Last Meals and Living Hope

Asleep at the Wheel is the name of a group that plays western swing music. Several years ago they recorded a song called Last Meal. It is a fictitious account of a man on death row about to be executed. However, before his execution can take place, the warden tells him he gets a lastContinue reading “Last Meals and Living Hope”

Trust God and Put Your Name On It

If you think about the time you spent in school, nearly everyone would agree that they didn’t look forward to test day. Even if you were good at tests, it wasn’t a day you circled on your calendar and anticipated with eagerness and enthusiasm. Even though the nicest of teachers would try to calm ourContinue reading “Trust God and Put Your Name On It”

Too Wonderful for Words

When Peter wrote to the Jewish disciples dispersed in the five Roman provinces of Asia Minor (present day Turkey), he told them that even though they hadn’t seen Jesus (as he had), they loved and believed in Him. As a result, they were filled with an “inexpressible and glorious joy” (1:8). It’s that word “inexpressible”Continue reading “Too Wonderful for Words”

Thinking about Reverence

There’s something about Jesus’ cleansing of the temple that is startling. It seems out of character with Him, but it’s not. It’s simply out of character with the Jesus we have created—the One who accepts everybody and everything and makes no demands on anyone. Let me suggest if Jesus was really like that no oneContinue reading “Thinking about Reverence”

The End of All Things?

What does Peter mean when he says that “The end of all things is near?” (1 Peter 4:7). Is he talking about the return of Jesus? Does he mean something to the effect of, “The end of the world (i.e., the return of Christ) could take place at any time?” I suppose that’s a possibilityContinue reading “The End of All Things?”

Making Sense of 1 Peter

There are a lot of moving parts in 1 Peter so that as you make your way through the letter it can seem like a hodgepodge of loosely related discussions rather than s single. cohesive message. After all, he moves from “inexpressible and glorious joy” (1:8), to submitting to the civil authorities (2:13), to ChristContinue reading “Making Sense of 1 Peter”