“Faith in Jesus unites us to him. We are one with him such that we now abide in him and live in him. This relationship is so all-encompassing of our Christian lives that the terminology of being united to Jesus comes up a staggering amount in the New Testament. In contrast, the word “Christian” is found only three times. This alone should make us consider what we might be missing if Scripture’s main way of talking about those who belong to Jesus is different to...

What do the Woman at The Well, Zacchaeus, the Woman With an Issue of Blood, and the Gerasene Demoniac have in common?  They had encounters with Jesus that changed their lives. Their lifestyles and social status forced them into the deepest margins of society, isolating their existence from the institutional religious structure that Jesus revolutionized.   Today, we might refer to people with such complicated backgrounds as uninvitable - someone for whom an invitation to...

A few years back, a tornado coursed within a mile of our house, lifting roofs off of places and causing millions of dollars in property damage.  While the damage was extensive, the twister failed to move a single home off its foundation.   In the same way that building our physical homes on a solid foundation protects against violent storms, Jesus makes a way to build our spiritual house on an unshakeable, eternal foundation. His plan provides refuge in this life and security for...

Biased lending practices played a significant role in the global financial crisis of 2007-2008. Lenders, driven by bias, issued mortgages to unqualified borrowers. These biased decisions led to a housing market collapse, financial institutions' failures, and a severe economic downturn. Bad financial bias can lead to bankruptcy, but years ago, the bias of Jesus’ hometown put His neighbors at risk of bankruptcy of a different kind as we discover in gospel writer Matthew’s record of...

The legend of El Dorado, a mythical city of gold, attracted many explorers to South America during the Age of Exploration. Conquistadors and adventurers embarked on perilous journeys searching for this fabled treasure.  Like the Eldorado seekers, we can search for ultimate fulfillment from sketchy sources that drain our souls instead of filling them with treasures only Jesus can provide. In the enlightening parable below, Jesus explains how obtaining the immeasurable worth of God's...

For twelve years, she suffered from an embarrassing medical condition, spending all that she had on failed treatments, leaving her body worse in the end than at the beginning.  Where else could she turn for hope when everything she tried failed?  Today’s blog explores how to hold onto hope and keep moving forward when all seems lost. “And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. 25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26...

In the rugged landscapes of 19th-century Calabar, Nigeria, a pioneering figure emerged in the person of Mary Slessor, a remarkable Scottish missionary who ventured beyond social and cultural boundaries to follow Jesus. Driven by an unwavering commitment to sharing the love of Christ with those deemed unreachable, Mary's life is a challenging and helpful example of how to escape the trap of cultural Christianity and a model of the countercultural way of Jesus, revealed by Matthew in the...

Justice in this life can be elusive. Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme went undetected for decades, ultimately defrauding investors of billions.  He was arrested, tried, and sentenced to jail through our justice system. Though Mr. Madoff was brought to justice, his punishment did not return the savings of those who lost everything. We also can experience injustices not fully accounted for in this life. But, in His sovereign love, God will ensure ultimate justice at the end of this age....

Courage is the testing point of every virtue. Courage is what shows the world whether you actually believe what you say you believe — or whether your Christian “convictions” are just another form of empty virtue signaling. For almost three decades now, evangelical Christianity in America has been haunted by a single sentence. That sentence is the opening line of Mark Noll’s 1994 work, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, which bluntly suggests that “The...

September is suicide-prevention month — an appropriate time to reflect on the tragedy of veteran suicides. You’ve likely heard that “22 veterans die each day by suicide.” But in 2019, that number suddenly dropped to 17 daily, according to the Veterans Administration’s annual report on suicide prevention. The VA takes credit for the improvements, attributing the change to its suicide-prevention programs and grants. Reducing these suicide numbers has been a major...