It was Passover—one of the major feast celebrations of Israel when the people turned their attention back to how God had rescued His people from captivity, thanks to the blood of an unblemished lamb. As Jesus made His way into Jerusalem, a city that was overflowing with pilgrims for the celebration, the people greeted Him as king by chanting,...

The raising of Lazarus is one of my (many) favorite passages in Scripture. For some reason, it has always connected with me. As teachers, this story is either a dream because there are so many wonderful details to explore or a nightmare because there are so many wonderful details to cover. I choose to be an optimist. Just look...

Like many parents, my wife, Tara, and I are in this odd season of playing the role of teacher for our three kids who are distance learning for a quarter of school. While Tara is carrying most of the weight of this task, from time to time I am called on to help with a problem one of my...

It has been said, in truth, that there are only two types of people: the saved and the lost. That’s it. Just the redeemed and the unredeemed. The forgiven and condemned. Those who are in Christ and those who remain in Adam. This binary perspective of people is quite important. For those of us in Christ, it should remind...

This week, we will look at some of the kingdom parables from Matthew 13, and then next week we will look at Luke’s three lost parables, so perhaps a parable primer might be helpful. What is a parable? Put as simply as possible, a parable is a made-up story. But this simple definition in no way does justice to...

I remember it well. It was April 1985. Coca-Cola, which had been sagging in soft drink sales, unveiled a product everyone was anxious to try: New Coke. New Coke was new, but it was not good. New Coke bombed, leaving Coca-Cola scrambling to crank out the original cola formula, which it branded as Coca-Cola Classic. Sometimes the original is...