Tag: Discipleship
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When reading through the Gospel accounts a reader is confronted with stories of other Jewish leaders (Pharisees and teachers of the law) challenging Jesus directly on his interpretation of Sabbath. Their challenge was that Jesus permitted His disciples, or performed Himself, actions they regarded as unlawful labor on the Sabbath. Unfortunately, nearly two thousand years…
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Ad fontes means “to the sources.” It was one of the great cries of the Renaissance and Reformation. Humanists and Reformers believed that renewal required returning to the earliest witnesses rather than relying only on inherited interpretations. For the Reformers, this meant returning to Scripture in its original languages—Hebrew and Greek—so the church could hear…
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Most Christians are familiar with the idea of “the end times” and are usually familiar with a modern concept of being removed from the earth to a place called “heaven” when you die. But few realize that Jesus and the apostles understood history and the end times through a very Jewish framework called the “two…
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When We Misread What We Don’t Understand There’s a peculiar phrase in an old American song that most of us have heard but few have ever really understood: “Yankee Doodle stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni.” At face value, it sounds like nonsense. What does pasta have to do with a…
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Free From What? Free For Whom? Few words are more celebrated in modern American life than freedom. Usually, we mean the freedom to choose, to define ourselves, and to live without restraint. Freedom sounds like autonomy. It sounds like answering to no one but ourselves. But in Scripture, freedom is not self-rule. It is deliverance…
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How the Bible Was Formed — And Why It Can Be Trusted Many people assume the Bible simply appeared as a finished book. In reality, it is a collection of writings produced over many centuries and gradually recognized as Scripture by the communities that preserved them. Understanding how the Bible was formed helps explain both…
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Choosing a Bible Translation: Why It Matters Less Than You Think f you’ve spent any time looking for a Bible, you’ve probably noticed there are a lot of English translations—NIV, NASB, ESV, NLT, NET, KJV, and more. For many people this raises an immediate question: Which one is the right one? The encouraging answer is…
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One spiritual discipline that has deeply shaped my prayer life is praying the Scriptures. It is helpful when I don’t know what to pray, when my words feel thin or distracted. This practice gives me a simple place to start: if I don’t know what to say to God, I can pray what God has…
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Goal setting has been one of the most quietly transformative practices in my walk with God, especially when I began thinking in seasons rather than long-term abstractions. I’ve found that setting goals every six months creates urgency without burnout. It gives enough time to pursue growth seriously while still allowing space to reevaluate, adjust, and…
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One discipleship tool I have returned to for many years is the Word Hand Illustration from The Navigators. It has shaped how I think about engaging Scripture in a way that is faithful, practical, and life-giving. Paul’s instruction to Timothy to “rightly handle the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15) can sound abstract, but this…