Eph. 2:8,9 – For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

I have to laugh thinking back about the CD cover of one of our Victory Fellowship music projects called ON AND ON. It was a photograph of someone (actually it was Missionary James Widener) fully clothed and swimming in the bottomless ocean of God’s love. We were in an unusual season of outpouring at our church and it seemed as if we..

Merry Thursday by Parris
“For who is God save the Lord? or who is a rock save our God?

He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet, and setteth me upon my high places” Ps. 18:31
Saint Augustine loved to speak on Christ being his holy joy. His taste changed when Christ stepped in. When he becomes our rock, Augustine says, “we are passing lightly through the thorny and shady incumbrance of this world.” Matthew Henry says the rock is “A fountain emitting continual supplies of grace and goodness”. Watch out..

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If you spend any time talking to me about the Trinity, you’ll know that I’m quick to recommend Matthew Bates’s book, The Birth of the Trinity. This book received wide acclaim from various tribes, and it’s on many people’s lists of go-to works on the Trinity and the early church. His new book, however, is getting a little more heat. I was provided a review copy of the book, and it’s certainly worth dealing with—whether one ends up agreeing with Bates’s proposal or not.
In S..

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Photo courtesy: Neuestock
When I began working with the Christian Standard Bible, my first priority was to dig into the history of the translation. I wanted to know who was involved, how it was developed, how it was marketed over the years, and how many Bibles were out in the wild. In order to understand fully the good and the bad about the project ahead of me, I had to take a thorough inventory of where it came from. I could’ve done my job without this investigation—but n..

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Photo courtesy: Craig Koester via the Classical Numismatic Group.
While compiling notes for my dissertation and forthcoming book on the Book of Revelation, I came across this note on Revelation 1:16 in Craig Koester’s Revelation commentary:
The section climaxes by noting that [Jesus] holds seven stars in his right hand (Rev 1:16). This cosmic imagery conveys sovereignty. An analogy appears on a coin from Domitian’s reign that depicts the emperor’s deceased son as young Jup..

2 Cor. 2:14-16 ¶ But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

You ever wonder about this verse in the Bible, what is Paul talking about? Actually he is comparing Christ..

Job 19:25 For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

I read Job from a different perspective after Hurricane Katrina ravaged our city. I never dreamed in a million years that I would see such devastation. There were miles and miles of utter destruction, not a bird or animal or human would be anywhere in sight. It resembled a movie set, torn up infrastructure with no life. Many people committed suicide, many others had emotional breakdowns; many thousands l..

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On the Season 2 premiere of Word Matters, Trevin Wax and I discuss a question raised in Matthew 15, “Did Jesus call a woman a dog?” Here’s the context:
21 When Jesus left there, he withdrew to the area of Tyre and Sidon. 22 Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came and kept crying out, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely tormented by a demon.” 23 Jesus did not say a word to her. His disciples approached him and urged him, “Send her away b..

Job 19:25 For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
“Do you know Jesus”? I remember being asked that awkward question by the Jesus Freaks so many times before I became one of them. I used to wonder what in the world they were talking about. Most people associate the answer to that question to praying the sinner’s prayer then learning all kinds of information about how to improve our lives with lessons from the Bible and the life and teaching of Jesus. Of ..

Matt. 9:2 And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven”.

I recently preached on the miracle Jesus performed on the paralytic that was let down through the roof. There is a lot about this story that is mind blowing but the most amazing to me is what Jesus said first, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven”. Jesus didn’t approach the problem like anyone else did becaus..