Tongues of Fire & Breath of God
By Donavon Riley
06/27/25
11mins

Tongues of Fire & Breath of God

The Church speaks not with the cleverness of men, but with the breath of God.
Dignity is not Enough: Thinking Biblically About Assisted Dying
Amy Mantravadi
Amy Mantravadi
06/26/25

Dignity is not Enough: Thinking Biblically About Assisted Dying

I always imagined dying a faithful death for Christ would mean burning at the stake. Now, I suspect it will mean dying in my bed of natural causes.
Sigh, Cry, and Be Still
1517 Staff
1517 Staff
06/25/25

Sigh, Cry, and Be Still

How many times in our lifetime must we sigh, floundering through this world with our sins, sorrows, struggles, frustrations, fears, and foes?

All Articles

Chad Bird
Chad Bird
09/18/13

The Unjust Steward and the Just Savior: A Sermon on Luke 16

Yes, He knows all—not only the sins you remember and are ashamed of, but also those you have forgotten and even those you never knew you committed.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
09/09/13

'Your Church Is Too Sexy": the Sedlec Ossuary, Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church, and the Theology of Church Architecture

In accordance with their views of what a church is, or what a church ought to be, they planned and executed each of these sanctuaries. In other words, theology designed architecture, and architecture signaled theology.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
09/05/13

The Truth About Cemeteries

For out of the mouths of these opposition forces, gathered on enemy turf, comes the defiant declaration of death’s undoing: “Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!” An audacious act it is, to march smack dab into the middle of a place that screams, “Dead!” and to sing, “Alive!”
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
08/24/13

The Divine Overachiever: What Happens When God Mans Up

Here is the truth: we have gained more in Jesus than we lost in Adam. We lost human perfection in the first man's fall. We gained perfect flesh-and-blood unity with God in his Son's incarnation.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
08/14/13

"Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate": The Fourth Commandment and the Creed

When the angel told Mary she had become a mother, she replied simply, ''Let it be to me according to your word.'' Therein is a grateful acknowledgment that the Creator had formed life in her womb.
Jessica Thompson
Jessica Thompson
07/22/13

Weakness is the Way

This past weekend I was celebrating my dear friend’s wedding the way I always celebrate: by working it out on the dance floor. I love to dance, though I am fairly certain now that dancing does not love me back.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
06/27/13

Praying in Tears, Snot, and Screams

I was full of pain and empty of speech, babbling like a baby who knows he hurts but can’t explain where or why or what he needs to assuage the anguish. Here was the sheer helplessness of being unable to communicate with God in this moment of deepest desperation.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
06/24/13

A Compartmentalized Life: Keeping God in His Place

I don’t need to watch a blood-soaked story on CNN or visit someone of death row to familiarize myself with the beast of depravity crouched within the human heart. I just need to look in the mirror, to stare deeply into the eyes that are a window to a soul that has journeyed down dark paths whose only illumination comes from the fires of hell.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
06/10/13

"I Sure Hope SHE'S listening to this sermon!"

She against whom I preached, in her unexpected response actually “preached” to me three truths I have never forgotten.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
05/22/13

Call Me Lazarus

What I will tell you is that, despite all evidence to the contrary, despite what you think and feel and imagine, God is indeed in that dark place. You don’t know it, but he’s licking your wounds, too. And he’s keeping the deeper, blacker darkness at bay.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
05/14/13

The Spirit of the Old and New

The Spirit, who endowed the tabernacle architects with wisdom from on high, overshadows Mary's womb, the new holy of holies, where Wisdom is incarnate below.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
05/14/13

Why Christ Poured out the Spirit on Pentecost: The OT and Rabbinic Roots of Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks

Though the theophanic elements at the Jerusalem Pentecost were not as diverse as those at Sinai, there is one prominent commonality between the two: divine speech out of divine fire.
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