Bad Tenants
The theme of fruitfulness is found throughout the scriptures. Isaiah chapter 5 tells the story of a landowner who carefully cultivated a vineyard, anticipating a rich harvest of good grapes.…
Bearing the Right Fruit
The theme of fruitfulness can be traced throughout the scriptures. In the last blog, we examined Isaiah 5, which contains the song of the vineyard. God the landowner lovingly cultivated…
The Scroll
Of all the books in the world, the Bible is one of the most difficult. Even a passing knowledge of church history reveals that even professing Christians have often disagreed…
Subduing All Things
I recently watched Greyhound, the 2020 film starring Tom Hanks. A work of historical fiction, the movie follows US Navy commander Ernie Krause, who has the unenviable mission of guarding…
Elections & Consequences
Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that a Presidential election is rapidly approaching. Many Americans are no doubt worn out by the relentless political ads. Most Christians…
The Good News of God’s Judgment
If you were to ask most evangelical Christians to explain "the gospel" - the good news - the reply would no doubt be that we are offered forgiveness and reconciliation…
Not Of This World
In 1961, archeologists were excavating an ancient theater in the city of Caesarea, along the Mediterranean coast of Israel. Caesarea became the capital of the Roman province of Judea in…
Setting Things Right Again
Last week we saw how Jesus' visit to Jericho brought about an extraordinary result: Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector and a man of great wealth, dramatically amended his life. In…
A Portrait of Salvation
Many of us grew up singing about Zacchaeus - the "wee little man"- in Sunday School. His story is found in Luke chapter 19. Jesus was passing through the city…
Suffering, Sacrifice and Salvation
Yogi Berra, baseball Hall of Famer and master of malaprop, once quipped, "the future ain't what it used to be." Over the last several weeks, we've examined some of the…