The Descent from the Cross (1614), Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) ————————– One of the earliest religious memories for many people is learning to sing the old favorite Sunday School song “Jesus Loves Me.” In the second verse of that song, we sing these words: “Jesus loves me, He who died, heaven’s gates to […]
1182) Reflections on the Death of Jesus (a) Read More »
The Lamb of God, by Francisco de Zurbaran, 1635 —————————— (…continued) Sin is a powerful force in the world, and a lamb is not the first image that would come to mind if you were to do something about it. What can a lamb do to even defend itself, let alone take
1109) Lamb of God (b) Read More »
——————————— By John Piper in A Godward Life: Book Two, Multnomah Press, 1999, pages 123-4. ——————————— When Jesus was dead and buried, with a big stone rolled against the tomb, the Pharisees came to Pilate and asked for permission to seal the stone and guard the tomb. Pilate said, “You have a guard of soldiers; go,
1081) Indestructible and Unstoppable Read More »
———————————- By Eric Metaxas at: http://www.breakpoint.org (February 19, 2016) ———————————– “Ben Hur,” “The Robe,” “The Ten Commandments,” “Quo Vadis?”—who can forget the golden age of biblical films? But that was the 1950s, and this is 2016. Biblically based movies these days often comes across as, well, less than inspired. Writers and
1049) Don’t Miss This Movie Read More »
On Christmas morning in 1892 a little girl finished opening all her presents and then said to her father, “Wouldn’t it be great if it could be Christmas every day of the year?” Her father looked at her without saying anything for a few moments, and then finally said softly, “Do you
991) Christmas Every Day (1/2) Read More »
The legends of most ancient people tell of gods and goddesses visiting the earth. They come and go capriciously, sometimes showing favor, sometimes visiting disaster. They were of little comfort. More often than not their appearances were feared. It may not be unfair to say that people worshiped them, sacrificed to them, largely
(…continued) We see in the Bible that God chooses to do his most extra-ordinary work in very ordinary ways… There are a couple things to be said about that. First of all, there can be a problem with this method of working through the commonplace and ordinary. But secondly, there
982) Too Ordinary? (2/2) Read More »
There are two perspectives from which we can view the Christmas story. Both are presented in the Bible. From one perspective, we see the greatest, most unexpected, most wonderful miracle of all time– the Almighty God of heaven and earth, Creator and Sustainer of the whole universe, decides to visit planet earth– and
981) Too Ordinary? (1/2) Read More »
Mark 6:17-28– Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married. For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” So Herodias nursed
972) Two Johns (part two of two) Read More »
—————————— Johnny Carson said that a good introduction could make or break an act. In fact, Carson gave his partner Ed McMahon a lot of credit for helping him be such a huge success on the Tonight show. He said this in reference to McMahon’s cheerful and familiar introduction each night, always ending
971) Two Johns (part one of two) Read More »
