The angels at the ascension did not leave the disciples wondering whether they would ever see Jesus again. They had watched Him disappear into the sky. Just before that, He had spoken to them about the coming of the Holy Spirit and the work they were about to undertake. Then, suddenly, He was gone from … Read more
Following Jesus costs more than most churches advertise, and real discipleship reshapes every area of life it touches. Jesus did not ask for admirers. He asked for followers. I say this because the church is filled with people who appreciate Jesus from a comfortable distance and fewer who have actually rearranged their lives around his … Read more
Paul made an unusual admission for someone building a religious movement. He said that without one specific event, everything he was teaching fell apart. “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” 1 Corinthians 15:14 NIV Most religious teachers do not build their entire framework on a … Read more
Crucifixion was a common Roman execution method. Thousands of people died this way under Roman rule. What separates Jesus’ death from every other crucifixion in history is not the method itself. It is what the New Testament claims that death accomplished. Scripture presents multiple, connected answers to why Jesus died, each addressing a different dimension … Read more
The question of who Jesus is has never had a neutral answer. People in his own lifetime disagreed sharply about it, and the disagreement has continued for two thousand years since. Scripture does not present a vague or open-ended answer to this question. It presents specific claims about Jesus’ identity, a clearly stated mission, and … Read more
Jesus is one of the most referenced figures in human history, and also one of the most misunderstood. Some picture a gentle moral teacher. Some picture a distant religious symbol. Some picture a political revolutionary. Scripture presents someone harder to categorize than any of those descriptions allow. The Bible describes Jesus as fully God and … Read more
The question carries a hidden assumption most people never examine. It assumes a category called good people, who should reasonably expect to be spared from tragedy because of that goodness. Scripture actually pushes back on that assumption before it even gets to the harder question about suffering itself. This does not mean the pain behind … Read more
No one asks this question in the abstract. It usually comes attached to something specific. A diagnosis. A death that arrived too soon. A loss that never got explained. Scripture does not offer a single formula that makes every instance of suffering make sense. It offers something different. Honest acknowledgment that suffering is real and … Read more
Evil is not a topic people usually approach out of curiosity. Something painful usually brings the question up. A betrayal, a diagnosis, a headline about violence that makes no sense. The question that follows is almost always some version of the same thing. If God is good and God is powerful, why does evil exist … Read more
There is a particular kind of pain that comes from praying into what feels like empty air. Not doubt about whether God exists. Something quieter than that. A sense that He has simply gone quiet, right when you needed to hear something. Scripture takes this experience seriously. It does not treat divine silence as rare … Read more