn from the past. George Santayana famously said, “Men who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” The older I get, the more I have realized this is true. And while history can be educational, there is another observation about the past that we should remember: we don’t and can’tlive there… The Apostle Paul put…

If you’ve been reading these blogs for the last 70 days, we just finished devotionals from every book in the Bible. Amazingly enough, although written by many authors over such a long period of time, the Bible contains a consistent narrative about God’s plan to bless and redeem mankind. It tells the story of believers who hoped and prayed for a coming Messiah. It reveals Jesus as God’s only Son.…

When John the Baptist heralded the coming Messiah, he was preaching a pretty simple sermon. Apparently, it was pretty hard to follow. Even though crowds came out to hear him, there was confrontation with the Pharisees and controversy about his methods. “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is…

“Consecrate yourself” is a phrase you don’t hear every day. (In fact, you may have lived your entire life without even considering it!) You might say “help yourself”, or “watch yourself”, and you may have heard Archie Bunker say “stifle yourself!” to Edith, but he never said, “Consecrate yourself, Edith!” So, I’m curious. Have YOU ever consecrated yourself? How did you do it? What happened? And,…

A couple of years ago, Louisiana made the news by requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom in their schools. It is a standard that will undoubtedly be challenged in a court of law (somewhat ironic since it concerns the law, and someone will be trying to use the law to challenge a display and reminder about the law…). Texas just passed a law authorizing the reading of…

He wasn’t who they expected him to be. He said things they didn’t expect him to say. In a dramatic passage from the Book of Revelation, John described Jesus as the Alpha and Omega and the King of Kings; but let’s not forget that he had a very different role when he first came to earth. Isaiah 53 portrays a man who was rejected and spurned by the very people he came to save. While he was here on…