Category: Theology
Advent: Saturday of First Week
Readings Morning Isaiah 18 Mark 4:1-20 Psalms 24–26 Evening Isaiah 19:1-17 Revelation 11 Psalms 24–26 Reflection Enthronement and Temple Dedication THE SEVENTH TRUMPET in the…
Advent: Friday of First Week
Readings Morning Isaiah 14:3–15:9 Mark 3:13-15 Psalms 19–21 Evening Isaiah 16–17 Revelation 10 Psalms 19–21 Reflection PSALM 19 OPENS WITH this notice: “The heavens reveal…
Advent: Wednesday of First Week
Where did anyone get the idea that Isaiah was a cheerful gospeler?
Advent: Tuesday of First Week
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” (Isa 6:3)
Advent: Monday of First Week
The first week of Advent begins with language of Israel’s judgment in terms that end up sounding like the Lamb opening the six seals in the book of Revelation (Isa 4:1; Rev 6).
Advent: First Sunday
Advent readings open with Isaiah’s warning for rebellious Judah and Jerusalem (Isa 1:1-31) and then introduce the Lord’s future reign as a time of reckoning for their pagan ways (Isa 2). Only this reckoning for the house of God could prepare it to serve as a blessing to the nations, for which Abraham’s offspring were called in the first place (Gen 12:1-3).
Sermon on the Mount: The Sermon’s Ideals
Living out the ethos of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount is a matter of a changed heart, not just behavior or rules, whether from a mountain in the Sinai or one in Galilee. The only way we can live out the counter-cultural ethic of the kingdom of God is by the power of the indwelling Spirit.
“Salt” & “Light”
I’m reading Stott’s commentary on the Sermon on the Mount and loving this classic. Such a combination of solid reflection, rhetorical excellence, and spiritual fervor….
Fasting on Zion and throughout Nineveh
The prophet Joel calls for fasting at the temple in Jerusalem; and in the book of Jonah, pagans muster themselves to fast and repent in…
Charismata: Summary & Conclusion
Peter’s twofold summary of the twenty various gifts of the Spirit is comprehensive but not detailed; he lists the gifts of speaking and of helping…