4:8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he captured captives; he gave gifts to men.” 4:9 Now what is the meaning of “he ascended,” except that he also descended to the lower regions, namely, the earth? 4:10 He, the very one who descended, is also the one who ascended above all the heavens, in order to fill all things.
The main focus in this passage is the ascension of Christ and its consequences. …
Chapter 2 – Un-Christlike Images of God
We have a habit of forming God in our own image. What we absorb from our parents, our education, our culture, our church (if any) all goes into the mix.
Who is to say that the ‘God’ of North American Baptists is, or is not, the same ‘God’ of the local religion in, say, Afghanistan or India?
What is God?
…‘Your idea of God may be no more than an exaggerated version of yourself.’
Chapter 1 – What is God really like?
Human thoughts and language about God must always be deeply inadequate, writes Brad Jersak.
Any pronouns we use for God – ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘it’ – are inadequate.
Even saying that God is a ‘being’ may be unsatisfactory: God should, rather, be thought of the ‘ground of being’.
It may be that the very exercise of theology is an attempt to put God in a box, to turn God into a specimen to be examined under the microscope, to reduce him to our own puny proportions.…
All four Gospels record that, during the trial of Jesus, he was mockingly dressed in a robe:
Mt 27:27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the governor’s residence and gathered the whole cohort around him. 27:28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe (χλαμύδα κοκκίνην) around him, 27:29 and after braiding a crown of thorns, they put it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand, and kneeling down before him, they mocked him: “Hail, king of the Jews!”…
Sara Parks makes some interesting observations about ways in which *Jesus often used both male and female examples in his teaching.
Jesus often taught the same lesson twice, using male- and female-oriented examples:
In some of these pairs, no people are mentioned at all. …
Based on this post, by Brandon Hilgemann
1. Jesus spoke with authority
He was able to say: “You have heard that it was said…but I say…” (Matthew 5:22, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44).
The crowds were amazed because he taught as one with authority, unlike other teachers (Mark 1:22, Matthew 7:28-29).
We cannot preach on our own authority. But we can and must rest on the authority of Christ and his word.
2. Jesus told stories
He told countless parable. …
We often focus on what God can do. But think for a moment of what he cannot do:
He cannot
But consider, too, that in the Incarnation God did what he cannot do:
God cannot sleep. …
Craig Evans, Joel Green and others have noticed a series of remarkable parallels between the births of John (the Baptist) and Jesus, as recorded in Luke 1.
Most people, including the totally unchurched, will celebrate Christmas one way or another. How can we connect them with the Christian meaning of this season?
Andrew Knight has some helpful suggestions. I present them here in slightly abridged form
1. Host
‘The holidays offer a myriad of opportunities to have people over to your home. You can invite others over for family meals, dinner parties, work parties, dessert gatherings, neighborhood functions, or school holiday celebrations. Christmas affords you the opportunity to gather for anything, whether secret Santa, ugly Christmas sweaters, or a good Christmas movie.’…
Simon Ponsonby is a well-respected church leader, Bible teacher, and author.
He has written about how, after 30 years of ministry, he realised that his faith had grown somewhat cold. He felt disappointed by the drift he saw in his own denomination (the Church of England), and discouraged by the moral and spiritual failings of some of his friends and former role models. In his own life and ministry, he had become spiritually dry, tired, and inward-looking.…
