[A review I wrote a couple years ago on Goodreads but which I ran across again and still like.] James Jordan is always a worthwhile read, but I was not expecting this Crisis, Opportunity, and the Christian Future to be what it is. This book is perhaps one of the most important books for the 21st century Church that I'v… Read more…

In the beginning, God made man in His image, to be His kings and queens in creation. But man was young and inexperienced. For reasons known only to God, he was dependent on this strange process of learning by observation, reasoning, and abstraction. In order to train man for his royal office and protect him, he was pla… Read more…

Jesus has performed numerous miracles. Most recently He has fed another group of thousands, but afterwards His disciples still did not understand Him. Next He healed a blind man, and we enter this scene wondering: if Jesus can cure the beggar's blindness, can He not cure His own disciples'? For a moment, it seems that … Read more…

Jesus leaves home abruptly to go the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus stills the sea, which may foreshadow the stillness He is about to bring to a Gentile demoniac, given the Old Testament association of the Gentile nations and the sea. The event also evokes Old Testament imagery of God’s power over nature, and … Read more…

[Continued notes for my Davenant Hall class, “Reading the Gospels with Wisdom.”] Jesus' return home may have been full of strife up to this point, with dark accusations from the scribes and someone tense relations with His family, but the rest of the visit moves from events to teaching in one of the few extended sectio… Read more…

[Continued notes for my Davenant Hall class, "Reading the Gospels with Wisdom."] Mark 2 opens with Jesus' return to Capernaum. It refers to this as Jesus "at home," which does not introduce a great deal of meaning but nonetheless strikes one accustomed to thinking so much of Jesus' deity as unusuall… Read more…

[For my Davenant Hall class, "Reading the Gospels with Wisdom," I will be analysing a portion of Mark's Gospel each week. I figured I would also post the notes here.] Mark opens his account by declaring the beginning of the Gospel (ευαγγελιου) of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (perhaps, depending on the textual… Read more…

A key word in the apostolic message of the Gospel is "believe." A common refrain is to "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ," or something similar. Brief thoughts on what this means: Background: John the Baptist and Jesus both show up foretelling imminent judgment on Israel in connection with the comin… Read more…