“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me” (John 5:39). Christ’s Favorite Book Did you know that Jesus had a favorite book? Scripture makes it clear that our Lord did indeed have a favorite book — the Old Testament — the “Hebrew Bible” or the “Tanakh” — as evidenced by the fact that He quoted from it and alluded to it numerous times throughout His earthly ministry. The books Jesus quotes from most are Exodus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Isaiah.   I must confess that Jesus’ […]

  “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).   We have been looking at how the life of Jesus Christ makes the Gospel both reasonable and desirable. We have seen how the Good News that Jesus declared and demonstrated during His earthly ministry speaks to both the head and the heart of the listener.  Sensitive Mercy In June we saw Christ’s Searching Mercy displayed in His encounter with the Samaritan woman in John 4; in […]

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).   We have been looking at how the life of Jesus Christ makes the Gospel both reasonable and desirable. We have seen how the Good News that Jesus declared and demonstrated speaks to both the head and the heart of the listener. We saw His Searching Mercy displayed in His encounter with the Samaritan woman in John 4 and His Scandalous Mercy bestowed on the unwanted, sinful woman […]

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).   We saw last month that the good news of the Gospel is both reasonable and desirable. During this cultural moment, it is important that we share Christ through both reason and romance, engaging both heads and hearts with the Truth and Beauty of Jesus. Last month we saw the Searching Mercy of Jesus displayed in His encounter with the woman at the well; this month we will […]

The best way for Christians to get an audience in our cultural moment is by communicating how the good news of the Gospel is not only reasonable, but absolutely desirable. We must share Christ through reason and romance as we engage both the head and the heart with the Truth and Beauty of Jesus. For the next few months, I will share some beautiful biblical stories of how Jesus engaged both the heads and the hearts of those He encountered. The Bible is God’s story about His mission of mercy; Jesus declared that His mission was “to seek and to […]

February is generally thought of as “The Month of Love” because of “the day of love”—February 14, Valentine’s Day. If you are anything like me, you probably have some memories of grade school (or as a parent of your own child) and the “mandatory” valentine card that was to be given out to each student. You couldn’t miss anyone; everyone in your class had to receive a card, so no one’s feelings would be hurt. When our four children were growing up, Kim and called it “Frantic February 14th” (unless the day fell on the weekend, making it “Frantic Friday”), […]