Wednesday of Holy Week. Two days before the crucifixion; one day before the Last Supper and the betrayal. Imagine waking up this morning knowing it was your last full day of freedom before your execution. That's the reality Jesus faced that Wednesday morning: one more day with his disciples, one more night's rest -- then a day to wash feet, share a table, pray, and be betrayed. We call today Spy Wednesday (or just Holy Wednesday in some traditions). It gets its name from Judas Iscariot, the ultimate "spy." The Traitor, in Luke's gospel, gets his thirty pieces of silver from the chief priests today (see ch. 24). With that said, the Traitor has become a bit of a polarizing figure in recent yea
Yesterday was Palm Sunday, our beginning to Holy Week. Each day this week will feature key events during the final week of the life of Jesus before his crucifixion; each day brings us a step closer to the cross. Today, I invite you to put yourself in Jesus' shoes during this week. I don't know of anyone who wants to know the exact time they're going to die. Death remains a mystery, and that's as it should be. For Christ, however, it wasn't a mystery; it was a certainty. He knew the exact day he would be nailed to a cross at a place called The Skull. He knew when he awoke that Monday morning he would be dead before sundown on Friday. It was a guarantee, an immutable fact. Nothing could delay
From Bro. Chris -- Yesterday I enjoyed having two student "job shadows" share my day. As part of getting to do what I do, John agreed to write the blog post for today. Thanks, John! Throughout current media, and media since when it became distributed to the public, traces of the Bible are seen throughout all media, including cinematics, literature, and even news writings. One I will focus on, as to prove the evidence of literature drawing parallels to the Bible. A prime example is in the novel by Thomas Keneally or movie directed by Stephen Spielberg, Schindler's List. The novel follows Oskar Schindler, who makes a fortune off the oppressed Jews, but comes to value life and uses his fortune
As we announced in yesterday's service, beginning on Palm Sunday, we will live stream our morning worship service on Facebook. What does this mean? It means a video feed of the stage area will be broadcast on Facebook in real time, and the video will also be recorded and saved on the church's page so you can watch it again later. Sermon audio will continue to be stored on the church website, but video will appear on Facebook. Why are we doing this? After all, I personally have a face for radio. Why stream live video? Several reasons. First, it lets those at home who can't make it to the church worship with us. That goes for shut-ins, those in the hospital, college students, you name it. Seco
If 3-14 is Pi Day, celebrated with both pie and bad math jokes, and 3-15 is the Ides of March, full of Shakespeare and Caesar quotes, then I propose on 3-16 we quote the most famous verse of the Bible, John 3:16, everywhere we go. It's the one verse people memorize, and we almost always do so in the King James: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Surely no other verse conveys the gospel of Jesus Christ so clearly and succinctly as John 3:16. It's why we see it plastered everywhere on t-shirts, keychains, and everything else we turn into "Christian merchandise." I mean, I've never seen a
How many times have you heard it: "Say it ain't so!" "It ain't so." And then we all laugh. But there are times we truly don't want things to be as they are. I mentioned one of them in the sermon yesterday. Thomas Nagel, a philosopher of mind and expert in evolutionary theory, flatly states, "I hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that."* And yet in the title of a later book he also admits "the materialist neo-Darwinian conception of nature is almost certainly false."** In essence, he looks at the truth of the existence of God, examines the failures of evolution to produce life and consciousness, and simply says, "Say it ain't so!" We may
This is my first and final blog post of the week (which oddly seems to fit Sunday's sermon of the first being last and the last being first). I don't think this has ever happened before, but it was a necessity this week because of everything else I've had going on in my life. I can safely say the last seven days are not ones I would particularly care to repeat. Granted, there have been great moments -- my mom's birthday, getting things done I've needed to for a while, etc. -- but on the whole, this has been seven days of death. I mean that literally, too. On Saturday evening, I had the graveside service of my cousin's unborn child, born and buried at fourteen weeks into her pregnancy. No amo
It's now springtime in Kentucky, and in the state for college basketball, that can only mean one thing: March Madness is upon us. Everyone is about to spend the next month glued to their television screens, cheering on the Wildcats and anyone who plays against Duke. (If you prefer Duke or a non-UK Kentucky team, I will pray for your salvation.) I deeply suspect the "madness" in March Madness describes the fans as much as the tournament itself. Few things manage to captivate us the way big sports do. Whether it's the NCAA tournament or the Super Bowl, we're going to get together, throw parties, wear the right colors, or even paint our bodies so we can watch "the big game." We spend large sums