Blessed Are You Poor
“Poor” in the Biblical Greek has much more texture and depth than our modern English.
From Old to New
Many of the problems that exist in our modern world are first born from the problem that exists within each of us.
Seeing Anew
Marjorie Rawlings’ The Yearling was America’s best-selling novel in 1938, selling over 250,000 copies and winning the Pulitzer Prize for fiction a year later.
Philosophers & Kings
In Book V of the Republic, Plato remarks that "there will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings."
Before the Beatitudes
On the surface of the text, Jesus ascends a hill and begins to teach. Nothing too remarkable about that. But notice the crowds. Throughout the Gospels, they are curious but not committed.
Conversion & Crowds
The overarching questions for us from Matthew 4:25 are what does this reveal about the movement of the soul toward Christ? And what does it demand of me?
Spiritual Warfare
We have a curious tendency of reading the Gospels as though the world they describe no longer exists. We read about demons the way we read about dragons. Sounds interesting and symbolic perhaps, but belonging to “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..”
Treasures of the Church
On August 10, 258 A.D., during the persecution by Emperor Valerian, St. Lawrence (of Huesca, Hispania) was martyred only a few days after the execution of Pope Sixtus II.
Redemptive Reach
“Throughout all Syria” is astonishing to a Jewish reader (Matthew’s audience).
Every Disease & Infirmity
At first glance, this verse reads like a summary transition that’s easy to gloss over.
Destruction & Defeat
“But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” - Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
Something About Mary
Whether you’re Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox, there’s something about Mary, and it isn’t sentimentality.
When the Adventure Comes for Us
If we’re honest, most of us don’t yet want what God is calling us to.
Preaching & Repentance - Part 3 (of 3)
It’s likely that Jesus preached this first sermon in His native tongue: Aramaic.
Preaching & Repentance - Part 2 (of 3)
If sin turns our gaze inward toward our appetites and anxieties, repentance moves us outward.
Preaching & Repentance - Part 1 (of 3)
Jesus’s first sermon was only nine words (in English).
Darkness & Light
Another reason Jesus launched his ministry from Capernaum had to do with the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, which had occupied the territories north and west of the Sea of Galilee.
