Relearning How to Reach the Unreached
My family and I had the honor of serving the Black Tai people, a mountain tribe in NW Vietnam. Brave Pioneers had already been working on the translation of the Bible in the Black Tai language for 40 years and they finished up the translation the year we went. As we spent time with the […]
How Didn’t I See That Parallel Before?
Have you ever watched two movies at separate times, only to discover that—wait a second! It’s basically the same movie?! For example, there’s Judy Garland’s In the Good Old Summertime (1949), followed by Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks’s You’ve Got Mail (1998). Basically the same movie. A little less obviously, there’s Disney-Pixar’s A Bug’s Life […]
See if You Can Catch the End Result of the Gospel
See if you can catch the end result, the ultimate purpose of the Gospel, according to these passages. Hint: Look for what the Gospel is meant “to bring about.” Romans 16:25-26 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of […]
Just What IS the Gospel?
Just what is the Gospel? It is possible to confuse Gospel-related concepts with the Gospel itself. I found this parable from Matthew Bates’s Gospel Allegiance helpful: It is not that the true gospel is entirely missing or that people are not entering salvation. Far from it. The gospel is still being preached with saving effect. […]
3 Dilemmas, 2 Discoveries, and 1 Desire: My Thoughts on Matthew Bates’s Gospel Allegiance
When you’re throwing a baseball, you’re not expected to pause and look down, studying the baseball’s texture, memorizing the train track curve of the threads, contemplating its shape and weight before throwing it. You just catch it and throw it. When it comes to words, however, we do well to pause and consider the terms […]
The Best Illustration of the Gospel That I Know
The good news of the Gospel is that though I’m an impure person, I’m declared to be holy in Jesus Christ. Let me summarize this good news using the best illustration of the Gospel that I know of. Joseph Serna served four tours in Afghanistan in the Special Forces, receiving three purple hearts. In the […]
