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Jun 29, 2015 · The following quotations are from scholars who have largely studied in detail the rise of early Christianity and are experts in New Testament history, Pauline studies, and historical Jesus studies. A diverse range of scholars is quoted including Christians, agnostics, atheists, and Jewish thinkers.
Having Rafi and Dinah there - and having Rafi be one of the men who took Jesus to the cliff - really drove the point home: it wasn't like Judas and Peter were the first people who betrayed him. And it wasn't a faceless crowd that rejected him.
The Bible gives us glimpses of God and tells us about some of his characteristics - his love, compassion, power and creativity. It is thought that Jesus Christ was born around 4-6 BC in Bethlehem, about six miles from Jerusalem. Read the timeline of his whole life on earth.
- I. “Father, Forgive Them For They Know Not What They do.”
- II. “Today You Will Be with Me in Paradise.”
- III. “Woman, Here Is Your Son. Here Is Your mother.”
- IV. “My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?”
- V. “I thirst.”
- VI. “It Is finished.”
- VII. “Father, Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit.”
There’s an elderly Chinese man who does Tai Chi every morning at the park near my house. Sometimes I stop and watch him for a while. The precise rhythmic gestures, the sudden sweeping of the arm, the powerful, slow pushing of the hand. It’s beautiful to observe rituals that have been handed down for generations. For centuries this man and his ances...
Our first parents are driven out of Paradise. They are in exile. Restlessly they wander the earth. Their children build houses but can never find their home. They ache to return to a garden they have never seen. The descendants of Eve and Adam are far from home and the gates of Paradise are closed. Stretched out in anguish on the cross, Jesus turns...
The Lord God loved the man so much that one day in the garden he put him to sleep and took a part of him and from that part made woman. And Adam loved her and called her Eve because she was the mother of all who would live. But what a sorrowful mother! Her firstborn son became the first murderer. Cain, the first child ever born into this world, kil...
In Jesus, we have a new ancestor and a new beginning. That is good news. But the good news comes at a cost. Jesus repeats Adam’s story. He plays Adam’s part. He becomes like Adam in every way, except without sin. The death sentence that falls on Adam falls also on Jesus. Jesus is exiled so that the human family can come home. He falls down into dar...
The human being is a hungry animal. When God makes Eve and Adam in the beginning, God makes them hungry. God puts them in a garden filled with food. God tells them to eat whatever they like. The whole world will be their food. And one day, when they have learned and grown — one day they will eat from the tree of life and their deepest hunger will b...
In the story of the Garden of Eden, the human story ends before it ever really gets started. Our history, as the Bible sees it, is like a train derailed just as it’s leaving the station. “It is finished.” For all I know, Adam and Eve might have said those words as they walked out of the garden and heard the gates swing shut behind them. Hanging ove...
The sayings of Jesus on the cross end where they began, with one word: “Father.” With the last breath that he can draw, Jesus wants to say his favourite word. With the last strength he can muster, he wants to raise his eyes to look one last time into the face of God. Lingering on the boundary between life and death, he concentrates his whole being ...
- “Just as Jesus was identified by his wounds, so are we. This mystery is hard to grasp , but it is of the greatest importance in helping to deal with our own brokenness.
- “What was the life of Christ but a perpetual humiliation?”
- When we have hit bottom and are emptied of all we thought important to us, then we truly pray, truly become humble and detached, and live in the bright darkness of faith.
- “…for it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”
Jun 5, 2016 · Luke 7:11-17. Death is Not the End. Today’s story is a shocker in many ways. If you have ever lost anyone to death—and many of you have—you may experience a little jealousy with today’s story. You may wonder why Jesus didn’t interrupt your loved one’s memorial service.
Jesus was arrested and later crucified, or killed, which He allowed in order to fulfill God’s will. “I lay down my life,” the Lord said, “that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (John 10:17-18).
