Jesus established his church, and pronounced that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18) In case anyone needs to be reminded, this is not a statement about the defensive strength of the church Christ is building, but rather a statement reflecting that the church will grow and prevail. Gates are portals […]
A Holy Encounter I was walking where Paul walked when it happened. My friend Tom and I were on the Egnatian Way in Philippi, Greece, where the Apostle Paul and his friends walked and talked almost 2,000 years earlier as they came to Europe from Asia Minor (see Acts 16:11-12). We were so deeply engrossed […]
One of Jesus’ most startling statements is found in John 14:12: “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” How can this possibly be true? If we only had this […]
As I prepared for the closing comments at MB Seminary’s recent Navigate event (What Would Jesus Tweet?), I spent some time reflecting on Paul’s world in the first century. One of Paul’s primary interests was wrestling with how disciples should follow Jesus and be witnesses in the cultures and contexts they found themselves in. I […]
I was raised to never give up. An image was displayed on my family’s refrigerator door that I still remember. A heron is being choked by a mostly-swallowed frog who is gripping its predator’s neck in a desperate act of survival. The caption? Never give up. We love inspiring images like this. Every story worth […]