When my daughters were small, the Advent season carried a spirit of gleeful anticipation. They couldn’t wait for Christmas!
Formations 12.03.2023: A Kingdom of Peace and Justice
November 26, 2023 by
Isaiah 9 expresses a great sigh of relief on the part of the beleaguered people of Judah.
Formations 11.26.2023: Mountaintop Experiences
November 19, 2023 by
The Bible never uses the exact wording of a “mountaintop experience,” but it is certainly the origin of that expression.
Formations 11.19.2023: Completing the Work
November 12, 2023 by
I’ve never been a member of a church that built a new facility. But I have been a member of a church that renovated older buildings.
Formations 11.12.2023: Bigger than Us
November 5, 2023 by
In the Middle Ages, the building of cathedrals represented both a profound expression of faith and a channel for the creative energies of countless artisans.
Formations 11.05.2023: Lavish Symbols
October 29, 2023 by
Robert Webber was a minister and academic who often led seminars for churches navigating the landmines of worship renewal.
Formations 10.29.2023: Our True Sacrifice
October 22, 2023 by
Some of today’s lesson text deals with animal sacrifices to God, a practice we (hopefully) no longer do.
Formations 10.22.2023: Seeing Each Other
October 15, 2023 by
How do you react when you encounter someone on the street asking for money? What if that person is a “regular.”
Formations 10.15.2023: “The Lord Indeed Is God”
October 8, 2023 by
In the fourth century, the Arian bishop Ulfilas translated the Bible into the Gothic language.
Formations 10.08.2023: Offering the Tithe
October 1, 2023 by
The Ten Commandments tell us not to covet or steal or murder and so on, and we could probably think of many actions and behaviors that fall under those ten laws.
Formations 10.01.2023: Speak of the Devil
September 24, 2023 by
First Peter ends with a series of parting instructions regarding mutual love, hospitality, humility, stewardship of spiritual gifts, and accepting the authority of church elders.
Formations 09.24.2023: Your Life Speaks
September 17, 2023 by
A high school marketing program in Liberty Hill, Texas is working with local businesses for mutual benefit.
Formations 09.17.2023: Subject to Every Human Authority
September 10, 2023 by
Verses 18-25 of today’s text are often discussed in conflicts over how to interpret the words about slaves being subject to their masters.
Formations 09.10.2023: Public Opinion
September 3, 2023 by
It’s amazing how much our self-perception depends on what other people say about us. People who’ve been told they don’t have what it takes to succeed often don’t.
Formations 09.03.2023: Saved
August 27, 2023 by
A. T. Robertson is one of my heroes. “Dr. Bob,” as his students called him, was perhaps the greatest Greek scholar Southern Baptists have ever produced.
Formations 08.27.2023: Legacy
August 20, 2023 by
“Legacy” is a hefty word. We connect it with death, since many people’s life goal is to leave a legacy behind when they die.
Formations 08.20.2023: Serving Together
August 13, 2023 by
My wife and I wrote our own wedding vows. We weren’t interested in doing anything strange or cute or avant-garde.
Formations 08.13.2023: Space to Grow
August 6, 2023 by
“May I offer you a little fatherly advice?” I asked. “You need spend Mother’s Day with your family.”
Formations 08.06.2023: When We Suffer
July 30, 2023 by
Naomi has lost everything: her husband, her sons, her security, her support, and—she is certain—her two daughters-in-law.
Formations 07.30.2023: The Desert Will Bloom
July 23, 2023 by
I heard someone make a troubling observation a while ago about the record-setting temperatures that are currently besetting not only parts of the United States but also parts of Europe and Asia.
Formations 07.23.2023: Coming Home
July 16, 2023 by
My dad spent almost his entire adult life as a high school basketball coach. While I was still a little kid, I was the team mascot.
Formations 07.16.2023: Isaiah’s Impossible Mission
July 9, 2023 by
In Isaiah’s version of “mission: impossible,” there are no car chases, gunfights, or threats of nuclear war. There is no handsome movie star to save the day.
Formations 07.09.2023: God Persists
July 2, 2023 by
“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” In other words, no matter how carefully a project is planned, accidents or misfortune can still happen.
Formations 07.02.2023: Rock Bottom
June 25, 2023 by
Rock bottom is when it is no longer possible to pretend things are better than they are, or that they won’t keep getting worse if left to themselves.
Formations 06.25.2023: Lydia
June 18, 2023 by
Lydia is not described as having a husband, though she does have a “household” (v. 15). She is a “dealer in purple cloth” (v. 14), which means she has an income.
Formations 06.18.2023: Sharing What We Can
June 11, 2023 by
To the best of my recollection, there are only two Christians in the New Testaments whose deaths are explicitly mourned.
Formations 06.11.2023: Permission to Grieve
June 4, 2023 by
Everybody grieves in their own way. Among the many lessons that we can learn from John 11, let’s not neglect that one.
Formations 06.04.2023: The Samaritan Woman
May 28, 2023 by
We don’t have to be biblical scholars or master interpreters to understand what’s going on in today’s lesson text. John tells us everything we need to know.
Formations 05.28.2023: Unexpected Joy
May 21, 2023 by
My church has a tradition that everyone wears bright colors on Pentecost Sunday. The people who know about liturgical traditions tell us that red is the preferred color for Pentecost.
Formations 05.21.2023: Be Good
May 14, 2023 by
Two thousand years of preaching and teaching have provided ample—though sometimes contradictory—guidance on what “good” looks like.
Formations 05.14.2023: Body vs. Spirit
May 7, 2023 by
Sometimes passages like this one from Paul encourage unhealthy perspectives. If we read this text at face value, we might develop mistrust of our bodies.
Formations 05.07.2023: The Breath of God
April 30, 2023 by
In most Old Testament passages, references to “the spirit” (Hebrew, ruach) describe a force or emanation from God, a powerful yet impersonal presence through which God works in the world.
Formations 04.30.2023: When Our Work Is Done
April 23, 2023 by
This week’s lesson shows us the church from a different angle. Revelation 7 gives us a vision of the “church triumphant,” worshiping God in heaven once their earthly work is done.
Formations 04.23.2023: The Power of Belief
April 16, 2023 by
There is really no way to win an argument against someone’s faith. Atheists and agnostics and others have tried for centuries to discount the beliefs of those who follow Jesus.
Formations 04.16.2023: Where to Begin?
April 9, 2023 by
The title of this unit is “Easter and Onward.” For the last two weeks, we’ve approached and finally arrived at “Easter.” This week we get to the “Onward.”
Formations 04.09.2023: God Isn’t Finished Yet
April 2, 2023 by
We can debate why some in the Corinthian church denied the resurrection of the dead. We can be confident, however, that no one took this stance because they had a scientific worldview.
Formations 04.02.2023: Welcome
March 26, 2023 by
I have always loved the images describing Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem. It truly is triumphal. Crowds of excited people lined the street.
Formations 03.26.2023: Sticking Points
March 19, 2023 by
This week’s passage tells the story of a character conventionally called “the rich, young ruler.” You might be surprised to learn that this is a designation we never actually read in Scripture.
Formations 03.19.2023: The Prodigal’s Brother
March 12, 2023 by
“Joseph,” I asked, addressing the Nigerian seminarian in the Parables of Jesus class I was teaching, “how would someone in your culture react to this parable?”
Formations 03.12.2023: Consider the Cost
March 5, 2023 by
Jesus says some difficult words to the “large crowds” in our lesson text. We may wonder if Jesus was really as callous as he sounds.
Formations 03.05.2023: Come to the Party
February 26, 2023 by
As Tony Campolo described it in the title of his 1992 book, The Kingdom of God Is a Party. Do we really grasp what that means?
Formations 02.26.2023: The Road to Jerusalem
February 19, 2023 by
This section, often called the Lukan Travel Narrative, begins in chapter 9, when Jesus first “sets his face” to go to Jerusalem for the Passover and ends when he finally arrives in chapter 18.
Formations 01.29.2023: Israel’s King
January 22, 2023 by
In this passage, we see the regal David coming into his reign as Israel’s king. He is a strong, popular, comforting leader who makes his people feel safe.
Formations 01.22.2023: An Unexpected Guest
January 15, 2023 by
Can we just take a moment to appreciate how unlikely it is for the centurion in Matthew 8 to have received a warm welcome in Galilee?
Formations 01.15.2023: Expectations
January 8, 2023 by
What does the incarnation mean, practically speaking? Did Jesus know about his divine origin from the start?
Formations 01.08.2023: Jesus’s Humility
January 1, 2023 by
Many leaders in our world, past and present, have come with fanfare and promises, conceit and power, riches and tailored suits. They’re surrounded by bodyguards who will protect them at all costs.
Formations 01.01.2023: Look Who’s Coming to Jesus
December 25, 2022 by
Traditionally, we call these magi “wise men.” The Greek text says “magi” (magoi), or “magus” in the singular.
Formations 12.25.2022: Of Course, She Knew
December 18, 2022 by
If you grew up in a particular kind of Christian subculture, you can’t beat Mark Lowry for quirky humor and good old-fashioned Southern Gospel music.