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Jesus Creed

Over the last several posts we have been considering approaches to interpret scripture that take seriously the nature of the text we have, the information from historical and scientific research, and the inspiration of scripture. This is, in my opinion, one of the most significant challenges facing  evangelical Christianity today. Kent Sparks in God’s Word…

Luke wrote two books and so he asks Jesus, who is approvingly nodding his head at the table, for an extended time to go overtime. After describing for us that this Messiah did create a new kind of Passover meal called the Lord’s supper, Luke tells us that Jesus was crucified by the evil empire…

I learned as a child this little ditty: “Sticks and stones may break my bones,but names will never hurt me.” The intent was good — to deflect unkind words. The truthfulness of the ditty, however, questionable. What is said can have potent, life-altering impact. And James knows that. Notice these words from James 3: 3 When…

We are working our way through Tom Wright’s new book, Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision. The book purports to be a response to John Piper’s The Future of Justification, but it is far more than that: it is a brilliant sketch of Wright’s own views. Chp 4 opens with a question that is second…

Kent Sparks’s book God’s Word in Human Words (GWHW) was the subject of a session organized by Peter Enns at the Society of Biblical Literature meeting last November. Dr. Enns has made some of this session available to a broader audience on his blog, starting with his review of GWHW, and continuing with his response…

So far so good: kingdom means community formation through commitment to Jesus. That community brings justice and it ends every form of oppression. Jesus’ kingdom vision will mean a total spiritual and social make-over for Israel. With everything now in place, Jesus takes an about turn, faces his disciples, tells them they’ve got a blurred…

So important is the tongue to teaching that James can say this in James 3:2: We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check. For James, proper speech indicates mastery of one’s entire self. James…

We have been working through Kent Sparks’s book God’s Word in Human Words (GWHW).  A couple of posts ago (here) I suggested a way of looking at scripture as light rather than foundation; a change in perspective that I think takes some of the stress out of the discussion of the nature of scripture.  Our…

Attentive readings of this account reveal that Jesus had the same solution and saw the same problems seen by Mary, Zechariah, and John the Baptist: injustices everywhere. And he had the same solution: repent and start living together as God’s beloved community. Listen to his words from Luke 4:18-19 that Jesus quotes from Isaiah 61:1-2:…

James 3:1 begins a new section. There are a variety of proposals of where the section ends in James, but our view is that it ends at 4:12. Some see the entire section to be a mixed bag of exhortations but our view is that James 3:1-4:12 addresses teachers and their impact (good and bad)…
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