When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. (John 1:37)

Sometimes I chuckle when I see how my English Bible translates a passage of Scripture. It can be challenging to properly capture the essence of the original Greek, hence why we have so many translations in print today. One such example is in John 1:38 when Andrew and John (the disciple) left John the Baptist to follow Jesus. The NASB renders the passage as follows: “Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, ‘What do you want?’” Now, growing up as the youngest of four children I heard that question A LOT. “What do YOU want?” In other words, “Why on earth are YOU here? Go away!” That’s what it looks like Jesus is saying to these two who desire to follow him, but the reality couldn’t be more different. Continue reading What Do You Want? →

Whenever we gather together to partake of the Lord’s Supper, I am automatically drawn to primitive Wesleyan hymnody as a helpful guide for how to approach the sacrament. While the tendency seems to be to relegate the Lord’s Supper to something marginal in the life of the church, to the Wesleys and the early Methodists it was actually central to life in the body of Christ. Consider this stanza from Hymns on the Lord’s Supper on how the sacrament is the Lord’s “choicest instrument” to convey his blessings on people: Continue reading The Lord’s Choicest Instrument of Grace →

A friend loves at all times. (Proverbs 17:17)

It always breaks my heart to hear it, but some people simply don’t have any friends. For whatever reason, they go through life never feeling as though they belong. They have no one to comfort them when they hurt. No one to laugh with, cry with, celebrate with. For those among us who have been blessed with solid friendships, it’s hard to truly empathize. We take for granted the friendships we have and never really give a second thought to those who go without. I think this happens more often than we want to admit. Continue reading A Community of Friends →

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3)

This verse is foundational to the gospel message. Out of the mouth of Jesus himself, to see the kingdom of God you have to be born a second time, but this time “from above”. Not simply by virtue of the union between your mother and father, but by the power and purposes of God (John 1:13). But why? Why can’t Jesus just patch us up here and there in the areas where we need help? Why is something so radical necessary? Continue reading The Whole Outfit →

I tell you this – though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence. (Luke 11:8)

Have you ever read something that literally made you spontaneously laugh out loud? That happened to me this week as I was reading Luke chapter 11 in preparation for Sunday morning. I got to verse 8 and the translation I was reading (NLT) rendered the last two words as “shameless persistence.” For some reason that struck me as funny, that Jesus would say it like that. I looked up the Greek and, sure enough, the word there is shamelessness, which takes on a slightly different nuance than mere persistence alone. Continue reading Shameless Persistence →