“I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness.” – Paul (formerly Saul of Tarsus) Here are some more quotations from Small (aka Paul)… “I feel a divine jealousy for you.” “I betrothed you to one Husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” “If someone offers y’all a different gospel […]
I.R. “The kingdom of man is like a group of friends who went out to dinner to celebrate a special occasion. They were seated at a table of an unloved waitress. She took a long time to get their orders, hardly ever refilled their drinks, and never asked if they wanted dessert. Increasingly throughout the […]
E.O. “I’ve got your next sermon. Exodus 4:24-26. That’ll preach.” Bronco: E.O. “Okay, so I only actually texted you that because at first it made no sense to me…I was like”what the crap” .. and I guess I don’t fully grasp the significance and of circumcision in general-(the covenant-outward marking and separation- that they be […]
Once upon a time there was a group of people in a boat floating down a lazy river. Everyone in the boat boasted of being “a water lover.” The boat dwellers were a complacent crowd, and many of them had never actually been in the water, but this did not in the least cause them […]
Here’s a recent text exchange with a good friend of mine… My Friend: Does a lack of persecution in one’s life mean there is a lack of boldness for the gospel? Me: I’d say that boldness (as embodied by Jesus of Nazareth) is primarily a radical commitment to be weak, vulnerable, and ‘powerless.’ Boldness is […]
Jesus of Nazareth said, “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness.” What’s Jesus talking about? Jesus is talking about the super […]
I was recently reading some ancient literature about Jesus of Nazareth, and to be perfectly honest there were some things that made me uncomfortable. For instance, Jesus of Nazareth was from NAZARETH! That place was seedy! It’s hard to imagine anything good ever emerging from Nazareth! And it seems like anyone from Nazareth should probably […]
A guy named Solomon stopped by my office last week. Solomon is from Nigeria, and he’s currently enrolled at Harvard Divinity School (45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138). We got to talking about the allure and deceit of consumerism, palatability, aggressive appeasement, and salesmanship. We spent a lot of time talking about the emphasis of […]
Once upon a time there were some very traditional churchy people watching Jesus. They winced as they saw Jesus sinning! Could that be right!? Jesus is God! …but there He was doing it all wrong! They saw that Jesus WAS NOT holding to their time-tested, cherished, conservative, traditions. So they asked Jesus, “Why don’t you […]
If I’m being perfectly honest …Jesus intrigues me. I find Him inescapably fascinating! I realize that many of you reading this right now would tell me that I must simply believe in Jesus, and regard Him as Right!; and to say that I’m intrigued with Him endangers orthodoxy and conventional submission. My fascination with Jesus […]