Category: the gospel
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Open Table
But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism…
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Don’t give up on anyone
(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.) It’s time for this one again. You don’t want to ever forget this! My wife, Marti, loves to tell the story of a dramatic rescue in which she played a significant role when she was a flight attendant. On a routine done-it-a-hundred-times flight from Chicago…
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Where grace meets disgrace
And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. Hebrews 13:12-13 What happened? According to this verse there is something disgraceful about meeting Jesus outside the camp. Did we miss something? Do you feel like you…
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Breaking camp
We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. Hebrews 13:10 An altar is a place of slaughter. The lamb or bull that was brought in as a sacrifice for sin would be slain on the altar and the blood was spread around in various places as the…
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Signs not shrines
John, one of our regular readers, went through an experience adjusting to the deaths of his parents while living in the same house he grew up in that they occupied for 45 years. He spoke of similar feelings that I wrote about being in my neighbor’s house which was for sale following her passing, yet…
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Don’t give up open anyone
[This story first appeared as a Catch on January 13, 2017. I’m revisiting it because we need to be reminded to listen for this cry in every human soul.] My wife, Marti, loves to tell the story of a dramatic rescue in which she played a significant role when she was a flight attendant. On…
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Ready or not here we go
Things are getting pretty bleak on this side of eternity, but that does not mean we get depressed or lose hope. It just means that things are pretty bleak. Changes in the world’s situation have no affect on the truth about Christ and His promises to never leave us or forsake us. God does not…
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Silencing the stones
When Jesus made His triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt (that was a far cry from what the Jews were expecting in their Messiah, even though Zechariah 9:9 had prophesied it 500 years earlier), and the people and the disciples were proclaiming the mighty acts of God through the many…
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Jesus whisperer
“I think it’s wonderful we have the free will and the ability to have a relationship with God. When I read the Gospel I hear the Lord talking to me and teaching me, and it’s not all that difficult to understand what He’s saying.” – Mark Spoelstra If you don’t know who Mark Spoelstra is…
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‘Jesus, He’s my friend’
Jesus, He’s my friend. He took me by the hand; Led me far from this land. – Arthur Reynolds from the song, “Jesus is Just Alright” I got a friend in Jesus. – Norman Greenbaum from the song, “Spirit in the Sky”…
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Stuck on Jesus
Look at us over the last week and a half. Go to our website and scroll down through the recent Catches and you’ll find they are all about Jesus. “Jesus is the answer” 8/28/20 “The truth about Jesus never gets old” 8/27/20 “It’s still all about Jesus” 8/24/20 “In the presence of the Lord”…
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Craters of the Moon National Monument
“Visit the moon without leaving Idaho,” reads the cover of one of the brochures for Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho, a place Chandler and I visited on our recent trip. It’s a fascinating place with over 53,000 acres of cinder cones, lava tubes, tree molds, lava rivers, spatter cones, and lava beds…
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‘If I perish, I perish’
In the story of Esther, King Xerxes decides to honor one of his officials, Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, “elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles” (Esther 3:1). So much so that all the other officials and everyone at the king’s gate bowed down…
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One body
We are one. One body. The church around the world is one body. Each person belongs to the whole. Everyone who believes is a part of everyone who believes. There can be no separation or there is no life. It’s organic. It’s a living, breathing whole. This is not a club, or a membership, or…
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More than a bumper sticker faith
We need to have some new answers. If someone asks if you are a Christian today, your answer is going to depend a lot on what that person thinks a Christian is. Based on that, you might want to say no. There are so many wrong ideas of Christianity out there now that it’s like…
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‘Come and see’
Evangelism and discipleship are two big words for what Christians do for those who are Christians and those who are not. Traditionally, we “evangelize” those who are not Christians and “disciple” those who are. And there are countless strategies that have been developed for each of these down through the years, championed by pastors and…
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All together now
Can you find the Christians in this picture? No? Good. As far as I can tell, this is a picture of a bunch of sheep and goats together in a big herd. And when you see them all together like this, you get a sense of their sameness. They all have cloven hooves, four legs,…