On Sunday we talked about how the Gospel is bringing together groups who were at odds with one another. In the First Century world this was Jews and Gentiles. Paul wants Jews and Gentiles to see that they are being brought together in Christ. The dividing wall has been brought…
When I started planning for our Ephesians series I started looking for some resources to help guide my own study. Sometimes pastors and teachers get enamored with commentaries that dive deep into the world of the text. At times that dive is helpful in figuring out the background of a…
I mentioned on Sunday that there seems to way more packed into the text of Ephesians than what we have time to unpack on a Sunday morning. One the the things we skipped over from Ephesians 1 is the intensely debated topic of “Predestination” (cue ominous music). The idea of…
This Sunday (July 21) we’re launching into a new series on the book of Ephesians called “Walk in Way of Love.” In Ephesians Paul has a wonderful way encapsulating what the Bible is all about; telling the unfolding story of God and God’s actions in the world. Paul shows how…
“Walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” – Ephesians 5:2 (NIV) Theme verse for Ephesians series Over the summer in the combined adult Sunday school class we’ve been talking about reading the…
Check out this video from The Bible Project for a bigger picture of what happens with children of Israel in Exile.
There were the chapters of names. Endless names. Unpronounceable names. There were the lists of kings and their faithless reigns of murdering rival officials, rival siblings, sacrificing children, building altars to false gods. There were the high points of king David, Solomon the Man of Peace, Hezekiah and Josiah. We…
We’re closing in on our final sermon on Chronicles. We’ve been journeying through this often forgotten book and gaining insights for our walk with Jesus today. As we close in on the end of the series here is a list of videos that our children have been viewing in Kids’…
Last week we looked at a series of kings of Judah who had some serious issues (2 Chronicles 21-28). A number of them tried to consolidate their power by killing of potential rival siblings or officials. One queen-mother killed off the rest of the royal family in order to set…
If you click the link HERE, you’ll find a paper I wrote a few years ago for a class on Chronicles. In summary, the paper looks at the role Chronicles plays in moving the people of God along towards God’s ideal of peaceful non-violence seen most fully in Jesus. There…
