Here is my mind map of Romans 1:16-17 (ESV): Here are some questions to get your juices flowing: 1. What are the three causally linked sections of these verses? 2. What is the basis of Paul’s relationship to the Gospel? 3. The power of God in the gospel is for Read more…
This is my mind map of Psalm 139:23-24 (ESV): This is a pair of verses we were encouraged to meditate on for this week’s Re|engage class. I’ve seen these verses many times before, and even had a class based on them once, called “Search”. But even there I didn’t get Read more…
Introductions are somewhat like genealogies to many of us; we have a tendency to just blow them off, and skip to “the good stuff”. But this introduction has plenty of Good stuff in it. It introduces Paul, the Gospel, Jesus, and the Christian, all of which are very relevant to Read more…
Here is my mind map of the first seven verses of Romans (ESV): Despite the fact that this is an introduction to the book, there are lots of cool things in this passage. You can check out some material to help through these verses here. Here are some questions to Read more…
Some time in the last couple months, I got wind that our local church would be studying through Romans in 2018. Some may have groaned, but I have now looked forward to it from that time, and can’t wait to get started. Some have said that God repeats lessons you Read more…
I know it’s been a while since I’ve written much about my progress through my degree program, but I hope it has been for good reason. I guess we all hope that we do what we do for good reason, but in any case, I hope a short update will Read more…
God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as Read more…
I was asked this question in our home group recently, after a larger discussion on church discipline, and forgiving the repentant. I found a large number of documents online with various opinions. I read through the first nine that showed up on a google search, and summarized their positions below. Read more…
As we approached the Christmas season, I’ve asked various groups to pray for the depressed on a number of occasions. I’ve been aware of the general increase in depression around Christmas for some time. But I hadn’t thought seriously recently about my own struggles in feeling left behind in the Read more…
For our second weekend in the rainforest, it seemed right to visit Simon’s father’s church, which was just 25 km north of Nya-nya — in fact, while it has another name, it is typically referred to as “25km”. Simon’s father traveled down to work with us a lot in 2014, Read more…
