If you admire others’ ability to draw, sketch, paint or sculpt, yet don’t seem to share those talents, welcome to my world of art appreciation instead. After all, artistic brilliance needs those who can treasure and reflect on their masterpieces. The Bible has long been the subject of some of the most monumental art through […]
Archive | Discipleship
“Parables, Presidential Elections, and $$: Sorting out Economic Quandaries”
With a US presidential election only months away, there is a lot of public talk about wealth and poverty, complete with a vast range of economic solutions offered to voters. About the only solution I haven’t heard is a candidate saying: “Let’s see what Jesus has to say about the subject.” Given how many of […]
Paul’s Easter Witness: Victor not Victim
One way to celebrate the resurrection of Christ Jesus is to look at the transforming effect Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance made on a Pharisee, Saul. Because of his Damascus road post-resurrection encounter, Paul considered himself an apostle, as chosen as the original twelve. In his most autobiographical letter, Paul writes the Galatians: 11 For I want […]
Why was Lazarus’ resurrection so Important to Early Christians?
You start to notice this focus on Lazarus in the earliest centuries of Christianity through the art. In the Roman catacombs alone there are over 55 paintings of Lazarus’s resurrection. Roughly an equal number exist of Roman sarcophagi, the marble caskets in which nobility were buried, depicting this life-affirming story relayed only in John’s Gospel. […]
I Peter: Figures of Speech and Sermons in Stone
“Literature is picture-thinking, ideas made flesh in figures of speech”, wrote a former college professor and friend, Dr. Colin Campbell (from talk given 10/10/15). The author of 1st Peter creates such word pictures for us in spades. Chapter 2 is a rich example as the writer employs a stone metaphor to explain three different functions […]