“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. //Those who follow after Jesus will do greater works than Jesus? Is that really what this…

Book review: The Allure of Gentleness
For the believer trying to solidify their faith, or the unbeliever wondering what the heck is going on in the heads of believers, this is a great book. Gentle apologetics at its best!

Matthew 2:15, Called Out of Egypt
And [Jesus, Mary and Joseph were] there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. //Jesus was apparently from Nazareth, but prophecy foretold that Israel’s savior would be born in…

Matthew 22:10, The Bad and the Good
So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. //One day, said Jesus in parable, a king prepared a wedding feast for his son and sent out his servants to call those…

Mark 2:14, Who Followed Whom?
And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him. //Levi, elsewhere called Matthew, held a contemptible office. He was a tax collector, sitting in the tax office. He was…

Book review: Wanted
Dark and yet hope-filled, this book carries you along on the journey of a young pastor through gangs, prisons, and illegal immigrants. These are desperate people. But these are the people–like the huckster tax collector Matthew in the Bible–that Jesus made a point of befriending.

Book Excerpt: John’s Gospel: The Way It Happened
“‘Without wine there is no joy,’” Matthew quoted a rabbinic saying. He still stared over the wall. “Your tale speaks truly, if it is meant as a parable of today’s age. Remember what Isaiah prophesied? ‘The new wine dries up and the vine withers; all the merrymakers groan.’ And do…

Mark 12:41-44, The Widow’s Farthing
And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and…

Book Excerpt: The River of Life
In the Bible, the Spirit is associated with creation. In Genesis 1:2, the wind/spirit/breath-of-God blows across the deep. Thus the wind provides an excellent picture of the Spirit, roaming the earth. Breath is merely wind inside us. To be “born of the Spirit” means to be created anew, embracing the…

Genesis 22:11-12, Did God Tell Abraham To Sacrifice Isaac? Part III of III
And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him. //Continued from yesterday: Suppose, in the story of Abraham sacrificing his…