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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How we feel is so often conditioned upon what we are experiencing. Faith grabs hold of something outside our experience, something objective and true that is not changed by circumstance.
Jesus sees His disciples facing future uncertainty and responds not with details about dates and times and procedures to follow, but with His promise and His presence.
The temple Christ inhabits is His own body and His body has been expanded, as it were, to include both Jew and Gentile in the Church.
The Church is called to be Christ-like and that means reaching out in mercy to the widows, orphans and outcasts-the disenfranchised and helpless-like Christ Jesus gave example.
The true miracle of springtime isn't simply its beauty, but in the way it foreshadows the sprigs of life that spring forth when God creates faith from the fallow ground of dead sinners.
God doesn't help those who help themselves. He saves those who can't do anything for themselves.
We have one thing which will never change. We have a shepherd who knows us by name and who promises to speak to us in all of life’s situations.
You have been chosen to come out of the darkness and into this marvelous light, the light of the Resurrection. You are a people who constitute an exodus from racism, sexism, elitism, classism and now participate in a new race of human beings who are, through baptism, the foundational cure for the evils of these things in human society.
The teaching of the Apostles, the fellowship of believers, the breaking of bread and prayer lay out the components of worship.
Elisabeth Cruciger is the first female Lutheran hymn writer. In fact, her hymn was included in the very first evangelical hymnal, published in 1524. With her life and her hymn, she becomes a witness, an example, and a proclaimer of the gospel to us almost 500 years later.
The forgiveness of sin in Jesus' name changes the way we move, and live, and exist.
When we are invited to cast all our cares on God's shoulders, he means all of them — every single one of them.