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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Imperatives are good for many things. Luther said the Law is good, but precisely because it is good, it has become poison and death to the bad. The Law does not give life but evaluates it, and we encounter day in and day out its negative evaluation of us.
Truly, God uses good and evil, believers and unbelievers, to accomplish His purposes.
As God in his mercy enacted his plan to redeem his loved ones, he took them step by step. In the process of redeeming every part of us, he sent us prophets like Moses.
The church is of no use to this world if all we do is ape the world’s rhetoric, antics, and actions. We are a unique community with a unique message. Here are four reasons I'm convinced that 2020 is a great year for the church.
The love God showed for us in the death of his Son continues in us because we remain his children as long as we are incorporated in the body of Jesus through faith.
From mountain to mountain, from meal to meal the LORD God points us to His banquet, already prepared; the marriage feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom which shall have no end!
The LORD is not yet finished with His vineyard.
This is an excerpt from “Unveiling Mercy: 365 Daily Devotions Based on Insights from Old Testament Hebrew” written by Chad Bird (1517 Publishing, 2020). Used with permission.
What does it mean that holding to Jesus’ teaching will set us free? Which teaching? What will we be set free from?
The kind of love we crave, that we will go to any lengths to find, is already present for us here and now. The Lord's love for us reaches into our hearts and soul.
God desires that all men might be saved. The problem, the stumbling block, does not lie with God. The problem is one of man’s heart and spirit.
Viewing the Bible as literature is an essential and natural way of engaging the text. But there are also ways in which this practice can get lost.