I am ready to leave the “introductory remarks” to the Sermon the Mount, and begin the second phase of our study: a deep dive into the scholarly background and history of interpretation. But one last introductory post is needed. Since I have argued that the Sermon on the Mount paints a new vision, sets out a new lifestyle, and invites…
Allow me to take stock of where we are. To help us get our bearings, I am introducing some key “starting points” for understanding the Sermon on the Mount. First we saw that happiness is found in Jesus Christ, but involves a radically different way of seeing the world (and ourselves). Christ came to offer abundant life–the life of the…
Lord my desire is to be like you To say the things you say, and do the things you do O, help me hear your still voice through all the other noise So that I can be just what you want me to be. – Randy Butler In his book The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard helps set the table for…
“What do you want?” These are the first words of Jesus in the Gospel of John (John 1:38). What a challenging question! And to you and me, the reader, he asks it again and again–in a number of ways. To a man in need of sight (Mk 10:51; Lk 18:41), and to disciples who struggled with spiritual vision (Mt 20:32;…
Christian claim #9: “He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom shall have no end.” “When Christ bids a man, he bids him come and die.” The man who penned these words, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was a preacher in Germany during the years of Adolf Hitler. He took the calling of Christ seriously,…