In the first century, in the city of Colosse in Asia Minor, there lived a well-to-do man named Philemon, a family man with slaves and a house that served as the regular meeting place for a church. Paul met Philemon on one of his missionary journeys and discipled him when he became a Christian. Philemon […]
Persistent Faith. In Luke 18, the widow at prayer puts the weakest and least influential people on equal footing with the recognized power figures in society. Widows in the social structure in which Jesus lived were at the absolute bottom of authority and influence. They weren’t used to being listened to by anyone of rank. […]
The death of Jesus on the cross can be understood and accounted for easily enough on a physical and historical level. But the salvation Jesus accomplished on the cross cannot be. And it is this accomplished salvation, not a coroner’s autopsy of the death, that brings us back to the cross over and over again. […]
Jesus was baptized, demonstrating him to be the beloved of God with the authority of God. We can only understand Jesus rightly by seeing him at this place of beginning, by seeing him in relation to God, not only as God’s child, but as his beloved child. Like him, we also are baptized. At the […]
Ezekiel was in exile with his fellow Israelites. They were cut off from their temple, their farms, their relatives, their friends. They were surrounded by an alien way of life and taunted by their captors. Is there anything worse than feeling hopeless? The feelings these people experienced are described in Ezekiel 37, and they are […]
