Josephus does not tell us that Christianity is true, and Christians do not need Josephus to tell them that Christ is risen. But Christianity makes claims about things that happened in public history under identifiable rulers, priests, and governors. For that reason, testimony from outside the church matters.
Today, the longing for cultural Christianity on both the left and the right hearkens back to an older version of Christendom that was a mixed blessing for the church in the western world. The cultural mediation of Christian views on created order has certainly benefitted the civilization we’ve inherited. But the gospel itself isn’t something that can be reduced to cultural mediation either. Instead, the gospel as a message stands apart from all human accomplishments and achievements, no matter how beneficial they might be.
The student of Scripture should always have a map open next to their Bible as they read. If possible, they should also travel to Israel, not to make a pilgrimage, but to see the context of the land in which these stories took place. These are not fairy tales made up about fictional fantasy lands; these are stories about real people in real places interacting with a real God.

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Where there’s more sin, there’s more grace! Are you comfortable with that? That the greater the sin, the greater the grace? Could it be that easy?
We stand before God with a unique set of problems, diseases, and sins. The comforting truth of the Incarnation is that Jesus took my flesh. All of it.
Love continues to gently but endlessly pursue the narrator, despite his persistence in pulling away in the opposite direction.
Heaven is Miller Time. Heaven is the party in the streaming sunlight of the world’s final afternoon.
Good works do not make a Christian, do not secure the grace of God and blot out our sins, they do not merit heaven.
As we face our own struggles and successes, let us pray that we may be humble. Let us be grateful for whatever God has provided and not become arrogant in what we have or what we've lost.
It’s easy to slip into thinking about forgiveness solely in terms of our authority over it.
We need to remember that we belong to God by Grace Alone. It’s not by our best works. Not by the sweat of our brow, it’s not even by our best attempts to repent.
Christ crucified is at the heart of both our freedom from sin and death and our freedom to serve and love our neighbor.
The quality of our walk with Jesus is not predicated on anything we do, for the only thing we bring to our salvation is the sin that makes it necessary.
Because Jesus sacrificed Himself for us sinners, God calls us to open the door of our junk rooms and receive His forgiveness.
The Lord who stood before her seemed reckless in His love. Her sin didn't deter Him. Rather, it was the reason He came.